Hazel MacKaye | |
|---|---|
 MacKaye in 1915 | |
| Born | (1880-08-24)August 24, 1880 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | August 11, 1944(1944-08-11) (aged 63) Westport, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupations | Theater professional andsuffragette |
Hazel MacKaye (August 24, 1880 – August 11, 1944) was an American theater professional and advocate ofwomen's suffrage. She is best known for helping present a series of pageants in support of women's suffrage.
MacKaye was born into a prominent theatrical family.[1] Her fatherSteele MacKaye (1842–1894) was a famous actor, playwright, and producer; Hazel was named after his hit playHazel Kirke. Hazel's mother Mary Medbery MacKaye (1845–1924) wrote a popular adaption ofPride and Prejudice for the stage in 1906. Hazel's siblings included engineer and writerJames MacKaye (1872–1935), dramatist and poetPercy MacKaye (1875–1956), and conservationistBenton MacKaye (1879–1975). The family settled inShirley, Massachusetts, in 1888.
MacKaye first intended to be a concert pianist, but in 1907, she enrolled inRadcliffe College theater classes taught byGeorge Pierce Baker.[2] She failed to graduate but was made an honorary member of the 1910 class. After leaving Radcliffe MacKaye worked as an assistant on various pageant productions, including several with her older brother Percy. She was a charter member of the American Pageant Association in 1913 and wrote a "Who's Who" of the members.
MacKaye also acted, touring with the Castle Square theater company ofWinthrop Ames and appearing in her brother'sSappho and Phaon andJeanne D'Arc (both 1907) andMater (1908). She worked as an instructor at the Children's Educational Theatre in New York City.
MacKaye was active in the woman suffrage movement, being present at the first meeting ofAlice Paul's Congressional Committee of theNational American Woman Suffrage Association, forerunner of theCongressional Union for Woman Suffrage and theNational Woman's Party. The organizers of theWoman Suffrage Procession, planned for Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913, just beforeWoodrow Wilson's inauguration, asked MacKaye to create a pageant for the event. TitledAllegory and produced by directorGlenna Smith Tinnin, it was presented on the steps of theU.S. Treasury Building as the culmination of the event. The pageant was praised as "one of the most impressively beautiful spectacles ever staged in this country" inThe New York Times.[3] Later that year, MacKaye and Tinnin collaborated again, creating the pageantUncle Sam's 137th Birthday Party to celebrate Independence Day on July 4, 1913. The pageant, held on theNational Mall, involved 2,000 children and 200 adults.[4]
Her 1914 production with collaboratorsBertha Remick and James E. Beggs,[5] "The American Woman: Six Periods of American Life" was presented by the New York CityMen's League for Women's Suffrage. It included “historical scenes to expose the specific economic, political, and social oppressions of American women".[6] It was not a popular success. Her 1915 productionSusan B. Anthony, presented at Convention Hall in Washington, D.C., was more successful, raising money for Paul's Congressional Union and celebrating the life of the great early leader of women's suffrage. These productions were huge enterprises, involving hundreds of participants.
In 1916, MacKaye staged a "Jubilee Pageant" for the NationalYoung Women's Christian Association. By 1919 MacKaye was serving as Director of Pageantry and Drama for the organization.[7] While with the YWCA MacKaye wrote a number of pageants for their use.
In 1921, MacKaye and Marie Moore Forrest were in charge of the ceremony for the presentation ofAdelaide Johnson's "Portrait Monument toLucretia Mott,Elizabeth Cady Stanton, andSusan B. Anthony" to the U.S. Capitol.[8]
MacKaye produced another pageant in 1923 celebrating the 75th anniversary of theSeneca Falls Convention, in theGarden of the Gods park inColorado Springs, Colorado. The pageant was intended to promote the National Woman's Party's effort to pass theEqual Rights Amendment.[9]
MacKaye wrote "The Enchanted Urn", a fantasy pantomime, in 1924. Her pageant "The Quest of Youth" was published by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education in 1924.[10]
From 1923 to 1926, MacKaye taught drama atBrookwood Labor College inKatonah, New York. In 1926, she left to work with theUnited Mine Workers in Illinois, where her class in labor drama spawned a traveling ensemble.[11]
By the mid-1920s, MacKaye was in declining health and was living with her brother Benton in Shirley. In 1928, she had anervous breakdown and entered Gould Farm, a rest home inGreat Barrington, Massachusetts. In 1937, her condition worsened and she was moved to a facility inGreens Farms, Connecticut.[12] She had episodes of severedepression for much of the rest of her life.[13] She died in 1944, and was buried in the Center Cemetery in Shirley; her brother Benton was buried nearby decades later.
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