ABSTRACT
Florence Kiper (Frank) (1886–1976) was an American poet, dramatist, and essayist who—during the early decades of the twentieth century—contributed to the developing modernist aesthetic in dialogue with contemporary movements for social change. She graduated from the University of Chicago and participated in the “Chicago Renaissance,” which included avant-garde arts and culture journals, theatre companies, and arts clubs. During this same period, Kiper wrote plays for two legendary little theatre companies: Maurice Browne's Chicago Little Theatre (1912–1917) and the Provincetown Players (1915–1922). The “little theatres,” which sprung up across the country between 1910 and 1916, shared dissatisfaction with American commercial theatre and, in contrast to popular, commercial entertainment, addressed political and cultural issues in various stylistic modes, including social realism, expressionism, and satire. In her essays, poetry, and plays, Kiper expressed several social and political concerns, including the struggle for labor unionization, the devastation of war, urban poverty, anti-Semitism and Jewish identity, as well as a range of issues related to the feminist movement.
