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Special Benefit Performance: The Last Flapper by William Luce

Friday, March 31, 2017
6:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Location

SSB Auditorium

Details

The English Department in conjunction with The American History Theater would like to invite you to a very special presentation of "The Last Flapper" by William Luce, directed by Hal Berry, SCC Professor Emeritus.  Starring in "The Last Flapper" is SCC Alumni Samantha (Bonomo) Stavely.  Ms. Stavely won wide acclaim for her portrayal of Zelda in the production presented at the Women's Museum of California in San Diego.

There is a major re-evaluation of Zelda (and others of her generation) by social and cultural historians. In the last ten years--new books on her life, the DeCaprio film on Gatsby, the Woody Allen film "Midnight in Paris," the Amazon series called "Z", and I just read that two full Hollywood films are in the planning stages on her life--one with Jennifer Lawrence.

What the twenties did do for young women was offer an opportunity to challenge social barriers. For the older suffragettes, they were dejected and often angry over the "Flapper" icons for young women---wanting the movement for political and economic equality to continue after the vote in 1920. Zelda and her generation rejected that frontal attack. But, it is not correct to say that these women settled back into Victorian submission. In fact, these young women challenged--often to their self-destruction--the entire idea of social inequality. See the play and view how the medical community treated Zelda and any woman who challenged the still evident Victorian expectations. Her first European psychiatrist wrote that the goal was to bring Mrs. Fitzgerald to accept her role as a good wife and mother to her child. Her artistic pursuits were to be limited to hobbies and not career goals.

That Scott and Zelda needed each other and destroyed each other is one of the great stories in American literary culture. On a deeper level, what did their lives say about America, the dream, and the reality? The irony is that Fitzgerald clearly understood the enigma of being an American and the related societal expectations. He said it all in Gatsby---he could feel the crash--his and her own and the nation. 2017!

 6:30 p.m. Meet and Greet with appetizers and beverages

7:15 A tribute to Ken Parker

7:30 p.m. Performance "The Last Flapper"