 Good evening everyone. Welcome to the William G. McGowan Theater here at the National Archives. My name is Karim Porter. I'm the curator for our special exhibition, Rightfully Hers, American Women and the Vote. I'm very pleased you could join us for tonight's program whether you are here in the theater or joining us via Facebook or YouTube. Tonight we present a very special performance of 19 the Musical which is part of a series of events related to the Rightfully Hers exhibition. Our partner for this evening's program is the 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative and we thank them for their support. Before we get started I'd like to let you know about two upcoming programs. Next Wednesday September 25th at 7 p.m. we will show the feature documentary film, A Towering Task, the story of the Peace Corps. It will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director and screenwriter. On Thursday October 17th at 7 p.m. a panel discussion will explore the topic women suffragists and the men who supported them, the suffragettes, their role in the struggle for the vote. Check our website archives.gov or sign up at the table outside of the theater for email updates. You'll also find information about other National Archives programs and activities. Another way to get more involved with the National Archives is to become a member of the National Archives Foundation. The foundation supports the work of the agency especially its education and outreach programs. Check out their website archivesfoundation.org to learn more and to join online. Rightfully hers which is on view upstairs in the Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery commemorates the centennial of the 19th amendment and tells the story of women's struggle for voting rights as a critical step towards equal citizenship. The exhibit explores how American women across the spectrum of race, ethnicity and class advanced the cause of suffrage and follows the struggle for voting rights beyond 1920. The decades-long fight for the vote in the 19th and early 20th centuries engaged large numbers of women in the political process and a critical part of that campaign was getting their message out to the nation and shifting public opinion to support their cause. One way of spreading that message to a wide audience was through music. Tonight the power of music is again employed in the cause of voting rights. Through music and dance 19 the musical brings to life the inspirational stories of the suffragists who defied the odds and fought for women's right to vote. After the show you'll have the opportunity to talk to the cast but for now please enjoy 19 the musical. Thank you so much for joining us. We are currently workshopping in original production and we've invited you to get a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of a musical in development. Tonight we'll be sharing selected songs from 19 the musical. 19 is a dynamic The year is 1920. We open in a grand banquet hall in Washington DC. Lucy Burns, Carrie Chapman Katz, Ida B. Wells and Christabel Pankhurst are celebrating the ratification of the 19th amendment. These are the opening scenes from the original musical 19. This is 19 and easy. Convention on Seneca Falls, New York way back in 1848. Sir and leader of this movement Susan B. Anthony did not live to see this day. But we will raise a glass to Aunt Susan to the amendment that bears her name and to all of you. We couldn't have done it without you. Hear, hear. Hear, hear. Ladies and gentlemen, history. Things will be different from now on. From here on out it shall all be so so so so easy. Was that the word you were meaning to utter? That it would all be so easy? You got caught in a stutter? Easy if that's the case. I've got some news for you. It will never, ever, ever, ever be easy. Ladies, a little decorum, please. As I was saying, it will never be easy. Surprise to know, I do concur. Alice Hall, in fact, all to this party environment. If you were such a grass entitlement, but all you a key. Your name is still buried in history. Thanks for improvement a moment in time. Where she meets Lucy Burns, a suffragist who will become a close friend and ally in the fight to get women to vote. This is Partners in Crime. Read about the suffragettes. Read about our fight for rights. Read about the suffragettes. Read about our fight for rights. This is going to be great, right? Fighting for equal rights. Fighting for liberty. You look shocked, you are Alice Hall, right? Yes, yes, yes, I am from New Jersey. That's my dream. The shade embrace might in a fight and take us working to get old and carry Chapman Kat in a scene about racism and suffrage. This is, will you be here for me and put yourself in my shoes? Amongst themselves, what on earth do they do? These different factions together with all their various agendas. The white southern ladies have threatened to boycott the march, en masse, but we need them. We need their numbers and we need their support. So the Negroes will march in the rear and Ida can walk with the contingent from Howard University. But the plight of the Negro, weren't your family's strong abolitionists? Yes, they were and I fully support the Negro fight for justice. But, but race, race is not on the ballot. We must stay- Women are on the ballot. All women are on the ballot. All women, Negroes included, will get the vote together. But this is a single issue march. We can't be divided now. But you're the one who's dividing up. What I'm doing is working, working towards the vote. What you're doing is being bullish, just like the men who are keeping us down. No, I'm not. I'm being tacked. We