Emma Sheridan

Emma Viola Sheridan Fry, born October 1, 1864, in Painesville, Ohio, was an American actress, playwright, and educator who built successive careers on the stage, in journalism, and in theatrical education. She died on December 11, 1936, in Westwood, New Jersey, following a period of illness from tuberculosis.

Sheridan was the daughter of Congressman George Augustus Sheridan, who served with the Army of the Cumberland during the Civil War and later earned a national reputation as an orator, and Emma Christina Sheridan, whose mother was a niece of the New England clergyman Reverend Joseph W. Parker. Sheridan completed her preparatory studies at Mrs. Hay's academy in Boston, Massachusetts, and went on to graduate from the Normal College in New York City, now known as Hunter College. She pursued formal theatrical training at the New York Lyceum School of Acting and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1885.

Her stage career advanced steadily over six seasons, during which she took on a range of significant roles. Her Broadway credits include an appearance in 1885 in Dakolar. In 1887, she performed alongside Richard Mansfield at the Lyceum Theatre in London. After returning to the United States, she played leading Shakespearean roles opposite Thomas Keene, and in 1889 she joined the Boston Museum Company as its leading lady. Her stage career ended following her marriage, which took place in Deer Isle, Maine, in 1891, to Alfred Brooks Fry, Chief Engineer of the United States Treasury service and a member of the Loyal Legion and the Order of the Cincinnati by heredity. The couple had a son, Sheridan Brooks Fry, born in 1893.

Concurrent with her acting work, Sheridan contributed regularly to newspapers and periodicals under her own name as well as the pen names Polly and E. V. Sheridan. She was recognized for the Polly Papers column in the New York Dramatic Mirror and contributed a Wednesday Afternoon column to the Boston Commonwealth, which covered theater reviews and dramatic commentary. After leaving the stage, she continued writing under the signature E. V. Sheridan, and on February 23, 1892, Richard Mansfield produced her play £10,000 a Year at the Garden Theatre in New York, a work she adapted from Dr. Samuel Warren's novel of the same name.

Sheridan's later career centered on theatrical education and youth programming. In 1903, she established the Children's and Young People's Theatre in New York City. The following year, she became director of the Children's Educational Theatre, an institution founded by Alice Minnie Herts with Mark Twain serving as president of the board; she held that position until January 1, 1909. Among the productions she mounted there was The Prince and the Pauper, which she adapted from Mark Twain's novel. She also produced A Midsummer Night's Dream at Morris High School in New York and The Tempest for Smith College alumnae in 1898. In 1910, she assumed the role of dramatic director of the Educational Players in New York City, where she produced the Abby Sage Richardson play that same year. She taught at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts during 1909 and 1910 and served as president of the Alumni Association of the Lyceum School of Acting. She also prepared a textbook, Educational Dramatics, published in 1917, as well as student arrangements of Twelfth Night and Macbeth for the Educational Players.

Sheridan held memberships in the New England Woman's Press Association and the Pen and Brush Club of New York City. She supported women's suffrage and was Episcopalian by religion.