Juleen Compton

Last updated
Juleen Compton
Born1933
Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Occupation(s)Filmmaker, writer, actress

Juleen Compton (born 1933, Phoenix, AZ) [1] [2] is an American independent filmmaker, writer, and actor. She is best known for Stranded (1965) and The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean (1966), which she wrote, directed, and financed. [3] She also starred in and distributed Stranded.

Contents

Career

The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean won a special award at Cannes, as well as an award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and was screened at MoMA in 1970. [4] [5] She studied acting with Lee Strasberg, and performed in a production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard in 1955 and played the title role in a production of Jean Anouilh's Jeannette in 1960. [3] [6] [7] She also originated the role of Fredrica in John Patrick's Broadway comedy Good As Gold in 1957, alongside Roddy McDowall and Zero Mostel, and played Myrrhina in a production of Lysistrata in 1959 that re-opened the East 74th Street Theater. [8] [9] The UCLA Film & Television Archive likens her work to that of the French New Wave. [3] In 1974 she took part in the first Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute. [3] Compton also at one point began on a documentary of the history of women directors in Hollywood called Women in Action, "but there's no trace of it." [1]

In the 1990s Compton moved to New York City to run the Century Center for the Performing Arts, an off-Broadway theater company. [3] Compton's other writing credits include the TV movies Virginia Hill (1974), which starred Dyan Cannon and Harvey Keitel, and Women at West Point (1979). [10] Her directing credits include Buckeye and Blue (1988). [10] A script by Compton entitled Two Nice Girls is among a New York Public Library collection of scripts "produced, co-produced, or sponsored" by the New York Shakespeare Festival between 1972 and 1992. [11]

In an article for The New Yorker in 2019, film critic Richard Brody, discussing Stranded, stated that with the film, Compton "places herself boldly in a tradition of director-stars that includes Charlie Chaplin and Erich von Stroheim, Orson Welles and Jacques Tati," as well as "Jean Seberg, Shirley MacLaine, and Judy Garland." [1]

In February 2022, TIFF's Bell Lightbox Theater screened The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean as the first in its Midnight Madness screening series following closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. [12]

Personal life

She was married to director and drama critic Harold Clurman from 1960 until his death in 1980, according to some reports. [3] In a 1979 interview in connection with a New York Times piece on Clurman's legacy, Clurman was Compton's "director and acting teacher," and their marriage "lasted anywhere from six months to five years; according to Miss Compton, there is still some question as to the legality of the divorce." [13] According to a biography of Clurman's first wife, actress Stella Adler, Compton "never filed the papers [to divorce Clurman] and consequently inherited certain rights to his writings." [14]

Compton has had a number of real estate dealings: in 1961, The New York Times profiled her on the occasion of her acquiring a $250,000 building on West Thirteenth Street with plans to turn it into a complex with theatres, a drama school, and a restaurant. [15] The same article mentions she previously owned the East 74th Street Theater. A 1980 New York Times article on architecture mentioned that Compton owned a movie theater at 350 East 72nd Street, and that architect Philip Birnbaum was working on a project for her. [16]

A 2019 Metrograph blog post by film critic Kristen Yoonsoo Kim stated: "Little is known about Compton now. By all accounts, she lives in the Hamptons and goes by the name Justine. Word has it that she dropped by previous Metrograph screenings of her films incognito." [17]

In December 2019, Mexico's Museo Nacional de Arte acquired a 1956 portrait of Compton by Mexican artist Diego Rivera, which was given to the museum by Compton and her husband Nicholas Wentworth. [18] It is possible a second portrait of Compton by Rivera exists, according to coverage by Mexican newspaper Excélsior. The Rivera portrait, along with a bust of Compton by Jacob Epstein, [19] are mentioned as the two objects Compton kept across her many moves to different residences in a 1970 New York Times interview. [2]

Filmography

YearNameDirectorWriterProducerActressRoleNotes
1965 Stranded YesYesYesYesRaina
1966The Plastic Dome of Norma JeanYesYesYes
1974Virginia HillYesTV movie
1979Women at West PointStoryTV movie
1988Buckeye and BlueYes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Anouilh</span> French playwright

Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist and screenwriter whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government. His plays are less experimental than those of his contemporaries, having clearly organized plot and eloquent dialogue. One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stella Adler</span> American actress and acting teacher (1901–1992)

Stella Adler was an American actress and acting teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Clurman</span> American theatre director and critic (1901–1980)

Harold Edgar Clurman was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS. He was one of the three founders of New York City's Group Theatre (1931–1941). He directed more than 40 plays in his career and, during the 1950s, was nominated for a Tony Award as director for several productions. In addition to his directing career, he was drama critic for The New Republic (1948–1952) and The Nation (1953–1980), helping shape American theater by writing about it. Clurman wrote seven books about the theatre, including his memoir The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the Thirties (1961).

Judith Lee Ivey is an American actress and theatre director. She twice won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play: for Steaming (1981) and Hurlyburly (1984). She also received Best Actress In A Play nomination for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard (1992) and another Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for The Heiress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debra Jo Rupp</span> American actress, comedian (born 1951)

Debra Jo Rupp is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her starring role as Kitty Forman in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006) and its Netflix sequel series That '90s Show (2023–present). Rupp also had roles in the NBC sitcom Friends (1997–1998), the ABC animated series Teacher's Pet (2000–2002) and its 2004 sequel film, the ABC sitcom Better with You (2010–2011), and the Disney+ miniseries WandaVision (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucille Lortel</span> American actress

Lucille Lortel was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for Tony Awards: As Is by William M. Hoffman, Angels Fall by Lanford Wilson, Blood Knot by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema's Sarafina!, and A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing. She also produced Marc Blitzstein's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, a production which ran for seven years and according to The New York Times "caused such a sensation that it...put Off-Broadway on the map."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherry Lane Theatre</span> Off-Broadway theater in Manhattan, New York City

The Cherry Lane Theatre is the oldest continuously running off-Broadway theater in New York City. The theater is located at 38 Commerce Street between Barrow and Bedford Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. The Cherry Lane Theatre contains a 179-seat main stage and a 60-seat studio.

