Local writer and storyteller Paulette Friday has gotten a grant for a show commemorating the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote.
The Legacy grant, from the Lake Region Arts Council, will allow her to provide story and music ensemble performances for free to the public, although the coronavirus pandemic may cause a delay.
“The fact that this anniversary year is also an election year makes the project very compelling for this time,” Friday said.
The ordeal of women’s right to vote was fraught with strong emotion, and Friday said her production depicts the spectrum of emotion of this important movement.
“The stories I write are based on historical facts, and they are paired with music legitimate to the era," she said. "This combination of story and song provides an entertaining as well as an educational arts experience.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The cast includes musicians and storytellers from and near Alexandria: David Bengtson, Greg Donahue, Chuck Grussing, Patty Kakac, Terry Kennedy, Todd Nelson, Anne O’Flynn, and Sara Robinson, as well as Friday. Janet Baker is the costumer.
Over the past six years Friday has written and produced four history-based song and story performances: “The Recent Unpleasantness – Stories & Songs of the Civil War,” “In Pursuit of a Dream – Stories & Songs of 19th Century Immigration,” “Stormy Weather – Stories & Songs of the 1930s,” and “Prairie Shadows – Stories & Songs of the Prairie Pioneers.”
The grant came from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment approved by voters in 2008.
Friday hopes to present the production to the public, to Discovery Middle School ‘s 6th grade and to Grand Arbor residents. However, social distancing restrictions may force the production to move to a safer time.
