National Performers
National Authors & Presenters are available to travel across the country. These performers are willing and able to travel to your state to be a part of your program (as negotiated).
Jenny Aldrich
2019 Chippawa, Sarasota, FL 34234
Phone: 941-735-1260
Email: costars@comcast.net
Website: www.costars.net
Performance Description: Women Masters. Celebrating women, art and life, these programs use the magic of theatre to bring these artists to your audience. While displaying reproductions of their work, the artists discuss their subjects and style. Often in their own words, they describe the people and events that shaped their lives and art. Mary Cassatt, known for her frankness, describes her life in France during the birth of Impressionism. Georgia O’Keeffe conducts a tour through her sensational flowers and abstracts to the vastness of the American West. Lilla Cabot Perry discusses her friendship with Claude Monet and the story of Giverny, the “cradle of American Impressionism.”
Availability: National
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Dale Allen In an accessible and inclusive way, In Our Right Minds™ explores the goddess archetype as a metaphor for our right-brain wisdom. Without an understanding of this archetype, women have been left with no clear model to guide them to their strength and wholeness, and men have been forced to suppress vast parts of their own intuitive, emotional and nurturing natures. Leadership for a new era will be based on the integration of the feminine, as expressed through both women and men. “The Mother has left a memory in us all.” |
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2224 Utter Street Bellingham, WA 98225 Phone: 360-734-7979 Email: linda@lindasongs.com Web: www.lindasongs.com Performance description: Both the silencing of women’s experience and the empowering of women’s voices as they struggled for the vote in Washington State will be showcased in this 45-minute, multi-media presentation, featuring original sing-a-long songs, images, stories and readings We meet Spokane’s Helga Estby who walked across America in 1896, Emma Smith Devoe and May Arkwright Hutton, suffragists instrumental in winning the vote in 1910, Alice Lord who organized Seattle waitresses in the 1930s, Rosie, the Riveter, an “icon” from the 40’s, and Rosalinda Guillen, a contemporary activist. Linda offers a window into these and many more ordinary and extraordinary lives. Availability: National |
The American Magic-Lantern Theater
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
PO Box 44
East Haddam, CT 06438
Phone: 860-345-2574, fax: 860-345-7578
Website: www.magiclanternshows.com
Email: tborton@magiclanternshows.com
Performance Description: Historically authentic re-creation of an 1890s magic-lantern show of
H. B. Stowe’s
classic Uncle Tom’s Cabin-the book Lincoln said started the Civil War. Victorian Magic-Lantern Shows combined projected images, live drama, and live music, and were the direct ancestor of today’s movies. UTC was the single most popular show in the magic-lantern repertoire. It can b e presented alone, in reference to Stowe, and/or as part of AMLT’s Civil War Show. AMLT has been touring nationally and internationally for 15 years. National Public Radio says, “They’re an incredible experience…IF they come to your town, don’t miss them. They’re a living national treasure.”
Availability: National
Carrie Sue Ayvar
1829 NE 179 St., N. Miami Beach, FL 33162
Phone: 305-945-4804
Website: www.storynet.org/tellers/CarrieSueAyvar.htm
Website: www.writeonspeakers.com/carrie_sue_ayvar.htm
Email: cayvar@aol.com
Performance Description: Everyone’s heard of Miami Beach! See it through the eyes of Rose Weiss: Mother of Miami Beach, who transformed it, with persistence and a smile, from a sparsely populated sandbar (where Jews like her could only live in the southernmost tip) into the world famous multicultural metropolis it is today. Or you can meet trailblazing Doc Anner: Petticoat Doctor of the Everglades, 2nd female doctor in Florida. Artist, physician, pharmacist, wife, mother (and even veterinarian when called upon) she braved alligators, rattlesnakes, violent outlaws and chauvinism to help and heal her patients. Q&A sessions follow with storyteller, performance artist and Chautauqua Scholar Carrie Sue Ayvar.
