Purdue Campuses Offer “An Evening with Julia Marlowe”

purdue-north-centralPurdue University North Central and Purdue University Calumet will present performances of “An Evening with Julia Marlowe” featuring Kali Rasala.

Performances will be April 22 at 9:30 a.m. in the Purdue Calumet Room With a View and April 24 at 6 p.m. in the Purdue North Central Library-Student-Faculty Building Assembly Hall, Room 02. The production is free and open to the public. The PNC event will also celebrate the birthday of Marlowe’s favorite playwright, William Shakespeare. Birthday cake and punch will be served at both performances.

Julia Marlowe, though born in England, has a story that is uniquely American. She came to this county in 1869 at the age of four, on the run with her fugitive father. They lived first in poverty, but she then found work in Cincinnati as a child actor. This would lead to a remarkable rise to prominence in the world of 19th century American theater and then to worldwide fame as the greatest Shakespearian of her time. Along the way she waged her own battle for women’s rights in a male-dominated theatrical community and she won.

Playwright Dr. Jerry Holt, Chair of the PNC Department of English and Modern Languages, brings Marlowe’s story to the stage in this one-person show. Rasala will be directed by Grant Fitch, who is well-known in Indiana theater.

The event is co-hosted by Holt and Dr. Colette Morrow, Purdue Calumet associate professor of English.