We kick off our March Matinees with Betty Smith's (yes, that Betty Smith, author of the1943 classic novel  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) 1931 drama, 'Becomes a Woman,' produced by New York City's Mint Theatre Company. Smith, who never graduated from high school because she had to go to work when her father died when she was 14, wrote the play after auditing theatre classes at the University of Michigan. It won the Avery Hopwood award, in the first year those scholarships were awarded, a boon which enabled Smith to further her studies at the Yale School of Drama. Smith wrote many more plays than novels, working for a time in the WPA Theatre project. This play was never published or produced prior to the Mint's February - March 2023 production. 

"Becomes a Woman" tells the story of Francie Nolan (same name, not the same character) as she works at a local five and dime store in Brooklyn, struggling for autonomy from the men in her life, making the transition from a naive girl to a woman.

New York City's Mint Theatre Company is dedicated to rediscovering and producing quality plays from all eras that have been forgotten or neglected.

March Matinees is a midday Spring series where we broadcast live-on-tape productions from English-speaking theatres near and far.