Background
She was born on January 25, 1854 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, the daughter of Levi W. and Margaret (Keating) Shaw, her father being a native of New Hampshire and her mother of Ireland.
She was born on January 25, 1854 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, the daughter of Levi W. and Margaret (Keating) Shaw, her father being a native of New Hampshire and her mother of Ireland.
She was educated in the public schools of Boston.
She taught in Boston from 1873 to 1878. Obtaining an engagement as a minor member of the Boston Museum Stock Company, she made her debut there in a small part in an extravaganza and remained during the season of 1879-1880. In 1881 she appeared as Lady Sneerwell in New York and for a brief period was with Augustin Daly's company.
Her first real opportunity come when she joined the company of Madame Helena Modjeska in the fall of 1883. She remained with Modjeska four seasons, acting Celia in As You Like It, Mariana in Measure for Measure, Hero in Much Ado About Nothing, and other important roles. In 1890 she supported Julia Marlowe. She made her first starring tour in the spring of 1890 in A Drop of Poison, adapted from the German, but it was only a succes d'estime. Many of the plays in which she was obliged to act were of very little merit, and she was obscured in inconsequential characters; other excellent plays that she brought out had in them no marked elements of stage popularity. She soon returned to the support of stars and to acting secondary parts in traveling companies.
She acted Roxy in Pudd'nhead Wilson with Frank Mayo, Gretchen in Rip Van Winkle with Joseph Jefferson, Marian in Tess of the D'Urbervilles with Minnie Maddern Fiske, and she was the original Amrah in the dramatization of Lew Wallace's novel, Ben Hur. In 1899 she produced Ibsen's Ghosts. Her interpretation of that part and of the part of Hedda Gabler brought her much praise but little substantial encouragement.
In October 1905 she appeared in New York as Mrs. Warren in George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, which was immediately suppressed by the municipal authorities because of what they called its immorality.
She took an active part in feminist, suffragist, and humanitarian movements. She died in New York in retirement.
Mary Shaw played many controversial roles in her career as an actress, and was involved in some of the most controversial plays of her time such as Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts and Hedda Gabler, George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession and many female suffrage plays. She also designed the Woman's National Theatre and became a honorable member of the Professional Women's League.
Mary Shaw believed that each gender needed to understand the other and she wished to see more women successfully entering the professional arena in direct competition with men to create platonic relationships. Shaw urges women to be free of their domestic cages.
She remained a hard-working actress for many years.
Quotes from others about the person
She is described by Modjeska as "a studious, intellectual young woman, with a great deal of talent. "
A reviewer in the Boston Transcript (May 6, 1890) said that "her exquisitely trained voice, her Delsartian truth and facility of gesture, her easy mastery of the technique of her art, assure her permanent occupancy of the high position to which she has won her way by such worthy effort. "
She was twice married. Her second husband was M. de Brissac, a stage manager of French origin, but their life together was neither long nor happy. By her first marriage she had one son Arthur Shaw.