Availability: National
Annette Baldwin
629 South Yale
Addison, IL 60101
Phone: (630)-279-0856
Website: www.staginghistory.com
Email: staginghistory@yahoo.com
Description: First-person historical characterizations, in costume and in action, to entertain, inspire and educate. Meet American Civil War spy Elizabeth Van Le, fashion designer Coco Chanel, social activist and peace advocate Jane Addams, journalist Dorothy Thompson, and in one production Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony. Miss Anthony also travels alone. Historian, actor, lecturer, and Humanities Councils' Chautauquan, Annette Baldwin, has been producing and performing stories of courageous, unconventional women since 1986 to libraries, colleges and universities, professional associations, community organizations, historical societies and museums, including the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Availability: National
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Roberta Bassin |
Mary Jane Bradbury
A View of the Past
1430 S. Milwaukee St.,
Denver, CO 80210
Phone: 303-722-8786
Website: www.biosinhistory.com
Email: mj@biosinhistory.com
Performance description: The magic of living history! Hear Jeanette Rankin, suffragist and lifelong pacifist, recount her journey from grassroots reformer to first woman elected to Congress. Explore the Rocky Mountains with 19th century naturalist and taxidermist Martha Maxwell, a woman ahead of her time who represented Colorado at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Join in the Pikes Peak Gold Rush with Augusta Tabor, pioneer, entrepreneur and first wife of Silver Baron Horace Tabor. Learn what Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History really means by meeting some of the adventurers, reformers and mavericks whose stories inspire us today. Q&A included in all programs. Workshops in museum theater and storytelling available. Visit www.biosinhistory.com.
Availability: National
Mary Jane Bradbury . . . keeping the stories alive! Visit http://www.biosinhistory.com/ and schedule a presentation for your next classroom session or meeting.
(303) 722-8786
mj@biosinhistory.com
"A living community exists within context of conditions . . . If there is water, there will be gills."
Richard Manning, Grassland
Availability: National
Elaine Bromka
146 Montclair Ave., Montclair, NJ 07042
Phone: 973-509-9665
Website: www.teaforthree.com, www.elainebromka.com
Email: elainebromka@aol.com
Performance Description: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty: Tea for Three - Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford. This unforgettably vivid one-woman show highlighting three former first ladies stars Emmy Award-winning Elaine Bromka. Critically acclaimed for its blend of wit, intimacy, and passion: "Brilliant acting"..."Delightfully sly"..."This thought-provoking perspective... adds dimension and complexity, joining the women in a sympathetic bond of womanhood." Experience this completely reimagined journey of three women who suddenly found themselves celebrities -- in what Pat Nixon called the hardest unpaid job in the world! Go to www.teaforthree.com for extensive references.
A TV (Law & Order, Sex & the City, E.R., Sopranos and more), Broadway, Off-Broadway and film (the Uncle Buck mom) veteran, Bromka starred opposite Rich Little as eight of the first ladies across the country and for PBS. Her Acting on Camera and Exploring the Monologue workshops, which she has taught at over 70 colleges and high schools nationwide, are also available as part of a residency. Theaters, performing art centers, colleges, museums, clubs, fund raisers.
Availability: National
Linda Boyle
Singer-Historian
7448 N. Damen Avenue
Chicago, IL 60645
Phone: 773-480-4637
Email: lin@lindaboyle.com
Website: lindaboyle.com
Performance Description: A singer, songwriter, educator and cultural historian, Linda presents one hour performances as well as longer workshops and sessions for children and adults on women’s history. Her programs are musical narratives featuring well-researched stories and songs about the lives, struggles and contributions of women and girls. “Telling Women’s Lives,” “Chicago and Illinois Women in Song,” and “ We Must Have Bread and Peace,” are among her historical music programs. Her musical repertoire includes an extensive collection of songs in English, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish and other languages such as Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Kiswahili and Yoruba. Her incorporation of research in labor and immigrant history, and peace and social justice is reflected in the enthusiastic reaction of her audiences. Programs and workshops are tailored to meet the needs and interests of each audience.
“Keep singing your soul as you do so exquisitely.” Ellen Rockne, singer, actress
Decorah, Iowa"Linda has an absolutely beautiful voice! It was wonderful how she incorporated the stories of women from the Midwest region.”
(former) Mayor Carol Lombardi, Waukesha, WI
Linda has performed in schools, universities, museums, on television and radio, for unions and rallies, restaurants and clubs and countless women’s organizations and conferences. She has several music and literacy publications and CDs and a multilingual recording of songs: “Brave Songs/Cantos Bravos” to be available in 2009. “ She was the highlight of the conference…,” said elementary teacher Nancy Miller of Riverside, Illinois who attended Linda’s music and literacy session at the International Reading Association Conference, 2006.
