31 Facts About Eulalie Spence

Eulalie Spence was a writer, teacher, director, actress and playwright from the British West Indies.

Eulalie Spence was an influential member of the Harlem Renaissance, writing fourteen plays, at least five of which were published.

Eulalie Spence was a mentor to theatrical producer Joseph Papp, founder of The Public Theater and the accompanying festival currently known as Shakespeare in the Park.

Eulalie Spence was born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies on June 11,1894, to Robert and Eno Lake Eulalie Spence, the oldest of seven girls.

Eulalie Spence spent her formative years on her father's sugar plantation.

Eulalie Spence overcame her impoverished childhood and managed to obtain an exceptional education.

Eulalie Spence graduated from Wadleigh High School and the New York Training School for Teachers.

Eulalie Spence began teaching in the New York public school system in 1918, including over thirty years at the Eastern District High School in Brooklyn, where she taught elocution, English, and dramatics.

Eulalie Spence finished second in the 1926 Krigwa playwriting contest for her one act play Foreign Mail.

Eulalie Spence won a second place prize for Her, which was entered into a contest held by Opportunity, a magazine published by Charles S Johnson.

Doralene Eulalie Spence went on to replace Rose McClendon as the lead role in In Abraham's Bosom at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 1927.

Eulalie Spence directed two plays, Before Breakfast by Eugene O'Neill and Joint Owners in Spain by Alice Brown for the Dunbar Garden Players, a short-lived theater group that was named in honor of Paul Laurence Dunbar.

The plays of Eulalie Spence helped to make a name for the Krigwa Players amongst both Black and white critics.

Eulalie Spence felt that the theatre was a place for people to be entertained and not antagonized by the problems of society.

Eulalie Spence is attacked by the Ku Klux Klan in an attempt to scare her away.

Eulalie Spence crossed racial barriers when she approached the white author to secure publishing rights, and by hiring a white agent, Audrey Wood, who represented Tennessee Williams.

Eulalie Spence cast Queenie Smith, a popular Broadway actress in the 1920s, in the lead role for the play, which was scheduled to open at the Empress Theatre in Danbury, Connecticut in 1933.

The production was canceled without explanation four days before it was to open, and a disheartened Eulalie Spence optioned the screenplay to Paramount Pictures for $5000.00.

Eulalie Spence developed a sensitivity towards race and gender from memories of her parents' struggles as black immigrants.

Eulalie Spence's plays were mostly comedies, although she did write three dramatic works: Her, Undertow, and La Davina Pastora.

Eulalie Spence uses the ethnicity of the characters in Undertow as part of plot development, instead of racial propaganda.

Eulalie Spence did not agree with Du Bois' political views in regards to the theater, but her plays are not entirely apolitical.

Eulalie Spence frequently addressed issues such as racism, infidelity, and the roles of women, using comedy as a medium because she felt it provided other ways, such as satire, to bring awareness to the African-American experience.

Eulalie Spence was considered one of the Harlem Renaissance's rising young playwrights, although she did not have a great deal of financial success.

Eulalie Spence was a progressive thinker who challenged her students to discuss social norms.

Eulalie Spence brought actors to class and gave her students poetry and plays to read.

Contemporary scholars have tended to dismiss Eulalie Spence's plays because of their inclusion of Black dialect and because of her inability to sustain a career in theatre.

Eulalie Spence has actually made a notable contribution to theatrical history, especially in relation to the art theatre movement and the history of African American theatre.

Eulalie Spence was responsible for a major shift in attitudes on dialects in race drama by the mid 1920s.

Eulalie Spence had been living at the home of her niece, Patricia Hart, and died at the Warner Hospital.

Eulalie Spence's obituary did not mention her career as a playwright, saying only that she was a retired schoolteacher.