Women’s HERstory Month 2021 
Flo Asks After Ida B. Wells
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This is the fourth in a series of historical dramatizations penned by Adair Rowland, who has again invited characters from different times to compare notes from a contemporary perspective. Her past plays (Captains’ Wives and Daughters and The Seafaring Journey of Elizabeth Bray) were centered on the hidden women of local history, but African American women were barely credited within the movements they helped pioneer.
This year’s theme was inspired by the Iron Butterflies of the Women’s Suffrage movement, of which Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a celebrity held in high regard by Frederick Douglas and Susan B. Anthony. She not only brought a Chicago contingent of African American women to the Washington March before President Wilson’s 1913 Inauguration, but was out in front despite being told to keep to the back. Flo Kennedy (1916-2000) was integral to Second Wave Feminism in the 1970’s; her legal cases spanned Billie Holiday to Bobby Seale, Roe Vs. Wade to anti-Apartheid boycotts, and she famously mentored Gloria Steinem and Toni Morrison. Both Ida and Flo had key insights about the links between sexism and racism, and both were brilliant media strategists. How are social reformers made? These two women compare how the experience of love and loss forged a conviction in possibility, and how the experience of unity defuses oppression.
Scripted by Adair Rowland
Directed by John Budzyna
Musical Assistance by Michael Kimball
Featuring Arkida Saiwai (Lawrence, MA) and Tajoura (TJ) Davis (Manchester, NH)
Exit Dance Theatre – Catching Breath
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Exit Dance Theatre, founded in 1987 and based at The Dance Place in Newburyport, works collaboratively and often develops work through improvisational exploration. This show features choreography from filmed projects created during the COVID-19 shutdown as is evident by the masks and distancing. Some past work is featured as well. These expressive works reflect the close creative bond the company has developed over the years.
Exit Dance Theatre performers are: Susan Atwood, Fontaine Dollas Dubus, Darlene Doyle, Nicole Duquette, Julie Pike Edmond, Sarah George, Karl Granoth, Stephen Haley, Wendy Hamel, Patricia Piacentini, Teddy Speck, Erin Staffiere, Jen Steeves, Yori Thomas, Kayla Waldron
Sheryl Faye presents Susan B. Anthony – Failure is Impossible
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Susan B. Anthony was a women’s rights activist, and she devoted her life to racial, gender, and educational equality. She is one of the most famous women in American history, she played a prominent role in the women’s suffrage movement; the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote and she also was in support of women’s labor organizations and for a woman’s right to own property.
Sheryl Faye is a full-time actress, a goal she has worked her whole live to achieve. Besides performing a variety of historical women for schools, libraries, historical societies, senior centers, and others, she also writes and performs with StageCoach Improv. She has been the voice of several characters for Sony Play Station games and for a variety of medical CD ROMS. She recently shot a national print ad for Vicks cold/flu and continues to keep busy working on films, television and theater throughout Boston and New York.
Metamorphoses of Woman – Part One
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The Iron Butterfly! What a powerful image: the woman as fearless fighter for a cause; as defender of her rights–and everyone else’s; as protectress of the home and family from the scourges of vice, gambling and drunkenness; the conscience of society, demanding that power be tamed by justice, and the law be impartial and blind to every difference, including gender. But also ambition-driven competitor; independent striver for equality with her ex-Boss; inconveniently effective fact-finder; mistress of the last word…the list is endless. Come listen to poems focused on Herself, from every point of view and with more than one ax to grind!
And the Powow and Friends are as follows: Paulette Demers Turco, Chris Bryant, Rebecca Robertson, Priscilla Turner Spada, Sandra Thaxter, Rhina P. Espaillat, Mary Kuck, Joanne Hogan, Franny Osman, Peter Bryant, Maryann Frost Delaney, Anne Mulvey, Bobbi Flynn, Nancy B. Miller, Toni Treadway, Ann McCrea, Zara Raab
Metamorphoses of Woman – Part Two
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The Iron Butterfly! What a powerful image: the woman as fearless fighter for a cause; as defender of her rights–and everyone else’s; as protectress of the home and family from the scourges of vice, gambling and drunkenness; the conscience of society, demanding that power be tamed by justice, and the law be impartial and blind to every difference, including gender. But also ambition-driven competitor; independent striver for equality with her ex-Boss; inconveniently effective fact-finder; mistress of the last word…the list is endless. Come listen to poems focused on Herself, from every point of view and with more than one ax to grind!
