With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Gertrude Stein
Drama
1874 – 1946
Though the American novelist, poet and playwright did not live in Connecticut, Gertrude Stein collaborated on an opera with Virgil Thompson, American composer instrumental in the development of a modernist American sound, which premiered at the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1934 during the directorship of Chick Austin. In 1927-28, Stein wrote the libretto for Thompson’s ‘Four Saints in Three Acts.’ The opera was noteworthy for its sound and the casting of an all-black cast to portray European saints. Stein also contributed to Lincoln Kirstein’s literary journal “Hound and Horn.”
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