Wednesday, June 12, 2008 at 7:30
This presentation is part of the NWHP National Networking Conference. Non-conference attendees are invited to come to the performance. The cost for non-conference attendees is $15.
Samantha 'Rastles' the Woman Question is a one-woman performance featuring Jane Curry as Samantha Smith Allen, the rustic philosopher of sound country stock whose ideas on various issues are grounded in an affection for common sense and faith in its applicability to problems. Through her typical, popular brand of 19th century horse sense American humor, she challenges the status quo of social norms regarding women's issues and plants herself squarely on the side of sensible women's rights.
Samantha appears in period costume and introduces via anecdote the foils for her sage observations. She "rastles" with questions concerning history's treatment of women, rights denied by the church, women's powerlessness before the law, social status, role assumptions, and more. After the monologue, audience members are invited to address questions to Samantha (but please don't ask her to sing, cuz it nearly always sets the dogs in town to barkin').
Note: Samantha soars into eloquence at will depending on what strikes her fancy. However, it's likely that she will episode about some of the following:
Introducin' myself and Josiah
On the tuckerin' nature of pedestals
On the fragile nature of wimmen
On bein' a she-angel
Betsey Bobbet
On wimmen bein' preachers
On the wives of the prophets
On cooin', clingin', and soothin'
My visit with Horace Greeley
On lookin' to nature for women's sphere
Tacklin' onto the Meetin' House
The Creation Searchin' Society
A wimmin's rights lecturer
A male Magdalene
On masculine and feminine minds
Our visit to the ostrich farm
On Miss Flamm's Ideal Goddess
The Dorelsky Burpy family women
On sculpting the figger of
Rights of a yaller dog
On winkin' at men's sins
Betsey's poetry
Samantha travels throughout the country "soaring into eloquence" and is available for single events, tours, or residencies.
National Women's History Project Products