| Ida Lublenski Ehrlich | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 20, 1886  Odesa |
| Died | February 22, 1986 (aged 99) Carmel |
| Occupation | Playwright |
Ida Lublenski Ehrlich (August 20, 1886 – February 22, 1986) was a Russian-born American playwright.
Biography
Ida Lublenski was born on August 20, 1886 in Odesa, then part of the Russian Empire. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was two years old and lived on the Lower East Side of New York City.
The first of her plays to be staged was Helena's Boys, debuting at Henry Miller's Theatre on Broadway in April 1924. The play, starring Minnie Maddern Fiske in the title role and based on a story by Mary Brecht Pulver, was about a woman who curbed the radicalism of her two sons by pretending to radical behavior herself, including drunkenness and free love. It was generally poorly reviewed. Her play Love Kills, debuting at the Forrest Theatre in May 1934, starred Vivian Giesen as a woman named Pearl who takes a series of lovers before jumping out of a window. In 1940, she founded Everyman's Theatre to produce her plays off-Broadway using her own funds. Her thirteen plays include Dr. Johnson, The Magic Carpet, and Alice in Fableland.
She worked as a teacher from 1940 to 1963, teaching remedial reading at Public School 108. She published a reading book called Instant Vocabulary in 1969. She lived in Jerusalem from 1973 to 1980.
Ida Lublenski Ehrlich died on 22 February 1986 in Carmel, New York.
Personal life
She married Simon Ehrlich in New York City in 1913. They had three children.
Bibliography
- Helena's Boys (1924)
- Love Kills (1934)
References
- ^ "Ida Lublenski Ehrlich, 99; Playwright and Producer". The New York Times. March 1, 1986. p. 32.
- Leiter, Samuel L. (1985). The encyclopedia of the New York stage, 1920-1930. Internet Archive. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-23615-0.
- Bordman, Gerald (1996-11-21). American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1930-1969. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535808-7.
- Funket, Lewis (13 Feb 1956). "Teacher Uses Half Year's Pay To Put Her Own Play on Stage: Ida L. Ehrlich Offers Comedy Today as Latest Effort of Her One-Woman Theatre". The New York Times. p. 29.
- ^ "Ida Erlich, playwright and author, dies at 99". The Daily Item. 23 Feb 1986. pp. A4.