CAROLINIAN

August 1996 - University of South Carolina

Daniel Defoe, the 17th- and early 18th-century English author of Robinson Crusoe, is usually credited with being the originator of the novel as a form of literature, but Karen Eterovich would like you to rethink that. Actually, says Eterovich, a New York actress who received her Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from USC in 1989, the honor of having written the first modern novel belongs to Aphra Behn (1640- 1689), whose Oroonoko (1688), the story of an enslaved African prince, predates Robinson Crusoe by 17 years. Behn was an accomplished Restoration novelist, playwright, and poet at a time when women were relegated to second-class citizenship. That may be why her foremost claim to fame has been obscure, Eterovich says, but Behn deserves to be written back into history, she adds, which is why Eterovich wrote and appears in Love Arm'd, Aphra Behn & Her Pen, her own one-woman show, which premiered in New York in 1994. In the production, Eterovich combines portions of Behn's plays, poems, and novels with a selection of music from Behn's time, more than 40 slides, and a 17th-century costume. The play has been performed in New York and Washington, D.C., and has been invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in 1997. "I want to give women back some of their rich history," says Eterovich, who plans to tour the play at women's studies and theatre programs throughout the country, including Wake Forest University, where she was an artist in residence in April. Eterovich was introduced to Behn's work when she played Angelica Bianca in The Rover, one of Behn's plays, in 1991 when she was at Cornell University. "She lived such an incredible life I became fascinated with her," Eterovich says. Collaborating with her on the play is Robert Edward Burns, who also received his MFA degree in acting from the University in 1989. Burns directed LoveArm'd, helped write the script, and arranged many of the play's technical elements.