Tea with Mrs. Roosevelt is a revealing behind the scenes look at this First Lady of the World. Written by Sherrie Colbourn and starring Sue Ann Staake and me, Annette Hubbell, it will be shown virtually on the weekends from March 26th through April 4. Directed by Sherrie Colbourn and Gil Savage, it is produced by PowPAC, Poway’s Performing Arts Company.
I’d been performing Eleanor Roosevelt, off and on, for some five years—but that was four years ago, and I’m thrilled to be in that role again for PowPAC, the Poway Performing Arts Company.
I used to love it when someone would come up to me after a performance and say, “I forgot it was you up there; I really thought it was Eleanor!” What an affirmation!
Eleanor was a complex woman who made great strides in the advancement of civil rights and women’s rights, and she was a champion of the poor and downtrodden. Eleanor demanded much in her relationships, but nothing more than she would expect of herself. A consummate politician with sharp instincts, Eleanor was respected for her integrity and dignity that she extended to all. She also liked to downplay her influence by often referring to herself as “just my husband’s helpmate.”
The Eleanor of “Tea with Mrs. Roosevelt” shows a more tender, vulnerable side of her than you might find in the history books. She learned to become self-reliant from a young age, and I think some of that could be attributed to her personal relationships. Those she loved, especially in her youth, rejected her. Her mother thought she was ugly and told her so many times; her father, whom she adored, ignored her; she had friends who manipulated her; and, her husband betrayed her. Who wouldn’t hold their heart at bay?
Franklin’s secret affair profoundly changed their relationship. I think a tiny part of her was relieved that she didn’t have to share the bedroom with anyone any longer. “He wanted a wife who could be less critical, more carefree,” Eleanor tells her friend Lorena. “I couldn’t be that for him, but I was just what he needed.”
Eleanor had many admirers; indeed, she was the most admired woman of the 20th century. She also had her detractors. You’d hear some say Eleanor Roosevelt was the best president we ever had (!), but 1940 Republican Campaign buttons sported the slogan: “We don’t want Eleanor either!”
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was a politician, diplomat, and activist. Untiring, she needed only four hours of sleep a night and used those extra hours to write a daily column, refine her policy positions, sharpen her intellect, and handwrite a note to most everyone she met or who wrote to her. She maintained that Franklin often didn’t listen to her, but in reality, he did. One wonders what the presidency would have looked like if she had just kept to her teas. (Franklin, at one point, asked her to limit her memos to him to just three a night.)
One of the challenges, for me, was to accurately voice her unique voice. At times I’ve been told to tone it down—that to truly reveal her voice would drive some out the door! (Younger audiences wonder why I speak in higher octaves.) She did take elocution lessons to lower her voice, and when called upon could stay in a pleasing range—some call it East Coast Aristocracy. However, let her passion get the best of her, and the pitch ascended and the warbling warbled.
I wonder what Eleanor Roosevelt would make of our political parties today? Would she even recognize them? Whatever your politics, I think you might agree that that “tough and salty old lady” would interject a welcome measure of needed civility in today’s impersonal social-media-driven world.
I am thrilled that Sue Ann Staake will be joining me in the upcoming performances of “Tea with Mrs. Roosevelt,” written by Sherri Colbourn. Performing as the famous journalist Lorena Hickok, Sue Ann, a four-time Emmy award winner, wonderfully portrays the no-holds-barred-reporter with just the right amount of attitude: irreverent but totally devoted to her good friend Eleanor.
In the living room of her Val Kill home in Hyde Park, New York, Eleanor talks with her best friend Lorena, via Zoom, from her New York studio. They talk about Eleanor’s family, life as the First Lady, and how the incredible partnership of Eleanor and Franklin shaped the presidency.
Tickets can be purchased on line here. Your $10.00 per household donation will help support PowPAC, now in its 40th year. All theater needs our help to recover from this pandemic, and for Sue Ann and myself, we are happy to show our support by bringing you this performance. Once you purchase your ticket, for a particular show (date and time) you will be given a code to insert in the search bar of YouTube.
Annette Hubbell as Eleanor Roosevelt
Sue Ann Staake as Lorena Hickok