are so close for the first time. I fear that, don't you, we're making strides. Women were so close to the win. Listen, ladies, God. Resistance from men. Internal issues within the movement that were, is the bloody march. Confront any attack. Leave your hand like a patent queen. Right. But wait. That's more to this tale of glory. Our dear Ida Wells, who said she wouldn't attend. Well, what? She changed her mind, my friend. And where do you think Ms. Wells, then, marked? Everyone together. Black and white. No segregation. Right. Right where she belonged. Amid the vast and very strong. The parade got started with chants, then cheers, then words got round to the pub. The element that Alice needed, yet feared, stormed the streets like unruly thugs. We know there's a system of hatred woven in the fabric of this great nation. Hatred, the key, let us be who we should become. But now, ladies, we will get justice. Once we have the vote in front of us, we will put all politicians on notice. Those who so reinforce and tolerate this smothering blanket of blind hate, no matter the party, no matter the price, will meet an unforgiving fate of the White House and declare that they will now become silent sentinels. Although they protest in silence carrying signs and banners, their strong stoic and immovable presence gives them a voice that President Wilson must eventually listen to. This is silence. Without extinction is liberty. Without retrograde is equality. They live in the feelings of young men, and the very best of women ting. I give this not quite the word, but silence is a sound unto itself. Not for nothing have the indomitable heads of the earth been always ready to fall for liberty. When injustice becomes the law, it comes duty. This is our resistance, and it's, and it's more effective than not here to rattle the foundation. We'll be met with silence. We'll make a raucous declaration. We're challenging our nation. I'd much prefer than breaking laws and violence. It freaks me out when they refuse to speak. For too long, for way too long, we women have depended, Mr. President. We desire to make known to you the intolerability of this current milieu. The sense of wrong inflicted, these women's rights restricted. They abandoned their health and strength, keeping their fuller expression at arm and in their dreams. All in the name of freedom. Under a government that professes democracy, you, sir, have made. You treat our plea to be free. Cold is not untenable situations. Here we have Ida B. Wells illuminating the many challenges and obstacles to stay for suffrage as it became more militant and willing to provoke a response from the authorities. And those authorities were extremely unforgiving to women of color. This is damned if I do. Someone must show how the African-American race is more sinned against than sinning. And it seems it has fallen upon me to do so. The woman who broke the law and passed the 19th Amendment. For it to become law, 36 states had to vote yes to ratify it. Ratification came down to one state, Tennessee, and one man, Harry Byrne. When Harry was going to vote at the state legislature on August 18, 1920, he was wearing a red rose which signified that he was anti-suffrage. However, Harry's mother was urging him to change his vote and vote for suffrage at the last minute. This is Harry Listen to Your Mother. Harry listen to your mother. I always listen when you speak. Be the boy who has his brothers. I'm a man now can't you see. You can give women the vote. Oh Harry don't oppose it. We're so close. Then mother you must realize that I cannot turn. Oh no my brothers in the congress they are suffrage Harry. Don't leave them waiting. I've noticed some votes against. There are very good arguments against women's suffrage mother. Women shouldn't have to concern themselves with something so so taxing as the voting booth. No woman is concerned with being taxed my dear son. These men are bitter and I've been waiting to see where you've stood and have noticed nothing yet. I'm still deciding to get the word. Good boy and help Mrs. Cat with the rat irratification of. Harry why should I cause you will never have another. It's guilty such a killer is always safest for her. And my mother wanted me to vote for ratification. Never stop and look at Carrie. She's just now hitting her stride and she'll soon liberation of women's suffrage. We are so honored and humbled to be here. I'd also like to introduce the folks behind everything. We have our directors producers writers and Jennifer Schwed and our composer Charlie Barnett. Normally following a workshop we will offer a Q&A with the audience and tonight we are very honored to have a special guest moderator. I would like to introduce Caitlyn Caligera from a tour of her own. So this is a local tour guide company that offers women's history walking tours around Washington DC focusing on emphasizing and bringing to light women's stories throughout the city of American history and culture. So we are very honored to have her here tonight. All right hi everybody thank you for coming tonight. Again my name is Caitlyn. It's an honor to be here in support of 19 the musical and also in support of these fabulous performers. Let's give them one more round of applause. Just one more quick introduction before we get into the Q&A portion. On my left here is Jen and then we have Charlie and at the end there is Doug. Now there will be a opportunity for you to ask questions as well at the end of this little session here. So if you are interested in doing that please line up on either side of the steps and there are microphones for you. All right so this was I think