Reincarnated? No, that's not Mary Lyon, it's 1958 MHC alumna Kate Carney portraying the College's founder in a one-woman show she researched and wrote.
MHC founder Mary Lyon returned to her beloved Mount Holyoke in the guise of Kate Carney MA '58, an actor/storyteller who specializes in bringing history to life through her portrayals of heroic women. Sporting a demure white bonnet and starched calico frock, "Lyon" educated and entertained over sixty members of the extended MHC community gathered for commencement weekend. This was Mary Lyon's second sighting at MHC during the twentieth century. She appeared here last year at the request of the Alumnae Association, in honor of the 200th anniversary of her birth.
Known during her lifetime for her speedy speech, Mary Lyon remained in character during her visit. Speaking almost nonstop for more than an hour, she transported her audience back to 1848, the eleventh year of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary's existence. Surrounded by reproductions of the daily schedules of MHC students in the nineteenth century, portraits of the important people in her life, and images of the Mount Holyoke campus, Mary Lyon discussed her life and the efforts that led to the founding of MHC. In addition to providing information and anecdotes and answering questions, Lyon entertained her audience with her quick wit and abundant humor.
Mary Lyon is one of a number of "heroic women"--including Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher--whom Kate Carney portrays in one-woman interactive performances. After conducting extensive research on her subject and the time in which the woman lived, Carney develops a point of view and writes a script. In Lyon's case, Carney relied heavily on biographies and College archive materials to learn to think and act like Lyon and to absorb MHC's history. By the time she was through, Carney came to admire Lyon's "ability to do the most she could with what she had. She changed the face of American education through her commitment, and through her zeal carried so many people along with her," Carney said.
During Carney's long career as an actor and director in New York, she was particularly interested in experimental and interactive theater. She has directed more than forty plays and has taught theater at Brandeis University, Smith College, and Hunter College, among other institutions.
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