A Vote of Her Own has been in productions for several years now and the refinement of the piece shows. In its current state it makes a very good school show, either as a student production or a touring production. But a few tweaks could make it attractive to a wider audience (while making it undesirable in schools).

The show at the Next Step Festival was hampered by the small stage and limited rehearsal time, so it would not be right to evaluate it on its production values. The basic concept of using primary sources and newspapers to create the book and using many early 20th century songs in the score helps to bring the sufferage movement to life. But the show lacks the courage that it needs to really pack a punch.

In one of Corrigan’s blogs she begins with a montage of 18th and early 19th century events which found women losing the right to vote in many states where they had had it. It would be important to begin the show with that montage either as a projection, narrative or preferably in song. Also, the show currently lacks an effective hook. This can be achieved by moving Young Girls ask to be Remembered to the second scene as well as leaving as refrain in scence XII.

The arguments of the Tennessee Legislature, which were from the Legislative record, and the arguments of the anti-suffrage movement both are echoed today and women still do not have equal rights and the rights they believe they have secured are quickly being removed. To this point, it is important to bring in a director that has a broader vision to punch up project. The few clips on line show this as a very staid show that could have been produced in the 1950s or ’60s. That is not going to sell. Ideally, you would want Thomas Kall to direct, but, since that is unlikely, I would suggest that Sarah Norris, currently the artistic director for Pendragon Theater and the founder of the New Light Theater Project would be the ideal choice for this project. She has had amazing success incorporating the anachronism into Hitler’s Tasters that made the audience recognize that the problems of yesterday are still the problems of today.