Now, in 2024, looking at the lineup of Broadway plays up for the Tony Awards, I realize that I’ve never seen, or expected to see, so many women represented on the stage—playwrights like Paula Vogel I knew when we were both working with The Women’s Project in New York and who now has a Tony-nominated play on Broadway called The Mother Play. Another outstanding example of the big cultural change is Suffs, finally bringing to our attention the enormously important role of the suffragists in bringing the vote to women. In 1913 they marched on Washington—the first march—chained themselves to the fences in front of the White House, were imprisoned, went on hunger strikes and were brutally force-fed. But they held strong and finally we gained the vote.
It is an outstandingly theatrical piece of our history, even including Inez Milholland, the first martyr of our cause, on her white horse, and with music that is crisp and arousing and a good dose of humor.
The seeds we planted “way back when” that we thought had died were, in fact, watered secretly and mysteriously by the hopes and dreams of the two generations of women who have come after us. The Women’s Project continues strong, with its own off-Broadway Theater, and the crucial expansion brought about by Black Lives Matter and the loosening of gender definitions has helped bring all our voices even to the commercial theatre.
Some of these plays will go on the road after their Broadway season, and so some of us who don’t get to New York will have a chance to see them.
What a moment of triumph!
Andria Creighton says
Suffs! I love it! I hope it wins some of the Tonys in which it is nominated. I will be watching on TV like I do every year. It will most certainly come to PNC Broadway Series in Lou at some point. A hit on The Great White Way should be a hit on W. Main St. in the ‘Ville.