my third time seeing this now and I absolutely love the work that you are doing right here. It's so important it's so timely and it's a very complex story that I think you really bring to life tell it well and I always leave sort of catchy and dancing to all the songs so well done. But we'd like to get to know more. This was just a sample of the full production but we wanted to give you a little flavor so let's dive a little bit deeper. Our first question is can you tell us about the history of the show and what was your motivation for creating it? Sure so we've been doing this for a couple of years now and I answer this question a lot so everyone here is very used to my response. This all started about three years ago and it was three things behind the inspiration. One was the musical Hamilton. One was the election of our first female president and the other was the centennial coming up in 2020. Yeah not everything came through the way we thought it would but we still decided let's try and do a musical and Doug and I have been in theater and film for a while. We've never done a musical before but I thought you know if Lin-Manuel can do it why can't we? So we sawed out a composer. We found the wonderful Charlie Barnett and that was really the start of it. And you have to tell the story of how we found our art composer. So I was seeking it's a production about women and I was looking for a female composer so I sent out a request to a group of women in film and video that I belong to and I said I'm seeking a female composer for a story about the 19th amendment in Suffrage. First female I get is from this person right here who says I think I'm your guy and I couldn't resist. No he's he's clearly amazingly talented so he became our man. Great let's let's roll that a little bit Charlie. Can you tell us about the process of the lyrics and the music? It's a it's it's great. The process the process it's been going on for two years. We probably thought it would be smoother and oh I'm sorry. I remember this now so talking to the microphone. And it goes it goes back and forth. Sometimes I get complete lyrics set this you know set these lyrics to music. Sometimes I get just a story idea and set this to music and hash out the story and we'll and we'll fight about lyrics later. And and sometimes I mean it's happened that I just there's one song that I can think of I think it's I'm prim. Is that I just thought oh Carrie Chapman cat has to have the song called I'm prim so what. And so I just wrote I'm prim without having any place in the in the script for that song. And then Jen and Doug kindly wrote the place for the song so it existed. So that was completely backwards from any of the others. Maybe we've done a couple like that. And I want to add once we started writing with Charlie he very graciously handed us a thesaurus to let us know about our rhyme schemes and word choices. I still have that thesaurus. Thank you. But anyway it's been a great process. And I you know and I and I think together it has it has been at least I can only speak for myself but it's been a richer process for the for the squabbles that go into it. It really has. I mean I you know there are there are so many times when I have no interest in the actual history of it. I'm just interested in the actual rhyme of it. And Doug will come down hard on the history part and just say that didn't happen like that. But it rhymes. And so that's our process. And that and and throughout that we've we've managed to come up with 41 songs. I know I know. So when you come to the show in November you're you're in for a big show. It's it's it's it's gigantic. That's right. And there's 10 that don't exist in the show anymore. So you just mentioned November. So as I mentioned this is just a sampling of the full production. Did we want to tell the audience when and where they can expect you next. Meet you. November. November 25th 26th and 27th at the National Museum for Women in the Arts and will be in the theater there. This is new information and I'm really delighted about that. It's it's not a huge it's probably this size actually. And so I think it's going to be a really good experience to put on the full show. Same costumes. These are great. Mark your calendars. It's not that far away and we look forward to it. And let's move on and talk about the choreography and the movements of the show. Can somebody elaborate on that for the audience? The choreography. Sure. Okay. So I'm my name is Angela. My name is Danielle. That's Danielle. And we've been choreographing for I guess about a year now. We've been involved in the show from the start. We started as dancers and then we sort of moved into taking over the choreography piece. That has also evolved a lot in the past two years. In the beginning it was more you know sort of arbitrary where the movement was. Now I think it's become a lot more central in the overall theme. A lot of this story is very physical. There's a lot of physical things that happen to these women that they go through and movement is really a very powerful way to you know show that and to feel that. So we have some stylized movement that goes into things like imprisonment, beatings, tortures, etc. as well as you know the march. There's a lot of you know fun numbers as well. But the choreography is definitely a big element. Yeah so a little bit about our process. We kind of work with Doug and Jen about what the vision is and we talk amongst ourselves just about what we want each kind of piece to look like or to what kind of emotion we want to evoke. And then we kind of like think of kind of stylistically what kind of movement styles