To hear samples of Linda’s music, look her up at CDBaby.com
Availability: National
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Susan G. Butruille, M.A. PO Box 385 Leavenworth, WA 98826 Phone: 509-548-0238 Email: sbvoices@aracnet.com or sbvoices@yahoo.com Website: www.sbvoices.com |
Performance Description: Celebrating Washington’s 2010 Suffrage Centennial, Susan Butruille invites audience participation in this musical revue of her rollicking, poignant new musical readers theatre, Recipe For Justice. Using different voices, narrative, and period music, the playwright relates the dramatic tale of Washington equal suffrage from territorial beginnings through finally winning permanent voting rights in 1910 and inspiring the final campaign for national suffrage in 1920. Recipe For Justice follows three generations of women -- the family matriarch, her daughter, and two granddaughters -- as they plan a celebration dinner and share recipes, songs, stories, and contrary views over women’s rights and family dynamics. Voices of suffragist spirits such as Emma Smith DeVoe, May Arkwright Hutton, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Alice Paul weave through the play and act as a sort of Greek chorus. Recipe For Justice is also available for public performance as a two-act readers theatre play. Susan Butruille is the award-winning author of the Women’s Voices series on women in the West and scriptwriter for a film on the Oregon Trail. She has presented costumed performances, teacher workshops, and keynotes from coast to coast and in France. Her popular, dynamic program Tea, True Womanhood and Uppity Women begins with the warning to watch out for tea parties! That’s where women have pondered their lives and freedom, leading to such radical notions as peace, justice and equality. Susan Butruille’s versatile presentations are suitable for libraries, museums, conventions, and classes. “A wonderful presentation. Perfect for our group!” Availability: National |
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Kate Campbell Stevenson
Women: Back to the Future
12122 David Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20904
Phone: 301-622-1588
Website: www.
Email: KcamStev@aol.com
Performance Description: Educate, motivate and inspire your audience with this stirring musical theater performance. Each program includes clever onstage costume and makeup changes creating magical transitions between historical periods. 3-4 women featured per show; Selections include Abigail Adams- First Lady, Sacagawea-Native American Guide, Lucy Stone-19th Century Suffragist, Bessie Coleman-African American Pilot, Rachel Carson- Environmentalist- Award Winning Writer , Marian Anderson Singer/Humanitarian, Eleanor Roosevelt- First Lady of the World/Humanitarian, Louise Arner Boyd- Explorer who led SEVEN Arctic Expeditions!, Alice Paul- 20th Century Suffragist, Rose Crabtree- member of The1920 All Women Town Council of Jackson Hole, WY. Each woman portrayed in the context of her time with song, monologue, poetry, and movement. Rachel Carson is usually one of three women performed in the 50 minute one woman musical Women: Back to the Future. However, "Rachel" can also be very effective as a single feature coordinating with other Environmental events. While performing onstage costume, make-up and wig changes, Kate morphs into "Rachel" while giving background information about Carson's life. As Rachel "Everything that is sung is Rachel Carson's thoughts her feelings her passion for protecting our environment. Everything spoken is her actual testimony in front of Congress."
This fully orchestrated musical setting is an 8 minute soliloquy in three different segments with sound effects--birds softly chirping, night noises, frogs, waves lapping the shore, etc.) 1.) establishing "a sense of wonder" with nature as she calls out to her mother's spirit to "be with me today-I need your strength" --then a short segue to Rachel's testimony in front of Congress with Senators voices and musically highlighting her critics' threats, her exhaustion from cancer and feelings of vulnerability...finally she regroups 3.) with a driving musical pulse and a sense of urgency underneath -" Rachel" reveals her inner resolve, her extreme determination to use" the power of my words to change a person's heart- to open up their eyes and make them see…by the power of my words I can change a person's voice to preserve our earth in natural harmony. In the power, with the power, by the power of my words." The complete "Rachel" segment lasts about 15 minutes and leaves an indelible impression on all ages.
