Virginia Scott was an internationally recognized scholar, author and teacher in the field of Dramaturgy. Adam Gopnik, reviewing Moliere: A Theatrical Life for the New Yorker said: “She is a refreshing guide.  She has an excellent eye for period detail and fills the empty corners of Moliere’s life with neat pen-portraits… and unfussy accounts of his dealings as an actor-manager.” Publisher’s Weekly said: “As the first substantive English-language biography of Moliere since 1930, this is a happy arrival for students of the theater and of French literature and culture.”

Among her many honors were the George Freedley Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Literature of the Theater; the Outstanding Scholar Award from the American Society for Theater Research; and the 2011 Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History. She has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the Camargo Foundation (twice), and has received several awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, including a Senior Fellowship. Published works include The Commedia dell’arte in Paris (University Press of Virginia, 1990), Molière: A Theatrical Life (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Performance, Poetry and Politics on the Queen’s Day: Catherine de Médicis and Pierre de Ronsard at Fontainebleau, with Sara Sturm-Maddox (Ashgate, 2007),  Tartuffe: A Critical Edition with Constance Congdon (Norton, 2008), and Women on the Stage in Early Modern France (Cambridge University Press, In Press). 

Virginia Scott described herself as “a late-blooming academic.” In a 2010 interview in The Frenchmag, she said “Finally, when I was 50 I received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation that enabled me to spend a sabbatical in Paris and begin archival research for my book on the Comédie-Italienne. I realized then that, although I had enjoyed wearing my many hats, the one that best suited me was research and historical writing.”

Virginia Lee Peters was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 2, 1934, the only child of Grace (Blackwell) Peters and Lee Henry Peters.  Her mother was a nurse and her father drove a car for a funeral home. When Ginny was fourteen she played Jo in a production of The Little Women and began her life in the theater. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa, she spent the next four years in New York City. She then returned to Iowa for an MFA in Playwriting and, finally, a PhD in History and Criticism of Theater.

Virginia was a founding member of the Department of Theater at the University of Massachusetts, where she served as a Professor of Dramaturgy and Playwriting. She was also a Visiting Professor in Dramaturgy at the Tufts University Department of Drama and Dance. Her translations of Moliere’s plays (some with her former playwriting student, Constance Congdon) have been widely produced in regional theaters. Her original produced works include the plays Letter to Corinth; Bogus Joan; Lesser Pleasures: A Secret Opera (music & lyrics by Joshua Rosenblum); and A Living Exhibition of Sweeney Todd.

As a child of the Depression and the Progressive Era, Virginia was a passionate believer in the importance of affordable public higher education, a cultural value that gave her a superb education, and a social principle she championed throughout her long career.  To that work, she brought her vast knowledge of history and social conditions, her diligent research in the theater archives in this country and in France, and her demands for honesty and excellence in her students’ writing, interpretation, and theater production.  In these ways she helped her students build a solid foundation for their own teaching and research careers or for their professional lives on stage and in film.  She eagerly followed their accomplishments as dramaturgs, directors, designers, playwrights, and actors whose work was seen in New York and Hollywood, and in regional theaters and classroom across the country and abroad.  She took great pleasure in her students’ many successes.

Virginia had a life-long appreciation of France and French culture. She was an excellent cook and delighted her family and her friends with many beautifully cooked meals. In recent years she traveled a good deal, most often to Paris, her favorite city.

Virginia died peacefully in her home in South Amherst after a year-long illness. The cause of death was bile-duct cancer. She is survived by her three children with former husband Nicholas Scott: Peter Scott (Suzan Scott, Bozeman MT); Garet Scott (Kevin Thomsen, Upper Nyack, NY); Sarah Scott (Peter Arensburger, Riverside, CA) and nine grandchildren. Memorial gifts in lieu of flowers may be made in Virginia’s name to SOS Children’s Villages International (sos-childrensvillages.org) and to VNA Hospice of Cooley-Dickinson (vnaandhospice.org).  A Memorial Celebration of Virginia’s life will take place on May 3, 2014 at the Amherst Women’s Club.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.