can really evoke that and then kind of put steps around that. So it really comes from the kind of style and emotion that we want to portray and then we kind of argue amongst ourselves as well. Yes, it's quite a bit of that. You think your process is, yeah. It's a contentious show. It mirrors, it mirrors, yeah. And I would also say it's richer for the collaboration. We often you know both of us work very much you know from a process perspective we work very similarly so that works well. But we don't always obviously agree on maybe the stylistic representation of the theme of that. Like we always pick a theme for each song. We pick an emotion as she mentioned. We pick some sort of an inspiration and then we try to have that choreography. Like whether it's very staccato movements or very flowy movements or you know stylized versus lyrical or you know things like that. So I'm going to ask one more question and then we'll follow up and open it to the audience. So again if you do have a question of mine you can just line up at one of the microphones on either side and we'll get to you. But my last question for Jen and Doug is can you tell us about the historical side? As you mentioned earlier it of course has to be historically accurate. So what was that process like as far as the research and the background? Doug's a really good researcher so. Well what we did we started by reading everything we could. And we originally thought it was actually really funny. We spoke with different historians. We spoke with experts and academics. And one of the academics that we spoke with was saying that we should do. We should combine characters. We should make composite characters because the story was so big. And we of course were like we're absolutely not going to do that. We were going to everything is going to be historically correct. And we started reading it and like we pretty quickly figured out that the story is so massive and sprawling. And there's so many people who are involved in it that we joke that if we had stuck with it the script would have been 10,000 pages long. So we ended up having to make a lot of composite characters and composite scenes because this isn't a documentary it's a musical. But yeah that's kind of it. Everything starts with research. Okay let's open it up. Does anybody have some questions for anyone? Directors, writers, any of the cast members? Rave. Just perhaps because of the pieces that you selected and the way you presented them it felt a little Brechtian. So is it that way or is it just because of the selections and how they were presented? I'm trying to understand it as a musical having just seen little bits of it. Thank you. Brechtian. I love that so much. The show runs about two hours and it follows Alice from being a kind of a girl with her parents a little bit and then we go we bring her through college and where she matures and comes into her into her own when she goes to England and then that's where she meets the the Pankhursts and they are the suffragettes in England and they alter her life course and she experiences torture and brutality in England and comes back to America and brings that militant suffragette attitude to this country and we follow the story up through the vote through getting the vote in Tennessee. Yeah so the the selections tonight were they're really just made on a basis of pulling a sampling from both acts we just pull them out and perform them and we we try to have a sort of a feel to it something that has an opening and a closing we do start with the opening 19 and easy is the opening of the show so we just try to give you a taste of it. So not Brechtian I I mean really wouldn't that be that's that's such a such a specific theatrical term and I and I wish I could say yes it's going to be that but no it's it's much more linear than that and much more story oriented and it doesn't have any of the leaps that you could take if you were bear told Brecht. Okay let's go right up here for the next question. Thank you for putting Ida B Wells story in there I think that's a really important part of the movement not a pretty part but an important part and Lin-Manuel Miranda had Ron Chernau's biography on Hamilton you've got multiple characters so could you recommend like the top three biographies that you referred to we know that Lynn came to Anderson House here in DC and did research is there someplace we should be running to so that we can educate ourselves and be more prepared and more informed. Good question so top biographies are books to read. Elaine Weiss's book a Woman's Hour is excellent had me on the edge of my seat Mary Walton wrote a great biography about Alice Paul also what sorry Woman's Crusade. Woman's Crusade thank you. Also we are very honored here in DC to have the Belmont Paul house which is yeah it's entirely free you should go it's where they worked after the amendment was passed but it's just it steps away from the capital so I highly recommend going to that were you gonna say the loose okay yeah and also if you go online the Library of Congress has some very unique digitized documents including Kerry Chapman Katz journal also you can find a audio recording of Alice Paul she was interviewed later in her life she was she was like 70 towards the end of the ERA and so you can listen to that which is really exciting. Yeah just a little plug for Lucy Burns down about what 15 miles from here I think is Loran the Loran Workhouse which is where a lot of the women specifically Lucy was imprisoned force-fed tortured etc for a period of like 72 hours or more um so they have a museum there open now called the Lucy Burns Museum that you can