The Traveling Mancini Sisters
Project abstract
THE MANCINI SISTERS
To create a interactive pop-up theater book depicting the lives of the infamous Marie and Hortense Mancini sisters came after talking with Jane Bergeron, Senior Lecturer & Discipline Coordinator in the Theatre Studies Program at the School of Arts and Sciences in Sydney, University of Notre Dame Australia. Ms. Bergeron became interested in the lives of Marie and Hortense Mancini of Seventeenth Century France. The Mancini sisters were nieces of the richest and most powerful man in the French Court - Cardinal Mazarin, adviser to the young King Louis XIV. The sisters broke all sexual and culturally established taboos by abandoning their aristocratic husbands and traveling unchaperoned throughout Europe. When they were apart, the sisters wrote letters to one another that documented their journeys. They even went so far as to write and publish their memoirs, an unheard of act among Aristocratic women of that time.
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Background Information
Mancini Sisters, Marie and Hortense. were born in Rome, brought to the court of Louis XIV of France, and conveniently (or should I say "politically") married off by their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, to secure his political power base. These two sisters had no independent status under the law and were entirely a part of their husband’s property once married. I think Leslie Carroll, author of Royal Affairs describes the the world Marie and Hortense lived in very well in her review of Elizabeth Goldsmith's book, "The King's Mistresses."
Carroll writes: “The bigger scandal in this fascinating double biography is not the bold behavior of its aristocratic heroines, whose colorful lives a novelist would envy—but the shocking treatment they endured at the hands of the powerful men who sought to punish them for seeking their independence. The lengths they went to bring the Mancini sisters to heel will leave readers shocked, wishing they could turn back the hands of time to champion these courageous survivors themselves.”
Jane Bergeron and Carrie Quinn were very interested in creating a play that would re-frame the historical narrative of the Mancini sisters’ journey as a poetic, evocative, and thought-provoking piece of original devised theatre. At the 2011 ADSA (The Australasian Association for Theatre Drama and Performance Studies) Conference, Jane and her colleague presented their paper, ‘The Illustrious Adventuresses: A theatrical exploration of the ‘other voice’ in early modern Europe.” They addressed the challenges of collaboration in devising trans-global theatre. In the devising process, research is normally sifted and tested during the face-to-face practical, collaborative phase of theatre making, and these discoveries are then distilled into the performance ‘text’. In fact, both Jane and her colleague live and work on opposite sides of the globe, so they must rely on social media, email, and Skype to develop much of their work. How appropriate this all seems to their project since the Mancini sisters employed the written word to engage one another and their audience, refusing to keep quiet three hundred and fifty years ago, when the ‘other voice’ was typically silenced.
I was commissioned to design the poster for their play, titled POSSESSIONS and this inspired me to investigate the story narrative of the Mancini Sister in Ms. Bergeron’s idea, not as a play write, but as a book artist depicting the lives of the Mancini Sisters using images and text. To see more information "Possessions"
Description of Book
I propose the idea of creating an eight-panel movable theatre book titled “The Traveling Mancini Sisters.” Similar in construction and style of movable books created by the German illustrator and writer, Lotha Meggendorfer, each Panel will have three pop-outs. This will create a three-dimensional scene depicting the sisters traveling in a postal coach at different locations throughout Europe. Each panel will represent a specific location and event that Marie and Hortense experienced and communicated to each other through their letters using Bergeron and Quinn's script as a guide. The book will measure 9” x 13” closed and a full 54” when open to exposed the six pop up theater panels. The backside of the book will contain text panels of the book will have text taken from Bergeron and Quinn script, a background of the play, title cover and publication information.
I will be building the prototype this winter 2013 in hopes to apply for a 2015 Artist Book Grant through the National Museum of Women in the Arts to produce 125 editions.
About Jane Bergeron
• All About Jane
• Conference Paper
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Background Information
Mancini Sisters, Marie and Hortense. were born in Rome, brought to the court of Louis XIV of France, and conveniently (or should I say "politically") married off by their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, to secure his political power base. These two sisters had no independent status under the law and were entirely a part of their husband’s property once married. I think Leslie Carroll, author of Royal Affairs describes the the world Marie and Hortense lived in very well in her review of Elizabeth Goldsmith's book, "The King's Mistresses."
Carroll writes: “The bigger scandal in this fascinating double biography is not the bold behavior of its aristocratic heroines, whose colorful lives a novelist would envy—but the shocking treatment they endured at the hands of the powerful men who sought to punish them for seeking their independence. The lengths they went to bring the Mancini sisters to heel will leave readers shocked, wishing they could turn back the hands of time to champion these courageous survivors themselves.”
Jane Bergeron and Carrie Quinn were very interested in creating a play that would re-frame the historical narrative of the Mancini sisters’ journey as a poetic, evocative, and thought-provoking piece of original devised theatre. At the 2011 ADSA (The Australasian Association for Theatre Drama and Performance Studies) Conference, Jane and her colleague presented their paper, ‘The Illustrious Adventuresses: A theatrical exploration of the ‘other voice’ in early modern Europe.” They addressed the challenges of collaboration in devising trans-global theatre. In the devising process, research is normally sifted and tested during the face-to-face practical, collaborative phase of theatre making, and these discoveries are then distilled into the performance ‘text’. In fact, both Jane and her colleague live and work on opposite sides of the globe, so they must rely on social media, email, and Skype to develop much of their work. How appropriate this all seems to their project since the Mancini sisters employed the written word to engage one another and their audience, refusing to keep quiet three hundred and fifty years ago, when the ‘other voice’ was typically silenced.
I was commissioned to design the poster for their play, titled POSSESSIONS and this inspired me to investigate the story narrative of the Mancini Sister in Ms. Bergeron’s idea, not as a play write, but as a book artist depicting the lives of the Mancini Sisters using images and text. To see more information "Possessions"
Description of Book
I propose the idea of creating an eight-panel movable theatre book titled “The Traveling Mancini Sisters.” Similar in construction and style of movable books created by the German illustrator and writer, Lotha Meggendorfer, each Panel will have three pop-outs. This will create a three-dimensional scene depicting the sisters traveling in a postal coach at different locations throughout Europe. Each panel will represent a specific location and event that Marie and Hortense experienced and communicated to each other through their letters using Bergeron and Quinn's script as a guide. The book will measure 9” x 13” closed and a full 54” when open to exposed the six pop up theater panels. The backside of the book will contain text panels of the book will have text taken from Bergeron and Quinn script, a background of the play, title cover and publication information.
I will be building the prototype this winter 2013 in hopes to apply for a 2015 Artist Book Grant through the National Museum of Women in the Arts to produce 125 editions.
About Jane Bergeron
• All About Jane
• Conference Paper
Carrie Ann Quinn (left) and Jane Bergeron lead the cast of their play “Possessions” at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.
Photo credit: Anthony Phelps
Photo credit: Anthony Phelps
A Disassembled Life • Enter Here
Revised 15 January 2020