The Chrysalides: Arkida Saiwai, Brooke Lawton, Sabrina Marte, Catherine Melnick, Ava Roy Arsenault, Jessie Rosenthal, Clodagh Bartholomew
Reclaiming Their Time –
Three Iron Butterflies of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries
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Defying the Odds; Anne Lister, Lesbian and Landowner in the 19thC by Deb Severo – Anne Lister (1791-1840) is best remembered as a diarist and lesbian lover who recorded all her experiences and fantasies about women in secret code. Anne was an extraordinary woman for her time and led a colorful life as a landowner, industrialist and adventurer. Tonight’s show captures the highlights of her journey to find love, as a lesbian, in the early 1800’s. (Performed by Shannon Muhs)
Deb Severo took her first acting class, Cold Reading, with the Actors Studio in 2016, and absolutely loved it! She “cut her teeth” with playwriting, character and scene development, with coaching from Marc Clopton, Anna Smulowitz, and Writers and Actors INC at the Studio, in her effort to bring her late partner’s musical, Conflict of Interest, to the stage, at the Firehouse Theater for the Arts, October 4-13, 2019. This is her first attempt writing a monologue.
“ I was so taken by the story of Anne Lister, who I feel was truly an Iron Butterfly; her strength, courage and perseverance in the face of adversity transformed her life, and all those who have followed her example to be authentic, and to love yourself for who you are. It’s been a privilege to write this piece about Anne Lister for HerStory, and I appreciate the opportunity.”
I Have Seen it So by Judith Strang-Waldau – Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) was a tireless advocate for the Native American people of upstate New York as well as the rights of women during the 19th century. An honored European -American member of the Wolf Clan, she observed the social and political equity given the Haudenosaunee women and passed the knowledge of these values and freedoms on to her suffrage sisters. (Performed by Kim Holliday)
Judith Strang-Waldau began writing in 2011 to create dialogue around social justice issues. Her full-length plays include Women of Ararat (surviving the Armenian Genocide), produced at the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Boston, and Wellesley College’s new play series in 2015. Her play Rockabye (redefining family in the 21st century) was produced at the MCA in 2017. The Stringed Muse and Olly Olly Oxen Free (reclaiming one’s treasures and identity post Holocaust), and Metronome (navigating the life of an autistic child) are her more recent plays. Judith’s numerous short plays have premiered at the Boston Playwrights Theatre, Firehouse Theatre, and The Actors Studio of Newburyport. She is the co-founder of Two Sharp Quills, a production company for New England playwrights who identify as women. Ms. Strang-Waldau was a marketing specialist for Olympia Dukakis’ former Whole Theatre in New Jersey, and Circle in the Square Theatre in New York.
Portrait of A Radical by Leslie Powell gives voice to, Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin born in 1863 Pembina, North Dakota of a Ojibwa/Chippewa mother and a French father. She was a prominent advocate on behalf of Native women and on Native Americans’ position in mainstream America. She worked for the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. and was the first indigenous woman graduate from the Washington School of Law in 1914. She became involved in the suffrage movement and the Society of American Indians and over time instead of assimilation, Marie emphasized the value of traditional Native cultures while asserting her own place in the modern world as an Indian woman. (Performed by Fontaine Dollas Dubus.)
Leslie Powell’s plays have been read and produced throughout the U.S. and in Toronto, Canada as a part of the InspiraTO Festival. You can see her most recent work, a Zoom Play Winner: from the Actors Lab of Santa New Mexico 2020, via the link on the title: “Take That Thing Off” . Before moving to Tucson, Arizona, Ms. Powell was a long-time resident of Newburyport, Massachusetts where she co-founded, with Hailey Klein, Writers & Actor, Ink and Random Acts, a play-in-a day festival. She also co-founded, with Marc Clopton and Ron Pullins, North Shore Readers Theatre Collaborative. Ms. Powell is proud to be a part of HerStory and deeply grateful to Sally Nutt, Fontaine Dubus, Josh Fagin and each member of the hard-working team to bring these important women to life.