"Kate Campbell Stevenson creates a powerful portrayal of Rachel Carson using music to capture Rachel's plea for protecting our environment and excerpts from Rachel's public testimony. Kate's passionate performance brings this important historical figure to life for audiences of all ages." Dr. Diana Post, Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Council
Ask about the new shows Petticoats in Politics and Women of the West. Optional Q&A after performance. The closing song includes American Sign Language. Shows are adapted to each audience. Excellent for schools K-12, College and University, Government, Military, Conferences, Women and Civic Groups. Tours nationwide.
Availability: National
Jane Curry
5048 37th Ave. So., Minneapolis, MN 55417
Phone: 612-729-6457
Website: www.janecurry.com
Email: jane@janecurry.com
Performance Description: Five one-woman shows that use a sense of history and humor to educate and entertain. Samantha "Rastles" the Woman Question: 19th-century farm wife and rustic philosopher. Just Say Know: Educating Females for the 21st Century - a satire about formal education for women. Nice Girls Don't Sweat: women and sports. Miz Wizard's Science Secrets: women and math/science/invention. Sisters of the Quill and Skillet: women's domestic lives and the domestic humorists' response to gendered expectations of the home.
Availability: National
Karen Eterovich
Love Arm’d Productions
Times Square Station,
P.O. Box 2668,
NEW YORK, NY 10108
Phone: 212-967-7711 x.4667
Email: karen_eterovich@hotmail.com
Web: http://www.lovearmd.com
Performance Description: Two solo plays: (1) Cheer from Chawton: A Jane Austen Family Theatrical, an hilarious audience participation piece about Jane Austen, her family, writing and adventures as a flirtatious butterfly in rural England and (2) Love Arm’d, Aphra Behn & Her Pen, restoration playwright Aphra Behn reveals the most intimate secrets of her turbulent life in this entertaining multi-media show. Cheer from Chawton was hailed as the “hit of the Jane Austen Festival” in Regency World Magazine and Love Arm’d was called “a polished jewel” by the British Theatre Guide.
Availability: National
849 Middle Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025
Phone: 650-327-9935
Website: http://www.lisafrederiksen.com
Email: lisa@lisafrederiksen.com
Description: Lisa Frederiksen has published several books and articles drawing on her longtime interests in feminism, politics and history. Three of her books are biographies of leaders of the Women's Rights Movement: Betty Friedan, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Frederiksen offers the following presentation based on her books:
The 160+ Year Campaign for Women's Rights: Are We There, Yet?
Who would have guessed that the struggle to secure a woman's basic civil rights -- equal pay for equal work, access to an equal education, legal protection from sexual harassment and domestic violence, the right to practice birth control, the right to sit on a jury or before a jury of her peers, the right to work during and after pregnancy, the opportunity and right to play competitive sports and the right to own one's own property or secure one's own credit without a mail co-signer -- "officially" began in 1848? Or that the legislation to mandate these rights took until the last one-third of the 20th century? Or that legislative and societal efforts to erode some of those basic rights are underway, today? And, what is the impact of that erosion -- not only on women, but on men, daughters, sons and the American family?
Lisa Frederiksen takes attendees of her program through the highlights of this campaign using a dynamic powerpoint presentation and readings from three of her biographies, Women's Rights and Nothing Less: the Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Failure is Impossible, the Story of Susan B. Anthony and Women's Work, the Story of Betty Friedan. As a woman who "came of age" during the legislative period of the 155+ year campaign for women's rights and a parent to six teens now facing their own futures, Frederiksen brings a unique perspective to the program's concluding discussion, "Are we there, yet?
Frederiksen also offers presentations on the women honored annually by the National Women's History Project. Please check the Project's website, www.nwhp.org, for honorees and theme.
For more information visit http://www.lisafrederiksen.com
Availability: National
The Feminine Musique
Web: www.femininemusique.com
Email:: info@femininemusique.com
The Feminine Musique specializes in performing the vocal repertoire written by the wives, sisters, daughters, and lovers of some of the world's most famous composers... as well as some written by women who were not related to any of those guys! We offer a treasure trove of repertoire to explore along with our audience and think you will be surprised and delighted to find that there is indeed GREAT music written by the other 50% of humanity. Excellent for: Theaters, Concert Series, Arts Centers, Colleges and Universities, Museums, Conferences, Fundraisers, Women’s Organizations and Clubs. Both Recitals and Lecture Recitals are available with biographical and historical information, readings, letter quotations, and other pertinent facts about the composers’ lives. Q & A following the presentation if so desired. The Feminine Musique has appeared in Recital throughout the United States and in Lecture Recital at the International Conference for the Arts and Humanities in Hawaii. Donna Balson and Tammy Hensrud have performed in opera, concert and cabaret throughout Europe and the United States, as well as in China, Japan, Africa, the Middle East, New Zealand and Australia. Credits include the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Vienna State Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, New York City Opera, Spoleto Festival, Festival of Sydney and Opera Australia. Their combined skills as musicians and performers bring sophisticated versatility to The Feminine Musique.
