The Suffrage in Black and White Series
Partner: The National Parks of Boston
Sites: Faneuil Hall, Massachusetts Senate Chamber, King’s Chapel Parish House
Dates:
A Light Under the Dome was performed August 12-15, at the Massachusetts State House in 2024.
A New Era scheduled for August 2025 – Indefinitely postponed.
Nothing But Victory! scheduled for 2026 – Indefinitely postponed.
Suffrage in Black and White is a series of three plays centered in historic spaces that explore the intersection of race and citizenship throughout the abolition and suffrage movements in Boston. This project has been a multi-year collaboration between National Parks of Boston and Plays in Place. The Lyric Stage Company of Boston is an additional partner.
Through an iterative process, NPS public historians and local artists shared their skills and expertise to activate historical spaces through creative storytelling, bringing to life the stories of Boston and Boston women.
A Light Under the Dome
Site: Staged in the Massachusetts State Senate Chamber, under the dome where Angelina gave her original speech. Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02133.
Dates: August 12-15, 2024
By Patrick Gabridge
Directed by Courtney O’Connor
At the Massachusetts State House, on February 21, 1838, exiled Southerner Angelina Grimke becomes the first American woman to address a legislative body. Her powerful speech about abolition also firmly asserts the full citizenship of American women.
In the play, four other women abolitionists–Maria Weston Chapman, Lydia Maria Child, Susan Paul, and Julia Williams–are all there to support and guide her through this pressure-packed moment, and they have their own moments of intense struggle to share.
A Light Under the Dome premiere 2024
Stage Management by Adele Traub
Assistant Stage Manager Emma J. Hunt
Producers: Jazzmin Bonner, Patrick Gabridge, Jess Meyer, Katherine Shaver
Costume Design by Amanda Mujica
Cast:
Angelina Grimke – Amanda Collins
Maria Weston Chapman – Marge Dunn
Susan Paul – Thomika Bridwell
Julia Williams – Regine Vital
Lydia Maria Child – Bridgette Hayes
Production:
Assistant Costumer/Stitcher – Coriana Hunt Swartz
Wardrobe Supervisor – Rebecca Shannon Butler
Hair/Makeup Supervisor – Liv Curnen
Sound Designer – Andrew Duncan Will
Sound Engineer – Sarah Miller
Assistants to Director and Producers – Rebekah Brunson, Claire Gardner
Publicist – Danielle Morales
Front of House Manager – Lindsey Weaver
A New Era
Site: King’s Chapel Parish House on Beacon Hill, Boston MA.
By Miranda ADEkoje
Directed by Summer L. Williams
Seven phenomenal women convene in the drawing room of Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin – a black suffragist and leader of the Boston-based Women’s Era club- on the last day of the First National Conference of Colored Women to strategize the role black women will play in the fight for their rights. As they strive to organize nationally, their personal convictions and post-Reconstruction terrors threaten their unity.
Nothing But Victory!
Nothing But Victory!
Site: This play was workshopped at Faneuil Hall – 1 Faneuil Hall Square, Boston, MA 02109, where the historic rally took place.
By Ginger Lazarus
Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
In 1915, Massachusetts suffragists gather at Faneuil Hall to rally after the devastating defeat of a proposed state amendment to give women the vote. Some, like Alice Stone Blackwell, are determined to put a positive spin on the loss and go forward as they have been going. Others, like Maud Wood Park, sense changes in the air and the need for a new strategy. Who will prevail?
Scheduled performances in partnership with the Boston NPS were indefinitely postponed due to Federal budget and staffing cuts and uncertainties.