Lucy Joseph at Farm Arts Collective

LUCY JOSEPH, written and directed by Mimi McGurl

Lucy Joseph is an original performance by Farm Arts Collective based on the life of a 19th century gender non-conforming pioneer Lucy Ann Joseph Israel Lobdell. The performance is written and directed by Mimi McGurl with contributed story and texts from the Farm Arts Collective, author William Klaber, and historical texts by L.A. Lobdell and others. The original musical performance features Jess Beveridge, Doug Rogers, Pam Arnold, John Roth, Samantha Mehlman, Annie Hat & Laura Moran. Editor and additional language by Mark Dunau.

The historical figure at the center of our play is Lucy Ann/Joseph Israel Lobdell, aka The Female Hunter of Long Eddy, who lived in the Delaware River Valley in the mid 1800’s. During Lobdell’s well-documented years, colorful labels were attached to them in newspaper articles, histories, and medical records. Raised as a girl, Lobdell, by 30 years of age, clearly preferred to live their life as a man. Lobdell’s life speaks volumes to the cultural shifts that squeezed through so much religious and political turmoil during the nineteenth century.

Now, nearly two centuries later, there are still powerful and influential people who insist that our genetic markings at birth remain forever the essential truth of who we are. Lobdell’s life stands as a beacon of exactly how much more work still needs to be done for all of us to have the freedom to determine, for ourselves, our own gender identities and our own personal truths.