“ Donna Balson and Tammy Hensrud, employed their beautiful voices to perform a program full of wit, charm and musical knowledge. The audience greatly enjoyed the interactive quality of the evening and left asking for more.'
Robert Spiotto - Artistic Director, Astman International Concert Series
'Thank you so much for your beautiful and enlightening performance yesterday. I have heard nothing but RAVE reviews from all who attended.'
Chris Harman - Activities Director, Meadow Lakes, New Jersey.
Composers include: Alison Bauld, Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Nadia Boulanger, Francesca Caccini, Anne Boleyn, Maria von Paradies, Cecile Chaminade, Rebecca Clarke, Isabella Colbran, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, Alma Mahler, Maria Malibran, Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn, Thea Musgrave, Clara Schumann, and Pauline Viardot
Availability: Nationally
Susan Marie Frontczak
3664 Chase Court, Boulder, CO 80305
Phone: 303-442-4052
Email: susanmarie@storysmith.org
Website: http://www.storysmith.org
Performance Description:
Meet First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1937, during her husband's second term as president. Behind a public life of striving for women's rights, civil rights, world peace, and against child labor is the story of a little girl who lost both parents before the age of ten, and a debutante who felt trapped by society's expectations. Hear Eleanor Roosevelt's views on what makes life worth living and how we can each make a difference in the midst of a strife-filled world – views at least as relevant today as they were 70 years ago. Other living history personae include Marie Curie , who not only changed our world through the discovery of radium and radioactivity, but opened the doors of science to women worldwide; and English writer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, teen-age mother, behind-the-scenes supporter of social reform, romantic, and scholar, whose book Frankenstein asks keen questions about the responsibility of society to its under trodden, and of scientists to their inventions. All programs include a Q&A in character. Frontczak's living histories have taken her to 22 of the United States as well as Scotland and Canada.
Availability: National
Judith Helton
Americana Unlimited
7100 Colbath Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91405-3303
Phone: 818-785-6104
Email: helton1776@adelphia.net
Performance Description: If you could meet Abigail Adams, what would you ask her? You get your chance through this unique program, which is both scripted and improvisational. Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Woman has delighted thousands of adult and school audiences since 1976. Also available: Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House books, telling the stories of her childhood on the prairie. Plus, Lotta Crabtree, child performer of the California gold rush, featuring the music of that era. Judith Helton received a Lifetime Achievement Award from PASA (Professional Artists in Schools Awards) in 1996.
Availability: National
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Joy Jones 1031 Michigan Ave NE #205, Washington, DC 20017-1858 Phone: 202-832-2368 Website: www.JoyJonesonline.com Email: joyjones100@cs.com Performance Description: She's Not In Your History Book - A lecture on accomplished African and African American women from antiquity to contemporary times. This lecture focuses on historically noteworthy women who are seldom acknowledged for their achievements. Performance poetry is also a key feature of this presentation. Among the women I feature are: Queen Hatshepsut, Egyptian pharaoh; Dorothy Dandridge, actress; and Ellen Craft, who along with her husband William Craft, staged a stunning escape out of slavery. Is There A Griot in the House? - A story hour for grown-ups. Listen to storytelling based on family histories of life "down-home" and in the big city. Also included is a short talk on how to develop an oral or written record of our own family's history. Availability: National |
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Pat Jordan 1093 Radnor Rd., Wayne, PA 19087 Phone: 610-688-5842 Fax: 610-688-8548 Email: HerThGuild@gmail.com or PatJrdn@gmail.com Website: www.heritagetheatreguild.com Performance Description: History Alive! Life Stories of Famous American Women. Amelia Earhart: Fearless Aviator & Advocate for Women’s Rights. Critically-Acclaimed! Nationally-recognized one-woman presentations include: National Portrait Gallery, White House Visitors’ Center, NJ Humanities Council sites, U. S. Navy, Colonial Dames of America, University of Pennsylvania, and scores of schools, universities, retirement centers, libraries, historical societies, businesses, conferences and fund-raisers. Availability: National
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Marsha Norris Knudsen
7750 N Wade School Rd.,
Columbia, MO 65202-8854
Phone: 573-443-1672
Cell: 573-881-6275
Email: rmknudsen@bessi.net
Performance Description: History of the women’s rights movement comes alive in this dynamic and beautifully costumed performance which chronicles the life of Susan B. Anthony, “The Woman Who Dared.” Born in 1820 when women had no rights, Miss Anthony. dared to speak in public, dared to remain unmarried, and was arrested when she dared to vote.
