Blix Ruskay papers, 1942-2002

Esther Jane "Blix" Ruskay was born on April 25,1908 in Far Rockaway, Queens in New York to Cecil Ruskay and Sophie Liebowitz. The oldest of five children in a middle-class family, Ruskay was sporadically exposed to theater before deciding, at age fourteen, to become an actress. Despite some discouraging advice from actress Ruth Gordon, she studied theater at the American Laboratory Theatre in New York City under the tutelage of Maria Ouspenskaya, from the Moscow Art Theatre.

In 1930 Blix married Harvey J. Bresler and had three children (Lynne, Jane, Michael) in rapid succession, while simultaneously launching an acting career using the moniker "Blix Ruskay." She performed as a solo artist, writing her own material in the form of vignettes, satires, "impressions," and impersonations. Many of her writings and characters were informed by her Jewish background and Jewish folklore. She performed for clubs and women's groups, and in venues such as Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall and Brooklyn Academy of Music; she also toured nationally, stopping in Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Minnesota, and the Tri-State area

The subjects of Blix Ruskay's vignettes varied from famous women in history ("George Sand: An Advanced Woman," "Sarah Bernhardt: The Divine Eccentric"), to a piece inspired by the diary of a World War II Hungarian girl ("The Spark that Kindles") to a Nisqually legend ("Blue Jay and the Moon Legend") to "Vignettes of Jewish folklore."

In her fifties, Ruskay returned to school, earning a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Literature from Wilkes College in 1966. She continued to write and perform when she and her family moved to Seattle, Washington in 1972. She worked as the Director of Children's Theatre at Bellevue Community College and expanded her one-woman repertoire to include programming for children, performing in schools, libraries, and Bumbershoot festivals. She died in Seattle in 1981.