REPRESENTATION AND HOW TO GET IT Comes to The Mount

Great Barrington Public Theater and The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox, MA, will bring to stage a cry for universal liberty and the power of the vote that remains as clear in 2023 as it was over a century and a half ago when Julia Ward Howe delivered it to the Boston Radical Club.  

She was a celebrated essayist, poet, lecturer, founder of Mother's Day as a universal call for peace, contemporary of Melville and Whitman, writer of Battle Hymn of The Republic, staunch suffragist, and visionary. Her words and questions speak directly to audiences today when they find her, in the middle of the night, rehearsing a speech she is about to deliver to the Boston Radical Club on the need for representation for all if American democracy is to survive.

Representation and How to Get It creators, playwright Joyce Van Dyke, director Judy Braha and actor Elaine Vaan Hogue capture Howe’s incisive wisdom and insight into America’s crises in 2023.  Engaging her audience, she foresees the loss of our democracy if this remains a nation reserved for some but not all. The stage artists challenge us all to become politically active citizens saying, “We want her words and this play to charge the audience with agency, hope, and a collective sense of the need to take action now.” The stakes are higher now than ever before, and what – Julia demands–can we do about it? Her rallying call remains clear. Each of us must actively resist, persist and insist on voting rights and universal freedom for all.

Each performance of Representation and How to Get It will be followed by a focused post-show conversation with company artists, civic leaders, activist trailblazers and representatives.

Fri., 8/25

Julia Ward Howe Leans In, 2023

A conversation with the playwright, director and actor about the genesis and creation of the play, and what makes artists want to take on civic-minded projects and activism in the arts. 

Sat., 8/26

It’s Your Community Calling

A conversation about the positive effect of activism and what brings leaders to follow paths to community service, with Ilana Steinhauer, Executive Director Volunteers in Medicine, Berkshires, and Kelly Galvin, Program Director, Community Access to the Arts. 

Sun., 8/27 

Women in Politics, Women in Place

A conversation about organized activism, electoral inclusion and their personal journeys to representation by women and for all constituents in their communities, with Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Mass. State Representative and Leigh Davis, Vice-Chair Great Barrington Select board.  

Representation and How to Get It is performed three times only, Fri. Aug. 25, 7pm; Sat. Aug 26, 11am; Sun. Aug. 27, 2pm in The Stables, at The Mount, 2 Plunkett St., Lenox, MA