go into and go into the jail uh the jail cells and learn a lot about the women there so that's incredibly interesting it's now an art center but they do still honor the suffrage movement with a small museum um and the gift shop here at the archives has a ton of books in it so they didn't tell me to say that but there's also a book by Zahnheiser and Fry called Claiming Power which is fantastic and if you go upstairs in the archives there is a really great exhibit going on Doug say what you just said again oh that book by Zahnheiser and Fry it's called Claiming Power yeah so um the exhibit Doug was just talking about was rightfully hers open here at the National Archives and then um there are several other exhibits around the city that will be open through 2020 uh in celebration of the centennial so certainly the references are nearby and there's opportunity to learn more and we have a question right up here go ahead I am a music and social studies teacher for the Department of Defense and so I teach the children of our nation's military that's stationed overseas and I'm always looking for new things to bring to my students that are uniquely American and this musical is that right you know I'm and it's so exciting and so I have um a question wondering if any of the music is available for educational purposes um and also Miss Scarlett your voice is amazing no she wants to know you want to know if the music is available to for them to get to sing yes yes to teach to teach Department of Defense kids the little ones the shirt tail youngins peeking in the pool hall window after tonight I know those kids um uh you know it's not available uh in in any form that I can that I can think of I think the the ultimate one of the ultimate goals for this show I think I could safely say is I think it would be a great show for high schools oh yeah I can I can so see that you know somewhere in the future and so as soon as they can do it you can do it okay is that fair I'm going to keep oh we do have we do have recordings um there's a there are recordings available so 95 or six songs are up there but we do have professionally recorded songs so Spotify and SoundCloud you can find some of the music so we won't tell anybody if you teach the kids I'm going to be stalking you waiting for that music just saying thank you thank you that was a great question and uh thank you for your work teachers are certainly uh important and the ones who are going to pass this pass this message on to the next generation um okay we have somebody in a national women's party sash right on go right ahead so first of all I should probably lead with I really enjoy this show sorry I'm sick so it sounds like we're drowning cheese greatest at the moment uh so I wanted to ask what do you want like young kids and like what young people and boys and girls to like get out of watching the show and and stuff great question honestly a lot of emotion a lot of feeling was really pretty and I really liked it and like I understood everything so yeah what can I um I I just want to say that I'd like them to be aware that it happened because when I was a student I had no idea in fact I had no idea until I started working on this musical um exactly what the women went through I thought Susan B. Anthony was there for the vote and she didn't as she wasn't there um so I want them to to know that it happened and know that they were young people that changed the movement Alice Paul was only 26 um you know it's uh that even if you're young you can still affect change and I think that's a very important message of this musical as well okay and I think too that it was hard it was really hard and the things that these women went through were were not easy things they weren't pretty things and that I hope um that uh the young people who see this and learn this story will realize how precious their ability to vote is so that when elections come around they they exercise that right to vote because it's because of these women that I can on election day take my latte and go into a voting booth and change you know hopefully affect change for the course of course of this nation in such an easy way and it's because of these women yes that was very moving so we have it looks like three more questions uh we will close it off after that I think and um let's come right over here go ahead well a bunch of us are uh Brenda Parker fans she played Susan B Anthony and I want to ask why you chose her as the representation of the foundation Susan B Anthony or Brenda Parker Susan B Anthony so the show because I can tell you the story about Brenda's good plan but Susan B Anthony initially when I came up with the idea of hey let's do a musical it was going to be about Susan B Anthony and as I started to uncover the the history and real I didn't know either that Susan B Anthony was not alive when the Susan B Anthony amendment was passed so I thought you know dig a little deeper learn a little more and and came up with all of these other people but Susan B Anthony why she's in here and why we specifically want the role to be played by a woman of color is that we feel that we have to center the story on the women who have had it the worst in this country this is this has to be the starting point in this story so we also felt like we had we couldn't tell the story without um honoring Susan B Anthony or you know and in an almost composite type way we know there are lots of women in the 1840s working on this but Susan B Anthony had the name recognition for us to do that to use her as that that central point thank you so I'm a big fan of Brenda Parker actually we all are because I've seen her