Dorothy Donnelly (1880-1928) served the American stage in every capacity: actor, director, producer, playwright, librettist, and benefactor. Her groundbreaking characterizations in the title roles of Candida and Madame X are still models for training actors, and her talents behind the scenes contributed mightily to the development of the musical as a preeminent form of American theatre in, and after, the 1920s. Despite her enormous contributions to theatre, Donnelly is nowadays seldom studied by theatre historians. This is both a comprehensive biography and the story of an important era in American stage history. The text is supplemented by photographs, a chronology, bibliography, and index.