2020! What a year, am I right? How are you doing, Soapboxers? Are you well? Are you holding steady?
Are you planning to vote?
In case you haven’t heard, in addition to aaaaalllllll the other ingredients being thrown into the 2020 stew, this year is also the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
According to ourdocuments.gov, the 19th Amendment of the United States Constitution was “passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920.” It goes on to say “the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.” The Amendment “prohibits the state and federal government from denying citizens of the United States the right to vote on the basis of sex”.
To mark this occasion, Burning Coal Theatre Company in partnership with The League of Women Voters of Wake County and thirteen other theatre and/or opera companies from across central North Carolina will present The 19th Amendment Project, a collection of 14 short plays written about the passage of the 19th Amendment 100 years ago and its impact on our society.
Each of the short plays will be released virtually, one at a time, between August 17 – August 30, 2020. Tickets to view each 10 minute play will be $2 or $25 for the entire 14 play cycle. The plays will all be available until September 30, 2020. Tickets may be obtained by calling 919.834.4001 or https://burningcoal.org/the-nineteenth-amendment-project/.
I’m honored and humbled to be a name on this roster of playwrights for my 10 minute piece THUNDERCLAP.
THUNDERCLAP description: Parents Rachel and Jake are stoked that their daughter, Alice is now 18 and can vote, but she doesn’t believe that her vote will actually help. Content warning: language and sexual violence.
Friends, I’ve always considered myself a rather reserved and circumspect person. I’m shy. I abhor conflict. However, middle age seems to be shifting me into a phase when the gloves come off and my mouth starts jawing, and I’m just more inclined to say a thing when a thing needs saying. Is that your experience these days? This year especially?
I find this more filterless existence to be:
- liberating
- terrifying
- gratifying
- an invitation: to speak my truth, to have hard conversations, to potentially offend people, to potentially say something dumb, to potentially say something interesting…I don’t know….we will see.
This week, I’m grateful to have been given space to be myself on a podcast and in print. Big thanks to journalists Lauren Van Hemert and Byron Woods for their support of this project and for editing out the zanier things I said. If you’d like to listen or read, please see the info below. And then grab your tickets for The 19th Amendment Project. The other playwrights are amazing and it has truly been a giant collaborative effort across our theatre community.
ALSO, VOTE. #voteblue2020 #votelikeyourrightsdependonit #voteforthegoodofall
RDU ON STAGE PODCAST
Do you know about THE 19th AMENDMENT PROJECT?
Want to hear me confess my love for Geraldine Ferraro?
Listen to this podcast from RDU on Stage and the ones to follow!
This is the 1st episode in a nine part series featuring playwrights and creatives working on The 19th Amendment Project. Lauren speaks with the wonderful Playwright Hannah Benitez (The 19th), Dianna Wynn with the League of Women Voters, Jerome Davis, the Artistic Director of Burning Coal, ….and ME saying things (a lot of things!) about my play Thunderclap, what voting means to me, the conflict I feel about celebrating the 19th Amendment, and the present and future of theatre (just a few small topics!).
All this week and next, RDU on Stage will be spotlighting the playwrights behind this collection of plays.
Please listen and buy your tickets. Many thanks to Lauren Van Hemert for featuring this series.
INDY Week
T-SHIRT QUOTE ACHIEVED!
In print, I am quoted as saying, “…it is painful to be an American.”
Yep. That’s what I said. Put it on my t-shirt.
Check out this promo piece for The 19th Amendment Project at Burning Coal in INDY Week:
Fourteen Ways of Looking at What the 19th Amendment Achieved—and What It Didn’t
Many thanks to Byron Woods for the coverage.
P.S. I also recall ranting to him about people having their heads up their a**es. Thankfully that was not included. 
🙂
