ABSTRACT
Cornelia Otis Skinner (1899–1979) occupies a unique and vital place in the history of solo performance and the ranks of twentieth-century female dramatists. In addition to her work as an actor and writer, Skinner wrote and starred in a series of one-woman shows. Her full-length solo dramas, often taken from historical subjects, wove together monologues spoken by a variety of female characters, as in The Wives of Henry VIII (1931) and The Loves of Charles II (1933). In 1931, Skinner published an essay in The New York Times in support of her “particular branch of dramatic work.” As a critical diagnosis of the status of solo theatre and a promotion of its merits, Skinner's essay is a crucial piece of criticism, which illuminates the central role women played as both theorists and practitioners of solo performance in the mid-twentieth century.
