StatueFest Two Presents New Monologues as Part of 'Put A Woman On A Pedestal'

Six playwrights depict their choices of statue-worthy women in StatueFest Two on Friday, April 16 at 7 pm EDT in a series of monologues. The readings, on Zoom, are part of a series to Put A Woman On A Pedestal.

The playwrights and their choices of women who deserve statues in StatueFest Two are Glenda Frank (Eva Le Gallienne); Magdalena Gómez (Luisa Capetillo); Lorca Peress (Maria Irene Fornés); Martine Sainvil (Mary Lou Williams); Elisabeth Giffin Speckman (Lillian Wald), and Bev Thompson (Dorothy Parker).

Who deserves a statue? In response to public discourse about monuments, the New Shokan Kitchen Island Project is presenting readings of monologues about 26 statue-worthy women and women-identified people in New York in a four-part monthly series.

In six short solo plays on Friday, April 16 at 7 pm ETD, these noteworthy women will be played by actors Faith Catlin (actor and artistic director Eva Le Gallienne); Margarita Espada (activist and labor leader Luisa Capetillo); Elise Santora (playwright Maria Irene Fornes); Angela K. Pierce (Henry Street Settlement founder Lillian Wald); Sandra Mills Scott (composer and pianist Mary Lou Williams), and Michele Tauber (writer and critic Dorothy Parker). The director for the evening is Gwynn MacDonald.

On Friday, May 21, StatueFest Three will present monologues directed by Joanna Rhinehart: Nicole Ansari (Marsha P. Johnson); Cheryl Davis (Zora Neale Hurston); Fengar Gael (Alice Austen); Christine Toy Johnson (Yuri Kochiyama); Barbara Kahn (Triangle Shirtwaist Factory women); D. Lee Miller (Stella Adler), and Deborah Savadge (Frances Perkins).

On Friday, June 18, Allison Astor-Vargas will direct StatueFest Four: monologues by Cindy Cooper (Ruth Bader Ginsburg); Janis Astor del Valle (Antonia Pantoja); Carolyn Gage (Henrietta Vinton Davis); Michael Angel Johnson (Pauli Murray); Martha Patterson (Edith Wharton); Elizabeth Straus (Anne Spencer), and Heather Jeanne Volanti (Emma Stebbins).

The first Statue Fest in March featured writers Allison Fradkin (Bea Arthur); Renee Flemings' (Augusta Savage); Judith Pratt (Barbara McClintock); Pauline David-Sax (Clara Lemlich Shavelson); Laura Shamas (Maria Tallchief), and Lucy Wang (Mabel Ping Hua Lee).

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

Attendance is free with an RSVP.

RSVP to StatueFest2021@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link.