Fenimore Art Museum Presents a Dramatic Reading of the Play Dear Elizabeth

Dramatic Reading:
Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl
Saturday, February 18, 2023 • 2:00 p.m.
Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY
Admission: Free by donation.

Dramatic Reading:
Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl
Saturday, February 18, 2023 • 2:00 p.m.
Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY
Admission: Free by donation.

Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl Saturday, February 18, 2023

Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl Saturday, February 18, 2023

Cooperstown, New York — Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown presents a dramatic reading of Dear Elizabeth: A Play in Letters from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell and Back Again followed by a talkback. The program takes place onSaturday, February 18 at 2:00 p.m. in Fenimore’s auditorium. Admission to the play reading is free with a suggested donation.

From playwright Sarah Ruhl, Dear Elizabeth is a moving, innovative play based on one of the greatest correspondences in literary history–the letters of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop. From 1947 to 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred letters. Describing the writing of their poems, their travel and daily illnesses, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, and the profound affection they had for each other, these missives are the most intimate record available of both poets and one of the greatest correspondences in American literature. As innovative as it is moving, Dear Elizabeth gives voice to a conversation that lived mostly in writing, illuminating some of the finest poems of the twentieth century and the minds that produced them. The reading features Danielle and Michael Henrici as Bishop and Lowell.

The play reading is followed by a talkback with Thomas Travisano, the principal editor of Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, upon which Sarah Ruhl’s play is based. The talkback is moderated by Robert Huddleston, Professor of Writing at NYU.

Dear Elizabeth is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com.

Fenimore Art Museum is located at 5798 State Route 80, less than one mile from the center of Cooperstown. For more information visit FenimoreArt.org.

About Fenimore Art Museum
Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Visit FenimoreArt.org.

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General Herkimer Home State Historic Site
From this point, General Nicholas Herghheimer, known as General Herkimer, started August 3, 1777 to take command of the men who assembled in answer to his call to fight in defense of the Mohawk Valley. Placed by the German-American Alliance of the State of New York, June 14, 1912.
Historic New York: Site of the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777
The Military Road: Joseph Brant, familiar with the terrain, probably selected the place of ambush where a small stream crossed the military road. The military road of 1777 was about ten rods north of the present highway.
General Herkimer's Troops entered the ravine at this point.
General Herkimer's Troops entered the ravine at this point.
Small bridge crossing the stream on the military road.
Ambush started here: The militia column, on its way to the relief of Fort Stanwix, marched into this ravine, August, 6, 1777, and were ambushed by Loyalists and British. The Attackers came out of hiding in woods on the west, the south and the north.
Ambush started here: The militia column, on its way to the relief of Fort Stanwix, marched into this ravine, August, 6, 1777, and were ambushed by Loyalists and British. The Attackers came out of hiding in woods on the west, the south and the north.
The Rally: Both sides regrouped during a driving rain. Herkimer's troops concentrated here, forming an irregular circle. The attackers were on all sides.
"In the Valley homes was great mourning. For such a small population. In some families the male members were wiped out. It was many a long , weary year before the sorrow and suffering caused by the sacrifices at Oriskany had been forgotten in the Valley of the Mohawk." - Nelson Greene. History of the Mohawk Valley
"Near this spot stood the Beech Tree which during the Battle of Oriskany sheltered the wounded General Herkimer while he gave orders that made Saratoga possible and decided the fate of a Nation. Placed by the Oriskany Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution of Oriskany and the sons of Oriskany of New York City, June 14, 1912.
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