Ruth Draper

Ruth Draper 1884-1956, American monologist, b. New York City. The author of 36 monologues, ranging from farce to tragedy, she played the various characters within each sketch with only a change of costume and props. Her delicate and sophisticated art gained her worldwide acclaim.

Draper, Ruth (1884–1956), actress. The most famous of all American monologuists, she made her debut as a maid in A Lady's Name (1916) but shortly thereafter decided that her gifts for mimicry were best disclosed when she was alone on a bare stage with little more than a scarf and a hat for props. She began to write her own monologues, offering them professionally first in London in 1920 and in New York the following year. Some of her monologues dealt with a single character, others with a succession of people. Draper frequently departed from her own script, improvising as the moment suggested. Her characters ranged from the most lordly to the most beggarly and on some occasions, as in her depiction of a French wife saying good‐bye to her husband who is leaving to join the Free French in the war, were done entirely in a foreign language. But her unique gift of expression made every line intelligible. She won applause throughout the world and was offering her show in New York, in her early seventies, when she died in her sleep after a performance. Biography: The Art of Ruth Draper, Morton D. Zabel, 1960.