Maury Thompson came to me one day back in 2016, because he knew I was interested in the Woman Suffrage Movement, & told me about an article he ran across while researching Charles Evans Hughes for his book The Animated Feather Duster: Slow News Day Tales of the Legendary Facial Hair of Charles Evans Hughes. We had not yet obtained our library subscription to Newspapers.com, so Maury was weeding through unindexed microfilm by the Reference Desk when he found a reference to a suffrage play being performed here in 1916. The conversation basically went like this...
"Wouldn't it be nice," pondered Maury, "if someone would produce the play for the centennial of Hughes' run for the presidency?"
"That sounds like fun!" I said. "I haven't directed a play since high school, 25 years ago, but what the hay, why not?"
& that is how I came to direct a centennial performance of the comical suffrage play, The Revolt: A Play in One Act (1912) by Ellis Parker Butler on October 12, 2016 as part of a citywide series of events to celebrate Charles Evans Hughes and his Glens Falls connections.
The 1916 play was performed locally by the Gleaners Class of the First Baptist Church in Glens Falls, NY on May 23, 1916 with Beatrice Palmer Bannon as director. The cast is listed in the article above. Bannon was the elocution & drama teacher at St. Mary's Academy for many years. I am unsure if any of the women in the 1916 production were linked with our local political equality clubs since I have only read articles through 1915 at this juncture. But, the First Baptist Church on Maple Street was the location of the 1894 regional suffrage convention. I will be sure to update you if any of these ladies prove to suffragists as I continue my research.
My 2016 cast included the following:
Cast (in order of appearance)
Pauline: Catie LeCours
Grandma Gregg: Sandi Rhodes
Susan Jane Jones: Kayla Toney
Kate: Amelia Elmen
Grace: Rosalie Carlsen
Edith: Merista Nichols
Ida: Carynn Bohley
May: Cecelia Bayard
The Ideal Husband as himself
"Oooo"s: Jereme Young
A video of the one night only performance can be seen below.
0:23 Suffrage Song: "Votes For Women, Keep It Up"
1:15 Pro & Anti Suffrage Cosplay (Frieda Toth, Renee Miller, Jereme Young)
5:03 Suffrage Song: "Bring It To Pass In the Year" (1912)
6:27 Introduction to "The Revolt", Glens Falls, & Charles Evans Hughes
8:21 "The Revolt: A Play in One Act" by Ellis Parker Butler
Tisha Dolton is Librarian/Historian at The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls, NY. Her areas of interest are suffrage music, suffragists of Warren and Washington Counties, local women and minority populations, and embroidery.
#suffrage #revoltplay #gleanersclass #beaticepalmerbannon #charlesevanshughes #1916 #oneactplay #glensfallsny #firstbaptistchurch #stmarysacademy