Andre De Shields, Brenda Wehle and Richard Kind To Join For Cooper Union's Great Evenings in The Great Hall

Tony, Obie and Drama Desk award winner André De Shields (The Full Monty) and acclaimed Broadway actress Brenda Wehle (Pygmalion) have joined the cast of Women's Suffrage and Women's Rights, a presentation of Cooper Union's Great Evenings in The Great Hall. This dynamic production, replete with impassioned suffragettes, will celebrate history past and incorporate classic songs of the suffrage era, performed with a modern edge by television, film and Broadway character actor Richard Kind (Spin City, Curb Your Enthusiasm; The Producers) to inspire a rallying cry for the future.

Along with Wehle, performance artist Karen Finley (George and Martha) and NOW co-founder and ex-president Karen DeCrow will portray some of our nation's most ardent early feminists, including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull, and Emma Goldman. De Shields' portrayal of outspoken statesman and suffragist Frederick Douglass will add some male perspective to the proceedings. Director Lauren Keating (Al's Business Cards) will helm the evening.

This free performance will take place on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 6:30 PM in The Great Hall of The Cooper Union, 7 East 7 Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues, NYC 10003.

For more information, visit http://www.cooper.edu, call 212.353.4195 or email events@cooper.edu. Follow Cooper Union on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cooperunion.

The Cooper Union, founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper, an inventor, industrialist and philanthropist, has provided every student admitted with a full tuition scholarship since its inception. To mark its 150th anniversary, The Cooper Union is presenting a series of performances celebrating the historic role Cooper Union's Great Hall played in movements that have furthered the rights of all Americans and contributed to the advancement of science and art.