Performance
Plays for Women!
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
In honor of Women’s History Month, Ghostlight Ensemble returns to the Driehaus Museum to perform a series of short, largely forgotten plays written by women involved in the suffrage movement.
Something to Vote For by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A short play by the famed American feminist author that is largely forgotten. The story follows a women’s club meeting whose members must face real-world implications
and consequences when women are denied a voice in policy-making and government. The play touches on issues of feminism, as well as classism, capitalism, and consumerism that are still relevant today.
An Anti-Suffragist or the Other Side by H.M. Paull
A hilarious, absurd, satirical monologue from a privileged young lady who looks to be active in the antisuffrage movement. She attempts to persuade the audience to her side but in actuality, makes a deeply comical and revealing argument against herself.
The Mother’s Meeting by Mrs. Harlow Phibbs
Another comic monologue, but this one is delivered from a working-class character who pokes holes in the anti-suffrage arguments made by upper and middle-class women of privilege. The woman inadvertently attends an anti-suffrage meeting and recounts how she ultimately makes a resounding speech in favor of suffrage and women’s rights.
Lady Geraldine’s Speech by Beatrice Harraden
A comic short play about the troubles of Lady Geraldine, who agrees to give an anti-suffrage speech despite never having contemplated the issue seriously. She seeks out the help of her friend, and at the home of this friend, Lady Geraldine encounters women of multiple professions that she admires who convince her of the merits of the suffragist movement.
About the Performance:
Doors open at 6:15 pm. This event will be held in the Nickerson Ballroom, on the Museum’s Third Floor. The reading is expected to last 90 minutes, followed by a talkback, and there will be an intermission.
Due to ongoing renovations at the Murphy Auditorium, the Museum’s elevator is being upgraded. There is no elevator available to the Nickerson Ballroom.
About the Performers:
Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre Company is a Chicago-based 501c3 theatre company with a mission to ask questions that challenge the status quo through timeless stories, immersive environments and unconventional staging. Ghostlight Ensemble was founded in 2016 and has its own ensemble of artists, with a number of regular collaborators and partners throughout Chicago.
Visit www.ghostlightensemble.com for more information such as production history, ensemble bios, and more. After 2+ years with very limited live performance opportunities due to COVID, Ghostlight has been resuming occasional live performances within the last several months, with hopes to resume mainstage programming next season. Ghostlight Interim Co-Artistic Director Holly Robison will direct the reading. For Ghostlight, Holly has directed mainstage productions of An Ideal Husband and Picasso at the Lapin Agile, as well as directed a reading of Miss Elizabeth Bennet for the Jane Austen Society of North America’s Annual Meeting and Edith Wharton’s The Shadow of a Doubt at the Driehaus Museum.