Audiences are captivated as the persona of Susan B. Anthony ages from thirty to eighty during this inspirational first person performance.
Program includes walk-about and Q&A session. Can accommodate audiences up to 500 in number, eighth grade and older.
Availability: National
Judy Gail Performances
100 Armory Court # 107
Jackson, Michigan 49202
Phone: 517-795-2112
Cell: 305-336-1403
Email: judygailstories@cs.com
Website: www.judygailkrasnow.com
Performance Description: RACHEL CARSON, scientist and author of the groundbreaking book, “Silent Spring,” wrote in the book published in 1962, “Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is a war against himself.” Rachel Carson is portrayed by Judy Gail. Carson wrote of the unresearched, random use of DDT and other herbicides and pesticides. Chemical companies called her “ignorant, a hysterical woman, a perpetrator of fear, and a liar.” President John F. Kennedy listened to Ms. Carson and called her to testify before Congress. Rachel Carson was not against protecting crops from insects or people from insect-caused diseases like malaria. She simply stated that chemicals must first be thoroughly tested to know how much or little is safe to use. She reminded her opponents that all nature is interconnected and affected by these chemicals -- including humans. Carson’s book was the force behind the founding of the EPA, many environmental protection laws, international environmental conferences, and treaties. Carson is known as “the patron saint of the environmental movement.” The “Lawton Constitution” wrote on July 19, 2008, “Judy Gail’s portrayal of Rachel Carson is as relevant today as Carson’s message was during the 1960s.”
Judy also portrays other characters including hatchet-wielding temperance activist, Carry A. Nation, and Civil War Union soldier and spy, Sarah Emma Edmonds -- alias Private Franklin Thompson. She presents programs in story and song such as “Women in Labor,” with tales and tunes about the likes of Mother Jones and Clara Lemlich. She adapts her programs to suit all ages from the young to seniors. Judy is the author of “Rudolph, Frosty, And Captain Kangaroo,” an engaging memoir about her childhood growing up in the studios of Columbia records where her father, Hecky Krasnow, produced such classics as “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty The Snowman,” and the beloved Captain Kangaroo. (See Authors and Presenters for details.)
Availability: National
Michele LaRue (AEA, SAG, AFTRA)
The East Lynne Theater Company
c/o 281 Lincoln Ave., Secaucus, NJ 07094
Phone: 201-863-6436
Email: ruedelarue@aol.com
Websites: Listed on michelelarue.com; http://www.eastlynnecompany.org
Performance Description: Presenters have included Chicago’s Newberry Library, D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery, N.Y.C.’s Womenkind festivals, women’s studies programs from Massachusetts to Oklahoma, and international conferences of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society and the American Quilter’s Society.
- The Yellow Wallpaper. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s feminist indictment of 19th-century medicine—and one of the finest horror stories ever penned (in 1892). Fully staged—with period costume, recorded Victorian music and sound effects. One hour plus optional talk-back. Reviews: “Extraordinary, haunting”; “incredible”; “moving and anguished portrayal."
- Someone Must Wash the Dishes: An Anti-Suffrage Monologue. Many women fought against the Vote, but none with more charm, prettier clothes—and less logic—than the fictional speaker in this 1912 satire by pro-suffragist Marie Jenney Howe. Period costume. 25 minutes, plus optional talk-back and/or lecture. Reviews: “Side-splitting”; “enchanting”; “wicked.”
