PUT A WOMAN ON A PEDESTAL to Honor Women with Evening of Virtual Monologues

Put a Woman on a Pedestal will honor two dozen women with statues in a virtual evening of original monologues.

Statue-worthy women will be the subjects of six plays in monologue form on Friday, May 21 at 7 pm (EDT) on Zoom.

Stella Adler, Alice Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, Yuri Kochiyama, Frances Perkins and the women who died in the Shirtwaist Factory fire will be the subjects of StatueFest Three, an online, invitational performance of readings by D. Lee Miller (Adler), Fengar Gael (Austen), Cheryl L. Davis (Hurston), Christine Toy Johnson (Kochiyama), Deborah Savadge (Perkins), and Barbara Kahn (Shirtwaist Factory workers).

The director for the evening is JoAnna Rhinehart.

In six short solo plays, Denise Lute will play Stella Adler, Carole Monferdini will perform the role of Frances Perkins, Nan-Lynn Nelson will play Zora Neale Hurston, Myla Pitt will portray Alice Austen, and Dawn Saito will perform Yuri Kochiyama. Three actors will represent women who perished in the infamous Shirtwaist Factory blaze that killed 146: Janis Astor del Valle, Aprella Godfrey-Barule and Maja Wampuszyc.

This is the third in a quartet of free online performances in response to the ongoing public dialogue about monuments. Put a Woman on a Pedestal will continue with StatueFest IV on Friday, June 18 with work by Cindy L. Cooper (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), Carolyn Gage (Henrietta Vinton Davis), Nicole Ansari (Marsha P. Johnson), Michael Angel Johnson (Pauli Murray), Janis Astor del Valle (Antonia Panoja), Elizabeth Straus (Anne Spencer), Heather Jeanne Volenti (Emma Stebbins) and Martha Patterson (Edith Wharton). The director for the final evening in this series is Allison Astor Vargas.

These events are produced by four initiating artists: Janis Astor del Valle, Cindy Cooper, Cheryl Davis and Deborah Savadge.

In March and April, New Shokan Kitchen Island Project's statue series presented twelve monologues featuring a dozen accomplished women. Glenda Frank (Eva Le Gallienne), Magdalena Gomez (Luisa Capetillo), Lorca Perez (Maria Irene Fornes), Martine Sainvil (Mary Lou Williams), Elizabeth Giffin Speckman (Lillian Wald) and Bev Thompson (Dorothy Parker) were the writers featured in the April 16th performance, directed by Gwynn MacDonald.

The celebration of noteworthy women began on March 19th with short plays by Renee' Flemings (Augusta Savage), Laura Shamas (Maria Tallchief), Allison Fradkin (Bea Arthur), Lucy Wang (Mabel Ping Hua Lee), Judith Pratt (Barbara McClintock) and Pauline David-Sax (Clara Lemlich Shavelson). The director for the premiere series was Dev Bondarin.

Free with RSVP!

RSVP to StatueFest2021@gmail.com

to receive the Zoom link

Email for updates on these upcoming StatueFest dates: May 21st | June 18th Performances at 7pm EDT, StatueFest2021@gmail.com

More information: Put A Woman On A Pedestal

To post a comment, you must register and login.