{"id":27749,"date":"2018-12-11T09:57:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T14:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=27749"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:57:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:57:51","slug":"marvel-cooke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=27749","title":{"rendered":"The marvelous life of Marvel Cooke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edges of Time, a new play by Jacqueline Lawton, assistant professor of dramatic art and dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company, explores the early career and \u201cunconventional life\u201d of black female journalist and activist Marvel Cooke. A staged public reading will be held Dec. 14.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"From
From left, playwright Jacqueline Lawton and dramaturg Jules Odendahl-James at a Dec. 1 workshop for “Edges of Time,” a play about the life of black female journalist Marvel Cooke. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While doing a Google search to find a new subject for a one-woman show, playwright Jacqueline Lawton discovered the largely untold story of pioneering journalist and activist Marvel Cooke<\/a>. In 1950, Cooke became the first black and at the time the only female reporter at The Daily Compass<\/em>, a New York newspaper. She was also a member of the Communist Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cA play or book or film had never been written about her, and there\u2019s so much to explore. The play is also very timely with the current political climate attacking journalism,\u201d Lawton said while sipping a cup of hot tea in the Hyde Hall kitchen. \u201cMarvel Cooke was an unconventional, groundbreaking, extraordinary woman with a true curiosity about the world and a sense of service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Clockwise,
Clockwise, from bottom right, Kathyrn Hunter-Williams, Ash Heffernan , Jacqueline Lawton and Jules Odendahl-James discuss the life of pioneering journalist Marvel Cooke. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lawton, an assistant professor of dramatic art and a dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company in the College of Arts & Sciences, received an Institute for the Arts and Humanities fellowship to work on the play and has spent a lot of time in Hyde Hall this semester. She called that experience a \u201cphenomenal and rejuvenating opportunity.\u201d The other faculty members in her fellowship class came from diverse disciplines including art, American studies, creative writing, romance studies and the School of Information and Library Science, and that made the experience even richer.<\/p>\n

Although she\u2019s used to collaborating with many others to bring a play to life, what was different about the fellowship was \u201cinviting my colleagues to read a work in progress,\u201d she said. \u201cNormally no one except for a dramaturg \u2014 someone tasked with researching the world of a play and\/or someone who helps the playwright bring the characters and story to life in a rich, full, clear and dynamic way \u2014 would see a work at that stage. But I felt so safe and brave with this group of fellows.\u201d<\/p>\n

The public is invited to a Dec. 14 staged reading and post-show discussion of Edges of Time<\/a><\/em>,<\/em> which Lawton describes as \u201ca powerful and haunting exploration of the role of journalism, the impact of government overreach and what it means for a woman to live her life freely and independently in a patriarchal world.\u201d It will take place in Room 102 of the Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

An unconventional life and a North Carolina connection<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Longtime
Longtime PlayMakers Repertory Company member Kathyrn Hunter-Williams will portray Marvel Cooke. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Edges of Time<\/em> is set in 1963 in the wake of the Birmingham church bombing. Cooke reflects on her life \u2014 from a socialist upbringing in Minnesota to a career in progressive journalism in New York to a trip to East Germany for an international peace conference that led to a subpoena from Joseph McCarthy to testify about her involvement with the Communist Party. She pleaded the Fifth Amendment at those hearings.<\/p>\n

Cooke had worked at The Crisis,<\/em> an NAACP publication edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, as well as \u00a0the Amsterdam News<\/em> and the People\u2019s Voice<\/em> \u2014 but she is perhaps most well-known for her Daily Compass<\/em> investigative article exposing the injustices faced by New York housekeepers. The housekeepers were known as the \u201cpaper bag brigade\u201d because they would line up on a street in the Bronx with their uniforms in paper bags, waiting for the women of Manhattan to hire them for hourly domestic work.<\/p>\n

Cooke went undercover as a housekeeper to research the story, and the article<\/a> was published on Jan. 8, 1950, with the headline \u201cI was Part of the Bronx Slave Market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first line of the article reads \u2018I was a slave,\u2019 which was provocative and hugely risky,\u201d Lawton said.<\/p>\n

In 1929, Cooke\u2019s career took her to North Carolina for a brief period, when she and her husband, Cecil, were hired to teach history, English and Latin at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer husband bought a second-hand car because she told him she didn\u2019t want to ride in the colored section of the train, so they drove from New York to North Carolina straight through in two or three days, after stopping in D.C.,\u201d Lawton said.<\/p>\n

\"Lawton
Lawton said: “A play is not fully realized until you see it in performance, so bringing together the actors, director, designers and the audience is where the real magic happens.\u201d (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The collaborative world of the play<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lawton pulled together a team of artists to help her tell Cooke\u2019s story, and they held a workshop of the play on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

Lawton asked her department office mate, Kathyrn Hunter-Williams, teaching associate professor of dramatic art and PlayMakers Repertory Company member, to play Marvel Cooke. UNC-Charlotte colleague Kaja Dunn, an assistant professor of acting, is directing the staged reading. Local artist\/scholar Jules Odendahl-James is the dramaturg for the production, and undergraduate student Ash Heffernan is reading stage directions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new play development process is really critical, and it\u2019s important to bring the right people into the room,\u201d Lawton said. \u201cWorking with Jules as a dramaturg on these early drafts has been key to my process. She reads every draft and sends thoughts and reflections that help me get to the heart of the play. But a play is not fully realized until you see it in performance, so bringing together the actors, director, designers and the audience is where the real magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said Cooke\u2019s story is particularly fascinating to her because both of her parents were journalists in the 1950s. She said Lawton is a great storyteller who provides complex characters for actors to portray.<\/p>\n

\u201cJacqueline expands everybody\u2019s insights into American history by unearthing the stories of these beautiful women and bringing them to life,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen young people hear these stories, it widens their world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said it\u2019s also important that the department support the production of Lawton\u2019s work since \u201cwe are part of her creative family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled that PlayMakers and the department are there to bring these diverse voices into the American theater canon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For Dunn, Edges of Time<\/em> provided another opportunity to partner with Lawton. Last spring, she directed Lawton\u2019s play Noms de Guerre<\/em> as part of the PlayMakers\/Process Series \u201cMaking Tracks\u201d festival, which supported four new works.<\/p>\n

\"Lawton
Lawton asked Ash Heffernan, a senior dramatic art and communication major, to become involved with the play. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cJacqueline really understands strong African-American women, but also shows their vulnerabilities; she allows for the full humanity of the characters,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cTo be able to work across the UNC system with these artists who really care about their craft is a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heffernan, a senior dramatic art and communication major, took Lawton\u2019s \u201cTheater for Social Change\u2019 class. She is delighted to participate in the production of Edges of Time. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a theater artist, I\u2019m really interested in works in development. I co-produce a reading series with the undergraduate Kenan Theater Company, where we also try to focus on voices of playwrights or characters that we don\u2019t get much of in mainstream theater,\u201d said Heffernan, who is pursuing a minor in social and economic justice. \u201cWith a one-woman show, this forces us to deal with difficult topics, bringing the audience face-to-face with Marvel Cooke\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theater is the perfect medium to tell Cooke\u2019s story, Lawton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like live theater \u2026 human to human, breath to breath \u2026 in a room where you\u2019re seated right next to people you may or may not know, and you\u2019re having this shared experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Kim Weaver Spurr \u201988<\/em><\/p>\n

Read Jacqueline Lawton’s blog pos<\/a>t about her IAH fellowship and writing the play.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Edges of Time, a new play by Jacqueline Lawton, assistant professor of dramatic art and dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company, explores the life of black female journalist and activist Marvel 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