in various centuries in different roles so I can you tell us a little bit about her role here oh you want me to talk about it oh wow I like hearing people talk about me um I was like yes do do talk about me um this was the strangest thing this beautiful creature right here sitting beside me um um dear friend of mine that we shared the stage one time and it wasn't really the stage we um did a benefit performance um for the anniversary of Little Theatre of Alexandria many moons ago and she had seen me perform at Little Theatre of Alexandria and we just kind of hit it off you know you ever meet people and you feel like you've met them before and you've known them for a long time Maria is one of those people and so she kept telling that you know Doug and Jen she was like I have Susan B I have Susan B I have Susan B and they called me up I think in the fall like the first time and yeah and I was like I'm sorry I'm not available right now I'm in the middle of such and such other production and I was like but you know still keep me you know on your your roster if you don't find anybody you know it's like I'd be really really interested in this and they told me initially right off the bat and was like we want to offer you the part of Susan B Anthony and I'm just like going you do have Brenda Parker right um so I was a little confused too because I hadn't seen Hamilton um yeah I'm that person I waited until I could afford it um and then didn't go see it in New York either but anyway and so a few months went by and I think they called me like around December like the end of the year maybe or January or something like that again I was tied up in another production I was not available and they had the most relaxed rehearsal schedule in the whole entire world it was like just coming on a Friday you know we're just kicking it for a little while you know we're still workshopping and workshopping and workshopping I had no idea what workshop meant um but basically the workshop is like you know you can have the the lyrics in front of you you can have a score right there in front of you because you know you're working out the bugs and I was still not available and then I think another month and a half or so went by and I said okay I think I'm finally available so it was like the third time they tried to contact me and I'm just like going I was like I'm thinking to myself that they should have like cast this already I was like what's the big deal um but apparently Maria she really felt strongly that I was going to be Suvi and and so did Jen when she you know because Jen says no we had you in mind all along and not to be offensive to anybody else that's held the role before I thank you for paving the way and breaking the eyes but um yeah I was like beyond flattered and then I had to go through my own set of research too so I have moments to where I'm double thinking you know what is Susan B actually thinking you know when she's saying x y and z and then Brenda as you know a person of color you know happy brown face Brenda I'm going hmm I don't know you know so so it's been a very interesting growth um um process I think all together but I am so happy to be able to um you know speak as we say you know for those people that are additionally marginalized in you know in the community in the battle for um voting rights and everything and the fact that I get to do it by such a well-known um voice you know I'm kind of giving voice to Susan B and hopefully she's very pleased that's about it thank you I want to set the record straight I did not do an all about Eve with our former Susan B anthony's they they all left us to do other shows or to move out of the area it was not because I was doing some crazy stuff all right moving on here we go uh another question up this way is that working up there hi I love the show by the way it was fabulous um I actually work at the Belmont Paul house I wore my jail door pen um so it was kind of like one of the tours that we give at the house but much more entertaining and um yeah you hit all the like you know crucial spots but one of the things that I wanted to ask and a lot of people are concerned what we like in a surprise that when we give tours of the house is they don't know that a lot of the opposition to the suffrage movement was actually not just men but women and so I wanted to know are there any musical numbers in the show that talk about the anti-suffs and their kind of relation to the movement those are actually on the cutting room floor we had in it we had a major scene about the anti-suffrage uh women which I was completely surprised by when we were researching and we had written it out and just for time we ended up having to make some really brutal cuts and that was one of the more painful ones because it was such a fascinating story thank you great question that's Ranger Lauren she gives my group's tours at Thelma Paul house and she rocks cheers to the park service but my question was inspired by the young lady in the sash um do you have any plans or might you consider reaching out to the board of the boards of elections in our area and inviting them specifically to the show and maybe also considering suggesting that they bring voter registration forms for anybody who might not be registered to vote we do now we did a show up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the League of Women Voters was there in force we're welcome voter registration forms all right so uh that brings us to the end of the show let's give our cast and everybody a big round of applause and remember come back out in November and see the full production and thank you for coming tonight