Nan Bagby Stephens

Nannie "Nan" Bagby Stephens (1883 – December 29, 1946) was an American playwright and composer, best known for the libretto of Cabildo, an opera, with music by Amy Beach.

Early life and education Stephens was from Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of James McConnell Stephens and Zipporah Bagby Stephens. Both of her grandfathers were slaveowners in Georgia. Her younger sister Frances married French opera conductor Louis Hasselmans. She graduated from Girls High School in Atlanta and Agnes Scott College, and trained as a pianist in Vienna with Johanna Müller and Theodor Leschetizky.

Career Stephens, who was white, was known for writing songs and plays based on traditional "negro music" of the American South, often with regional themes and dialect lyrics. Soon after, in 1924, it was produced with a Black cast, including Charles Sidney Gilpin, Paul Robeson, and Rose McClendon. Roseanne became a source for Oscar Micheaux's film Body and Soul (1925). Black critic Eric D. Walrond called Roseanne "good art and punk propaganda" in his 1924 review.

Stephens was a vice-president of the National Federation of Music Clubs, representing the South Atlantic states, and taught play writing at Agnes Scott College in the late 1920s. Tradition's Daughter (1918, play) Lazy Daisy (1918, play) "My Dearie", "When the Little Boy Ran Away", "Hymn to Mother" (1921, songs, words by Frank L. Stanton) John Barleycorn (1927, play) Tares (1927, play) The Auction Block (1927, one-act play) Cabildo (1932, one-act opera, music by Amy Beach) Glory (1932, novel based on the same story as Roseanne) Rome and July (1933, radio serial) First Lady, or, Madam President (1933, a play about Mary Todd Lincoln) "Habeas Corpus" (1935, short story) Lily (1940, play) If I Ever Cease to Love (1941, play)

Personal life and legacy Stephens died in 1946, in Georgia, and is buried at Westview Cemetery. and saw its first professional production in 1995, at Lincoln Center. It was part of the Muffled Voices Festival, with performances in Moscow and other Russian cities in 2024. Her letters to Beach are in the Amy Beach papers at the University of New Hampshire.