Hazel Kirke

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title: "Hazel Kirke" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["plays-by-steele-mackaye", "american-plays-adapted-into-films", "1879-plays"] description: "1879 play by Steele MacKaye" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Kirke" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 1879 play by Steele MacKaye ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox play"]

Field	Value
name	Hazel Kirke
image	[[File:Harvard Theatre Collection - Hazel Kirke TCS 46.jpg
caption	Poster for Hazel Kirke, circa 1881
writer	Steele MacKaye
chorus	hjh
premiere
place	Madison Square Theatre, New York City
orig_lang	English
::

| name = Hazel Kirke | image = [[File:Harvard Theatre Collection - Hazel Kirke TCS 46.jpg|250px]] | alt = | caption = Poster for Hazel Kirke, circa 1881 | writer = Steele MacKaye | chorus = hjh | characters = | mute = | setting = | premiere = | place = Madison Square Theatre, New York City | orig_lang = English | series = | subject = | genre = | web = Hazel Kirke is a play in four acts written by American actor and dramatist Steele MacKaye.

Overview

The play was written between 1871 and 1879 in the town of Dublin, New Hampshire. MacKaye meant it to be expressly for New York City's Madison Square Theatre, which MacKaye had recently renovated and completely remodeled. Originally titled An Iron Will, the play toured Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington until renovations on the Madison Square Theatre were complete. It premiered there on February 4, 1880, and the original production became immensely successful; it starred actress Effie Ellsler in the title role and ran for 486 consecutive performances, the record of its time. before closing May 31, 1881.

Because MacKaye revolutionized the concept of multiple companies performing the same production simultaneously, by 1883 the play had been performed more than two thousand times.

Legacy

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Hazel_Kirke1884.jpg" caption="A poster for the play from a newspaper, 1884"] ::

By the mid-1910s the play had been produced in England, Australia, Japan, and elsewhere. In 1916 it was adapted into a film starring Pearl White and produced at the Whartons Studio in Ithaca, New York.

Hazel Kirke was adapted into an opera by composer Mark Houston which debuted at the Lake George Opera Festival. The New York Times called the result "like watching a B movie; its kitschy charm wears thin after a short while."

Original cast

• Effie Ellsler ... Hazel Kirke
• Gabrielle Du Sauld ... Dolly Dutton (also later played by Georgia Cayvan)
• Mrs. Cecil Rush ... Emily Carringford (Lady Travers)
• Blanche Whiffen ... Mercy Kirke
• Annie Ellsler ... Clara, a maid
• Eben Plympton ... Arthur Carringford (Lord Travers)
• Charles Walter (C.W.) Couldock ... Dunstan Kirke
• Dominick Murray ... Aaron Rodney
• Thomas Whiffen ... Pittacus Green
• Joseph Frankau ... Methuselah Miggins
• Edward Coleman ... Barney O'Flynn, a valet
• Fred P. Barton ... Joe, a miller
• George Grey ... Dan, a miller
• Henry Jones ... Thomas, a servant.

Notes

References

• Murphy, Brenda. 1987. American Realism and American Drama, 1880–1940: 1880–1940. Cambridge University Press.

References

1. Quinn, p. 497
2. Murphy, p. 5
3. "[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0006763/ Hazel Kirke (1916)]". IMDb. Retrieved on August 29, 2008.
4. Kimmelman, Michael (14 August 1987). [https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/14/arts/opera-hazel-kirke.html Opera: 'Hazel Kirke'], ''[[The New York Times]]''
5. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mbxEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 Hazel Kirke: A Domestic Comedy Drama in Four Acts] (c. 1922) (original cast listing)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::