- Tales Well Told. Vibrant solo performances of 19th-century short stories, from New England’s Sarah Orne Jewett to the South’s Kate Chopin, from Alice Brown to Edna Ferber. Titles include Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s The Bedquilt and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s The Apple Tree and The Winning Lady. Choose a Tale to suit the season or your theme. Reviews: “It’s difficult to find the words to describe the wonder of what you do”; “We could have heard a pin drop!”
Availability: National
Robin Lane
66 Charles Street, PMB #112, Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 800-881-0349
Email: rlanesprod@aol.com
Performance Description: Actor Robin Lanes' remarkable portrayals of notable women have won her critical acclaim for over a decade. A trailblazer in the arena of the one-person show, Robin Lane dramatizes the lives of women from history and the arts, in venues both large and small, throughout the United States and in Europe. In Ladies First, Lane portrays first ladies Abigail Adams, Rachel Jackson, Julia Tyler, Mary Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt and Jacqueline Kennedy. Art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner is presented in Queen of Back Bay, and painters Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe in Artful Lives. Travels throughout the US.
Availability: National
Bonda Lewis
Performances Off the Shelf
PO Box 33094, Los Gatos, CA 95031-3094
Phone: 408-371-0529
Website: www.PerformancesOfftheShelf.com
Email: ravenscarapos@yahoo.com
Performance Description: Take your pick of Warriors Who Changed the World, a series of eight shows exploring the lives of extraordinary writer-activists Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Isabella Bird, Amelia Jenks Bloomer and Sara Bard Field. These professional, beautifully mounted one-person shows are a wonderful way to introduce audiences to the courage, laughter and political realities of matchless heroes. Or treat your group to The Powder Keg, a trip through the exciting, unpredictable history of the heroic women who between 1809 and 1949 went from camp followers to commissioned officers while nursing the armed forces.
Looking for Lilith Theatre Company
220 Kennedy Court, #3, Louisville, KY 40206
Phone: 502-638-2559, 347-228-6438
E-mail: trina@lookingforlilith.org
Website: www.lookingforlilith.org
Performance Descriptions:
What My Hands Have Touched
“Moving, impressive, excellent, inspiring, important, thought-provoking, educational, brilliant.” Many brave women of "The Greatest Generation" shared with Looking for Lilith their experiences of life in the U.S. during World War II —not propaganda, not war reels, but real stories from real women whose lives changed forever during that war. In What My Hands Have Touched, a dynamic ensemble of three perform these compelling stories, exploring their myriad roles: as factory workers, nurses, pilots, USO performers and homemakers. This play praises women's contributions to the war effort, while also raising important questions about the realities of war.“The stories are so engrossing. . . they are told with tremendous dignity and depth.”
Women Speak: IRAQ
“Fantastic, riveting, powerful, balanced, amazing, important, moving, incredible and brilliant.” This one woman show based on interviews with over 40 women with some connection to the present war in Iraq, including U.S. Servicewomen, peace activists, blue star mothers and Iraqi women, explores women’s history in the making. One audience member commented that, "Seeing the war from so many sides, through one woman, brought home the interconnectedness of all of humanity."
Coming Soon! The Triangle Project (working title), based on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, the women’s lives that were lost and the labor rights movement of that time period that was further galvanized by this tragedy. Available for touring by late Spring 2009.
Q&A discussion following all performances.
A wide variety of artist residencies are available with our performers, who have over 30 years combined experience doing educational and community outreach with ages 3-93.
Availability: National
Anne Pasquale
Living History
120 Cabrini Blvd, New York, NY 10033
Phone: 212-740-6201
Website: www.livinghistoryprograms.com
Email: apasqnyc@aol.com
Performance description: Anne Pasquale's Living History Programs. Offers participational Women's History Programs for audiences of all ages. This year's show roster includes:
The Legendary Lady of The Overland, Calamity Jane
America's First Female Reporter, Nellie Bly
The Revolutionary, Deborah Sampson
Helen and Me, the Story of Annie Sullivan Macy and Helen Keller
Liberty Belles, Stories and Songs of Immigration
A free 45 minute walk-about is offered with every assembly. Or with any of our shows you can follow up with a 5-day residency ending in a final primary source presentation created and performed by all participants.
Live music, join-in re-enactments and historical fun, highlight every presentation.
The performers are body-miked and can accommodate audiences up to 500 in number.
