A Tea with Zora and Marjorie

Zora? Marjorie? Who are these women?

Zora Neale Hurston is a New York-educated writer, born in Alabama and raised in the all-black town of Eatonville, Florida. She came to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s and was noted for her personality, wit and writing talent. Zora returned to her roots in Eatonville to collect stories and write about the folklore of the region. Among Hurston’s acclaimed books are “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (1937) and “Dust Tracks On A Road” (1942).

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is well known to Florida readers as the author of “The Yearling” (1938) and of “Cross Creek” (1942). A woman who came to Florida from the North and fell in love with the flora and fauna of rural Florida…it became her refuge.

“They saw themselves as renegades and as daring, and they loved adventure,” said playwright Dr. Barbara Speisman. “They were two women who were from very different worlds.” They both lived in St. Augustine. And despite the prevailing climate of segregation, they became friends!

Directed by Jean Rahner, Speisman’s play imagines the first meeting of these two headstrong women in 1942, both at the height of their success, at Rawlings’ upstairs apartment at the segregated Castle Warden hotel in St. Augustine, and their ensuing conversation over “tea” – a colloquialism for whiskey!