Laila Robins is an American stage, film and television actress. She has appeared in films including Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), An Innocent Man (1989), Live Nude Girls (1995), True Crime (1999), She's Lost Control (2014), Eye in the Sky (2015), and A Call to Spy (2019). Her television credits include regular roles on Gabriel's Fire, Homeland, and Murder in the First. In 2022, she portrays Pamela Milton in the final season of The Walking Dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucille Lortel Theatre</span> Off-Broadway theater in New York City

The Waltz of the Toreadors is a 1951 play by Jean Anouilh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Emond</span> American actress (born 1959)

Linda Marie Emond is an American stage, film, and television actress. Emond has received three Tony Award nominations for her performances in Life (x) 3 (2003), Death of a Salesman (2012), and Cabaret (2014).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel Bouquet</span> French actor (1925–2022)

Michel Bouquet was a French stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1947 to 2020. He won the Best Actor European Film Award for Toto the Hero in 1991 and two Best Actor Césars for How I Killed My Father (2001) and The Last Mitterrand (2005). He also received the Molière Award for Best Actor for Les côtelettes in 1998, then again for Exit the King in 2005. In 2014, he was awarded the Honorary Molière for the sum of his career. He received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 2018.

Painting Churches is a play written by Tina Howe, first produced Off-Broadway in 1983. It was a finalist for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play concerns the relationship between an artist daughter and her aging parents.

Kathryn Anne Layng is an American actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre on Film and Tape Archive</span>

The Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), a collection within the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, produces video recordings of New York and regional theater productions, and provides research access at its Lucille Lortel screening room. The core of the collection consists of live recordings of Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, with some additional productions from professional regional theaters. The Archive also records interviews and dialogues with notable theater professionals.

Spiderwoman Theater is an Indigenous women's performance troupe that blends traditional art forms with Western theater. Named after Spider Grandmother from Hopi mythology, it is the longest running Indigenous theatre company in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre Row Building</span> Off-Broadway theaters in Manhattan, New York

The Theatre Row Building is a complex of five Off-Broadway theatres at 410 West 42nd Street on Theatre Row in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. The building is owned by the 501(c)(3) organization non-profit Building for the Arts and is the center piece of an effort to transform the adult entertainment district on 42nd Street between Ninth Avenue and Tenth Avenue into an Off-Broadway theater district.

Jo Bonney is an American theater director who has worked Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally, primarily focused on the development of new plays.

The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean is a 1966 independent film about a young psychic woman whose powers are exploited by a boy band, directed by Juleen Compton. It was written by Compton and filmed in the Ozark mountains, and was the feature film debut of Sam Waterston. The film was shown at Cannes, which awarded the film as part of its International Female Week series, and at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Norma Levor Barzman is an American screenwriter, actress and writer who has been active in the film industry since the Golden Age of Hollywood.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Brody, Richard (2019-06-19). "Juleen Compton, a Director and Actor Whose Career Was Tragically Overlooked". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 2019-07-08.
  2. 1 2 Warren, Virginia Lee (5 January 1970). "She Throws Out All the Furniture And Moves Every Few Years". The New York Times.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Stranded / The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean | UCLA Film & Television Archive". www.cinema.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  4. ↑ "Cineprobe Presents a Feature Film by Juleen Compton: 'The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean'" (PDF). moma.org. January–June 1970.
  5. ↑ Colaciello, Robert (April 9, 1970). "The Village Voice - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  6. ↑ Atkinson, Brooks (25 March 1960). "Theatre: Play by Anouilh: Jeannette' Makes Bow at the Maidman". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "Juleen Compton - Lortel Archives". www.lortel.org. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  8. ↑ "Good as Gold Broadway @ Belasco Theatre - Tickets and Discounts | Playbill". Playbill. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  9. ↑ Atkinson, Brooks (20 May 1959). "Theatre: Old and New: Lysistrata' Opens on Refurbished Stage". The New York Times.
  10. 1 2 "Juleen Compton". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  11. ↑ "archives.nypl.org -- New York Shakespeare Festival Records. Series III. Scripts". archives.nypl.org. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  12. ↑ Hertz, Barry (2022-02-24). "Inside TIFF's top-to-bottom plan to emerge from a long, cruel winter". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
  13. ↑ Gussow, Mel (1979-05-06). "A LONG LIFE IN THE THEATER; In his 55‐year career, Harold Clurman has directed—with passion — more than 40 plays, and written some of the finest dramatic criticism of our age. Now (fittingly) a theater has been named after him". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  14. ↑ Ochoa, Sheana (2014-04-01). Stella! Mother of Modern Acting. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN   9781480392557.
  15. ↑ Lask, Thomas (30 April 1961). "Little Woman With Big Ideas About Her New Theatre". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Horsley, Carter B. (23 August 1981). "Slim Designs Make Slim Spaces Work". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ "Juleen Compton: Stranded by Film History | Metrograph". metrograph.com. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  18. ↑ "Retrato de Juleen Compton, el Diego Rivera donado al Munal". Excélsior (in Spanish). 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  19. ↑ Ross, David (27 November 1955). "Epstein's Model". The New York Times.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.