Fees prior to travel are: $500.00 for a single program and $700.00 for two performances back to back.
Availability: National
Miriam Reed
One-Woman POWEFUL Women Productions
1320 Prospect Street
Ashland, Oregon 97520
Phone: 917 710-2354
Website: www.miriamreed.com
Email: miriam@miriamreed.com
Performance Description: Miriam Reed's dramatic performances have as
their text the letters and writings of the women she portrays, and in this way
she captures the very essence of these powerful women. Performances are for
eighth grade and above.
"Margaret Sanger: Radiant Rebel" comprises two acts, "1940" and "1916,"
and is a forty- or a ninety-minute show.
"Mrs. Stanton & Susan" is the story of the friendship between Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and is a ninety-minute or two forty-minute
shows.
"Louisa May Alcottt: Living Little Women" explores the life of the
author of "Little Women" and is a forty-minute performance.
Fees start at $500 plus expenses but can be negotiated if additional
performances are given in the area.
Availability: National
Lynn Ruehlmann
621 New Hampshire Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia 23508
Phone:757-625-6742
Website: http://www.cascadingstories.com
Email: lynn@cascadingstories.com
Performance Description: Taking on different entertaining, energetic characters in telling each story, Lynn transports listeners back in history. "Spy! The Story of Civil War Spy Elizabeth Van Lew" is about a Virginian who spied for the Union. "Steadfast and Spirited: Stories of the American Revolution" reenacts Deborah Sampson (a female Patriot soldier in the war), Peggy Shippen Arnold (Benedict Arnold's Loyalist wife), and Phillis Wheatley (slave turned published poetess). Why is Virginia known as The Mother of Presidents? "It Happened in the White House" covers much of the history of America through human interest stories of the eight presidents who came from Virginia (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, Wilson) and the wives who shared and influenced their political and private lives. Lynn's recordings of "Spy!" and "It Happened in the White House" both won national awards.
Availability: National
Ellen Emory Snortland
2450 N. Lake Ave. #112, Altadena, CA 91001
Phone: 626-798-8421
Email: Ellensnortland@mac.com
Website: www.snortland.com
Website: www.beautybitesbeast.org
Performance Description: "Now That She's Gone"
Gloria Steinem says, “Ellen says I’m the “grandmother” of this play, but I’m not crazy enough to think that it was my planting of a seed when in fact it is her enormous talent… She has a gift for being serious and funny, making you laugh and understand at the same time. The first time I saw it, I brought two friends who were visiting New York City from Kenya — a mother and a daughter — to see it, and they loved it too; it’s universal.”
"Now That She's Gone" is a one woman play (performed either as a staged reading or theater production) that explores Ellen Snortland's often wacky, irreverent and sometimes torturous relationship with her Norwegian-American mother. "Now That She's Gone" has been described as a Lily Tomlin / Garrison Keillor / Eve Ensler hybrid… passionate, poignant and funny in turns. A memoir piece with the woman's movement, Eleanor Roosevelt, sex, drugs and lutefisk, the play and performance have received rave reviews and standing ovations in California, New York, and Washington, D.C. Snortland’s singing voice is amazing too.
Availability: National and International
Ann Timmons
4638 South 34th Street, Arlington, VA 22206-1702
Phone: 703-244-7546
Website: www.anntimmons.com
Email: offthewall@anntimmons.com
Performance Description: Off the Wall: The Life and Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Witty and articulate, Gilman crusades daringly for women's rights and social justice at the dawn of the 20th Century. This dramatic one-act reveals an intimate glimpse of the ongoing internal battle between her private demons and public work. Truly a woman with a mission, she strives to make her message heard through poetry, social commentary (Women and Economics) and whimsical as well as dramatic fiction (The Yellow Wallpaper). Gilman's message is relevant to anyone who feels beleaguered by a society that insists on "instant winners," and is sure to generate thoughtful dialogue.
Availability: National
Nan Weber
467 South Post Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84104-1229
Phone: 801-596-1884
Website: www.nanweber.com
Email: nanner333@aol.com
Performance Description: Women’s Words and Women’s Voices Mattie: why is she buried in Yellowstone? Liberty: a salute to women’s Western experience, including Native American, emigrant, homesteader. Rosa Bonheur, animal and American Western landscapes painter.
Availability: National