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Today’s Google Doodle honors Helena Modjeska (born Modrzejewska), one of America’s greatest Shakespearean actresses — and a woman who used her public voice to support women.
Polish-born, she emigrated to the US, became a citizen, and performed on the American stage for more than three decades.
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates what would have been her 181st birthday.
Though she’s widely known for her theatrical triumphs, what’s often overlooked is that Modjeska used her fame and public voice to tell the world about the Polish cause, and to speak out for the lives of women.
Widely known for her theatrical triumphs, Modjeska also used her fame and public voice to tell the world about the Polish cause, and to speak out for the lives of women.
In May 1893, she delivered two speeches at the Congress of Representative American Women, part of the Chicago World’s Fair — the first was on the long and little-known history of women in drama. She delivered a sweeping history of women on the stage, even arguing that women were responsible for originating drama. You can read “Woman and the Stage” here.
But it was the second speech, “The Organized Development of Polish Women,” that got her into hot water. She lashed out against Russian “enemies” and called on Polish women to take up the Polish struggle for independence.
“Our enemies are making a great mistake if they think that they can kill patriotism,” she said. “As long as there is one Polish woman left alive, Poland all not die.”
“Our enemies are making a great mistake if they think that they can kill patriotism,” she said. “As long as there is one Polish woman left alive, Poland all not die.”
Back in Tsarist Russia, that kind of talk didn’t go down well.
Incensed by her inflammatory tone, the Tsar banned her from entering Russian territory. After that, Modjeska never again set foot on the stages of Warsaw.
Modjeska specialized in Shakespearean roles — she performed nearly 300 different roles in more than 6,000 plays in both in Polish and English. At one point she spent nearly three years in London, trying to improve her English.
That turned out to be harder than she thought. Despite her accent and imperfect command of the language, American audiences were enthralled by her.
She also produced Hendrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” in Lousiville, Kentucky – fitting with her vision of emancipated womanhood, since it deals with the strictures of life as a married woman.
That was the first Ibsen play ever staged in the United States.
She lectured about Shakesepeare, and and she used her voice to publicize the Polish cause. When traveling by train across America, she used a rail car marked “Poland.”
During her final visit to Poland, she performed on the stage in Lwów, Poznań, and her native Kraków.
Helena Modrzejewska died on April 8, 1909, and she was buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków.
You can still visit her home in Silverado, California, on the banks of Santiago Creek, southwest of Los Angeles.
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