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March 15, 2010

NMC students reenact women's rights event

Costumes worn for 1848 Seneca Falls Convention

By Carol South

TRAVERSE CITY -- A slice of women's history came to life Saturday paying homage to Women's History Month.

Four Northwestern Michigan College students presented a play about the Seneca Falls Convention, an 1848 women's rights gathering in New York state. These Phi Theta Kappa members portrayed Elizabeth Cady Stanton, James and Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass, all pioneers for women's equality.

The Women's History Project of Northwest Michigan, NMC's Phi Theta Kappa chapter and the American Association of University Women co-sponsored the historic reenactment of the first U.S. women's rights convention. The free event drew just under 60 attendees to the college's Fine Arts Building.

Donning period costumes and accessories loaned from the Grand Traverse Heritage Center or the collection of Nancy Bordine, students immersed themselves into their characters.

"She was a Quaker, an abolitionist, she was a proponent of women's rights," said Erica Hamilton, a freshman who portrayed Lucretia Mott. "She was credited as the first American feminist, initiator of women's political advocacy. She was so strong, she didn't wear any foofy clothes."

Slightly more "foofy" than the severely dressed Mott, Jacque Payne, a sophomore, played Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

"I would wear stuff like this all the time," said the sophomore, a theater and computer science double major, of her 1800s-era reproduction dress.

Ann Swaney, who works in the college's Osterlin Library, coordinated the project. The former board member of the Women's History Project noted that the program represented the "fifth or sixth" annual collaborative celebration of Women's History Month. The initial year featured a film while last year Phi Theta Kappa students presented a program on first ladies.

Audience members got into the act this year: some attendees were tapped to shout out lines during the play. Male protestors argued that a women's place was in the home.

"This is a political convention," Swaney said of the presentation.

Patty O'Donnell suggested the script for a play she attended in 1988 at a national NOW convention. Attendees there received copies of the script and O'Donnell later staged it in Petoskey. Last year she offered it to the Women's History Project but they already had a program so it was slated for 2010.

"People love it -- and the interactions," said O'Donnell, who noted that Saturday's play took three or four months to pull together.

Godwin Jabangwe portrayed Frederick Douglass, who was born a slave and later was an abolitionist and proponent of women's rights. A native of Zimbabwe, where women's rights are just starting, Jabangwe noted that participating in the play provided an interesting peek into American history.

"I actually haven't learned American history here but I learned it back home so it's been interesting to get into it surrounded by Americans here," said the novice actor. "I knew about Frederick Douglass but I didn't know he played a part in women's rights."

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