The real CASA VALENTINA
The real CASA VALENTINA
Owen22
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/24/11
#1The real CASA VALENTINA
Posted: 4/18/14 at 9:12am
For those with an interest in the place and time that was the inspiration for Harvey's new play there is a great Huff Post article about the book "Casa Susanna" with many pictures of the "tall ships" that the resort attracted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/casa-susanna_n_5161190.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
#2The real CASA VALENTINA
Posted: 4/18/14 at 9:17am
Yesterday, this article began with the sentence "Casa Susana is a compelling new book..." (emphasis mine).
It's good to see someone at Huff finally realized that the book was published 9 years ago. Too bad they couldn't catch the error in spelling on the title, though...
Huffington Post often makes Wikipedia look like the Encyclopedia Britannica.
LucyEth
Stand-by Joined: 8/23/12
#2The real CASA VALENTINA
Posted: 4/18/14 at 10:19amJust bought this book yesterday. What a fascinating, surreal, heartbreaking (and/or heartwarming) experience. As much as I enjoyed the play, I really want to know who those real men were and what were their stories. Are any still alive, do they know about the book and what it's inspired?
#3The real CASA VALENTINA
Posted: 4/18/14 at 10:42am
The article linked here gives the most info I've seen on the real Casa Susanna.
Queens of the Catskills
Updated On: 4/18/14 at 10:42 AM
#5The real CASA VALENTINA
Posted: 4/18/14 at 10:47am
And one from the Times.
Safe House for the Girl Within
#6The real CASA VALENTINA
Posted: 4/18/14 at 12:22pm
Robert Hill's doctoral dissertation, "As a man, I exist; as a woman, I live": Heterosexual Transvestism and the Contours of Gender and Sexuality in Post-War America, is also available to read in full online. Lots of information on Tito/Susanna Valenti, Virginia Prince (basis for Reed Birney's character), Trasvestia Magazine, and Casa Susanna.
Hill collaberated with the editors of the Casa Susanna book and his research was used by Fierstein in the writing of the play. His disseration is very readable and fascinating, if anyone is interested in getting more information about the culture in the period.
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/57615/rshill_3.pdf?sequence=2
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
LucyEth
Stand-by Joined: 8/23/12
