2022 Essays

Theater Actresses and The Transition to Silent Film

Duckett, Victoria

Until its 2019 website relaunch, the landing page of the Women Film Pioneers Project stated: “Women Film Pioneers Project features silent-era producers, directors, co-directors, scenario writers, scenario editors, camera operators, title writers, editors, costume designers, exhibitors, and more to make the point that [women] were not just actresses (italics in original).” Readers were reminded of the important fact that women’s work in the silent film industry was also behind the camera, work that had been hidden from view, elided, and lost. This article, however, takes the actress–or, rather, what Shelley Stamp terms the “sphere of performative labour”–as its focus. My aim is to expose the range of creative and business roles that actresses undertook in early film, and to re-focus our attention onto the actresses whose work we presume to see and understand on screen. I seek to highlight and celebrate the breadth of the actress’s engagement with film, as well as to expose the networks, relationships, and exchanges that were developed between theater and silent film.