Women's History Shows

The following shows highlight women, their history, their work and their accomplishments and are appropriate for March, women's history month.

Just a few of the women portrayed in this show:

  • A Massachusetts housewife who led an all female militia in search of British spies.
  • A German Baroness who followed her Hessian General husband into the British camps
  • A Georgian farmer's wife who took on a search party of Red Coats, all by herself!
  • And OTHERS!

60 Minutes with Q & A afterwards.

Appropriate for ages 10 & up

 

Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar

Born Salamah bint Said, Princess of Zanzibar, in 1844, Emily Reute grew up in a harem with scores of siblings. The royal family maintained it's fabulous wealth and luxury with a robust traffic in ivory, spices and human bondage. The Princess would venture beyond the palace, into the city and plantations where European traders, missionaries, and colonists exercised a growing influence.  There she met Rudolph Reute, a German trader,with whom she eloped to Germany. The Princess also converted to Christianity and took the name Emily.

 

While living in Germany, she attained the perspective to form a comparison of the lives of women in Muslim society with those of their European contemporaries. Originally published in 1886, Waterfall Productions, has adapted this remarkable autobiography for a theatrical presentation, where the audience will meet Princess Salamah and learn about her life in both Zanzibar and Germany as a royal, daughter, outcast,  wife, widow and mother. 

                                     65 minutes with talk-back afterwards. Ages 12 & up 


"Many thanks for bringing the Arabian princess to our stage...it's a wonderful piece in addition to being so very timely. We were transported into a world of wonders and stirring human drama."   

 

-Marc Clopton, Artistic Director Actors Studio of Newburyport MA


1908 Tea

In 1908, the world was on the cusp of change. The traditions of the Victorians were giving way to a more modern way of thinking and living. Mrs. Gordon,  a woman having lived in both the 19th and 20th century, has a lot to say about all these new changes. Her stories will highlight  technology, sports, fashion, beauty and more. 

 

 


"(Rita) Parisi, a charming and animated storyteller, skillfully drew her audience back in time and led her guests in a lively conversation, encouraging questions and comments...an entertaining afternoon with glimpses in the lives of our grandmothers."  

-Pelham-Windham NH News


Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is often known as the crazy wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby. She was the glittering half of the Golden Couple of the 1920's and muse and inspiration for the flapper characters in Fitzgerald's Jazz Age stories.  But before she met Scott, she was the flamboyant and outrageous Zelda Sayre, the famous belle from Montgomery Alabama and the daughter of a judge and an artistic mother. Her antics before and after marriage became the stuff of legends.  Though a legend in her own time, Zelda was much more than a southern belle, a glittering jewel on Fitzgerald's arm, Roaring 20's icon or an American expatriate wife in Paris.  This original play, will pay tribute to an often misunderstood woman; a women who battled schizophrenia for much of her life; a woman who was also a mother, an accomplished ballet dancer, an exhibited artist and a published writer . *Appropriate for mature teens and up. 

 

65 minute with 10 minute talk-back

with set and printed show program.


"Thank you for kicking off the fall programming season with such a marvelous production. I echo the audience's reaction: from the scenery to the professional level of the performance, we truly enjoyed a spectacular show here at Fort Lee. Your mastery of the character as well as the fabulous costume and set design was well appreciated by our patrons who are limited in their travel to New York!"

 

-Olga Kuharets 

Program Coordinator, Fort Lee Public Library, NJ