From Ted Borrillo’s history of the theatre:
Julie Harris was born in 1925 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. She was educated at the Yale School of Drama and made her Broadway debut in It’s A Gift (1945). She appeared in many other Broadway plays, among them being Joan of Arc in The Lark (1955), Mary Todd Lincoln in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1972) and poet Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst (1976).
The Belle of Amherst had its only production of the summer on the Elitch stage. The only other productions of this one-woman play during the year were in Florida at Easter and at Harris’s old school in Grosse Pointe, Michigan in May. Whitfield Conner, along-time friend of Harris stated that at Grosse Pointe, Harris “thought it would be an opportunity for her mother, who lives there to see it before she died, but sadly, she was too ill to attend.”
The drama critic of the Rocky Mountain News called the play and the performance of Miss Harris at Elitch a triumph.
Julie Harris lives among the mementoes of the poetess’ life onstage. She calls herself, as Emily called herself, “plain, but with bold hair.”
She uses her hands and her crescent blue eyes and her narrow feet to bring back the luminous figure that was Emily Dickinson for all to know in her eccentricities onstage.
Miss Harris brought the opening night audience, accustomed to remaining comfortably in its seats, to its feet and then rewarded each member thereof with an exultant closing cry, arms outstretched, of Emily Dickinson’s verse.
It was a coincidence that 1890 was the year in which the first collection of Emily Dickinson’s poems was published, four years after her death, and one in which John and Mary Elitch opened their lovely Elitch Gardens and Theatre.
[Borrillo, Theodore A. Denver’s Historic Elitch Theatre: A nostalgic journey, 2012. pp. 306-307]
Seasons at the Theatre
- 1978
Productions/Roles:
- The Belle of Amherst – Emily Dickinson
Notable Roles, Awards, and Other Work:
- Won win five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for her roles in I Am a Camera (1952), The Lark (1956), Forty Carats (1969), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973), and The Belle of Amherst (1977). Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Marathon ’33 (1964), Skyscraper (1966), The au Pair Man (1974), Lucifer’s Child (1991), and The Gin Game (1997).
- Received the National Medal of Arts in 1994.
- Kennedy Center Honor in 2005.
Elitch Theatre Connections:
- In the Broadway play, The Member of the Wedding, Harris starred with a seven-year-old second-grader named Brandon deWilde — an Elitch Theatre alum.
- Harris appeared in the 1979 television miniseries Backstairs at the White House with Elitch Theatre alums, Kim Hunter, Cloris Leachman and Eileen Heckart.
- Harris starred on Broadway in The Warm Peninsula with Farley Granger.
Wikipedia Link:
