The League of Women Voters (LWV) was founded in 1920 to help women carry out their responsibilities as voters as they were about to head to the polls for the very first time. Now, 100 years after the ratification of the 19th amendment, it continues to encourage informed and active participation in the government, influence public policy through education, and inspire the next generation of women leaders and voting rights activists. It also maintains the website http://vote411.org, the one-stop shop for all the election information that you need, where you can register to vote, see a sample ballot, find your polling place, and more. You can find information about and contact their Charleston branch at their website, https://my.lwv.org/south-carolina/charleston-area.

Here are some short clips from the vocal warmups from last night’s rehearsal, led by our very own Stuart Dowell. Our actors use these to make sure that their dialogue can be heard (pro tip: any aspiring actors can do these as well). YEE!

Our actors have been working hard to get this play ready to go. Here are some bits from our rehearsal tonight (spoiler-free, of course!), including stretches and shoe fittings.

The play’s author, Cicely Hamilton, wrote the words to Ethel Smyth’s “March of the Women,” which Smyth dedicated to the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) of the UK. It soon became not just their official anthem, but also one of the women’s suffrage campaign in the UK and beyond. Suffragettes and their allies sang it at rallies and in prison while participating in hunger strikes. The January 1911 edition of the WSPU’s newspaper, Votes for Women, declared it “at once a hymn and a call to battle.” “Raise your eyes to a wider morrow” indeed!

Sources:

Bennett, Jory (1987). Crichton, Ronald (ed.). The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth: Abridged and Introduced by Ronald Crichton, with a list of works by Jory Bennett. Harmondsworth: Viking. ISBN 0-670-80655-2.

Crawford, Elizabeth (2001). The Women’s Suffrage Movement: a Reference Guide, 1866–1928. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-23926-5.

La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, has had connotations of revolution and progress around the world. With its lyrics calling to avenge tyranny, it’s made for a fitting theme song for dozens of political movements throughout history. One of them, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) of the UK, adopted it in the early 20th century as the “Women’s Marseillaise” with new lyrics to rally women around the cause of suffrage. You can hear some of the women in How the Vote Was Won sing this tune as they prepare to fight for their cause.

The original lyrics in French and English:

Lyrics to The Women’s Marseillaise (with other suffrage tunes):

You can hear the melody in the video below. It features the Paris Commune Anthem, which has different lyrics that also fit with the progressive theme. The folk feel, as I (the dramaturg) have felt, might make it more suitable for a women’s anthem rather than a national one.

It’s London, it’s 1918, there’s a dangerous flu going around, and the country is emerging from a long, difficult war. It’s the perfect time for women to agitate for the vote! What happens when women come up with a big, ridiculous idea to convince the men in charge that it’s time to open up the government to the voices of women? Weirdly, hilarity ensues.

Join us for this one-act farce celebrating women’s voting rights. Watch the Department of Theatre and Dance enter the brave, new world of performing during a pandemic. New technology! Socially distanced acting! Join us for this hysterical experiment.

Streaming live October 1^st and 2^nd. Details of ticket-buying and viewing to come.