Grayson Hall: 1961 Summer Stock

In 1961, Grayson Hall spent the summer in Pennsylvania participating in a season of summer stock theater titled "Off-Broadway at Hedgerow." Among the plays she appeared in that summer were The Changeling, T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party and The Human Voice, which received the following write-up in the Sept. 2, 1961 issue of Delaware County Daily Times (one day after the play's final show.)

Love Has Two Faces of Anguish 

Delaware County Daily Times, Sept. 2, 1961

A woman in love has many faces.

The anguished two on the right belong to a character in French author Jean Cocteau's play, "The HumanVoice."'A room, a woman, love, and the telephone: These are the materials of which the one-act drama is constructed.It tells the story of a woman whose last connection with her faithless lover is the capricious telephone.

In the top picture she says: "Hello. Exchange, hello. Someone's calling me and I can't answer. There are people on the line. Tell that woman to ring off! Is that you, dear . . . is it you . . . ?")

Cocteau has written that he would like the actress who plays this part to "give the impression of a woman who is bleeding, losing her lifeblood . . . "

The bewilderment of the woman jilted comes to its climax— with the inanimate telephone the means of her destruction— with her final words: "Your voice is around my neck . . . my darling . . . Quickly, break off ... I love you, I love you . . . I love you . . ." '

(Grayson Hall is the actress who is appearing in "The Human Voice," now at Hedgerow Theater with with two other one-act plays.)

 

Hall was a local celebrity, and was even photographed that year with her son, Matt (who is also taking part in today's blog-a-thon,) on the lawn of a home the family was renting in Moylan, Pa., for the summer.

 

BLOGROLL

The Performance Art of Grayson Hall: Life On Two Levels
Using lines from her Oscar-nominated film Night of the Iguana as thematic bookends, Frank Jay Gruber discusses the differences between Grayson Hall’s film and television performance styles, and why each is distinct and memorable.

The Collins Foundation 
"If you have to choose between real and interesting, choose interesting.” According to Patrick McCray, Grayson Hall gives us both in Dark Shadows.

The Classic Movie Lady
At age 13, Sidney Weade's favorite actress was Grayson Hall ... and she had never seen Dark Shadows.

The Drawing Room (Home of the Dark Shadows podcast)
On the latest installment of The Drawing Room podcast, Chrissy recites her poem, Ode to Hoffman, 1967, which celebrates Grayson Hall’s contribution to the early episodes of Dark Shadows. The poem is also available to read at the website.

Barnabas & Company
S. R. Shutt shares his thoughts on the artistry of Grayson Hall, playfully inspired by Wallace Stevens’ short verse cycle, Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird. 

Dead Celebrity I will Sorely Miss of the Day – The Grayson Hall edition
The "hopelessly unhip blogger and bikini model" says Grayson Hall was the "BADDEST VAMPIRE LOVIN’ FOX THERE WILL EVER BE."

7 or 8 things I know about Her
Biographer R.J. Jamison summarizes the mystique of Grayson Hall

Hoffman/Lambert: The Doctor and The Vampire
Jessica Dwyer talks about women who are drawn to the dark side, and what Julia Hoffman's character has to say about that strange fascination.