Perseverance

“The future woman must have a life of work and economic independence. She must have knowledge. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion.”
— W.E.B. Du Bois, Darkwater, 1920

Synopsis

In Perseverance, we meet Perseverance Turner, a Black school teacher, writer, and suffragist, determined to elevate her students above the circumstances in which they were born. One hundred years later, in the same fictional town of Hillcroft, Dawn Davis, a white school teacher, is running for office on a platform of education reform. As the two women’s stories intertwine, the ownership of history takes center stage.

Playwright Perspective

Perseverance was commissioned by Portland Stage and the Maine Suffrage Centennial Collaborative. They wanted to support the creation of a play to commemorate the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Before I accepted the commission, I met the primary donor to make sure the kind of play I wanted to write would meet her expectations. When we sat down, she began talking about intersectionality and under-represented voices, and I knew I was a match for the project.

In my research, I learned that the life of a Black suffragist was one of itinerancy, of creating a livelihood from multiple sources and locations. I had a hard time finding a Black suffragist who lived and worked in Maine on whom to base my main character. I reached out to Dr. Sue Houchins, a professor in Africana and Gender Studies at Bates College, to ask if she knew of any I might have missed. She introduced me to Frances Harper, an abolitionist, prohibitionist, novelist, poet, lecturer, and suffragist; and to Pauline Hopkins, a playwright, novelist, journalist, and historian. Dr. Houchins suggested I create a character inspired by these figures.

As a nod to A Brighter Coming Day by Frances Harper, I created a significant plot element along a very similar line. The plot occurs in two parallel times: 1920 and 2020 in the months leading up to the election. The play was scheduled for its world premiere in September 2020 and felt timely even before the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder. I have updated the play to reflect the reality of life in 2020, and I expect I will continue to do so.

Since the world premiere is indefinitely postponed, I am even more grateful to Kyle, Jackie, Martine, and everyone at ANPF for taking this play on a little walk during such a challenging time for live theatre. My hope is that the play offers both a historical contextualization and a lens through which we can engage with the life-and-death issues that are at the forefront of 2020.

Note

The story, all names, characters, and incidents in this play are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Who

*Appearing through an Agreement between ANPF and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Where

August through October, 1920 and 2020. The cellar and the kitchen in a forgotten municipal building in the fictional rural town of Hillcroft. Also, the front door of a museum.