Play honors generations of women in history
By Casey Gillis on Sep. 13, 2007
The Academy of Fine Arts’ latest production has a lot of ground to cover.
“HerStory,” an original play penned by Lynchburg resident Nan Kordos, opens in 1607 and honors gen-erations of women who made a difference all the way up to the present day.
“We’re enacting a lot of famous and infamous women,” Kordos says. “Women who disguised themselves as soldiers and fought in (wars). The women who stayed home, and what they had to deal with. (The play progresses) as women gain rights and lose rights.”
Kordos wrote the play as part of her involvement with the American Association of University Women (AAUW), of which she’s been a member since moving here three years ago. Members asked her to write a skit about women to coincide with the Jamestown 400th anniversary celebrations. Kordos knew she could do much more than a skit, and “HerStory” was born.
It was no easy labor either, as Kordos and historian Cheryl Rychkova did extensive research into Virginia history.
Kordos says she’s done plenty of research papers, as well as screenplays and other creative writings, but “I’ve never done something where it’s a play based on history.”
She began by making an outline of notable women from Virginia’s history and continually revised it so she could get a balance of women from different races, cultures and professions.
“It’s fascinating to me because I just love finding out what makes people act the way they acted,” she says. “For me, history is people.”
Editing her list proved to be the first challenge.
“We could make a 15-hour production if we wanted to,” she says.
Finally, Kordos had to make a cutoff: she’d only include women who were deceased, unless they were the first ones to do something.
“Now I’m feeling guilty because there are so many wonderful women who I’m leaving out,” she says. “So we’re dedicating it to the current women (who are still making a difference).”
The second challenge was making all the historical facts into an interesting narrative.
“It is a production, and it has to come to life,” she says. “I don’t want it to be a history lesson with visuals.”
The story is guided by three spirit narrators — one Monacan Indian (played by Sharon Bryant), one Af-rican American (Deborah L. Wilder) and one English/European (Tanya Crandall Anderson). The play begins before 1607 with Powhatan and Monacan women in their world, followed by the arrival of English women to the Virginia settlement and later the importation of African women as slaves.
As the narrators take the audience through the years, the story is supplemented with slides and visuals, as well as music from Soulsters from the Hill, a group of Diamond Hill Baptist Church who will sing slave song spirituals, members from the Jefferson Choral Society, who will perform music from the Revolution-ary and Civil Wars, and Bryant, who will sing a Monacan anthem she wrote.
“It’s a heart wrenching anthem because it talks about the past,” Kordos says.
Through all the stories, she says the underlying theme of the show is the connection of all women, no matter the time or place.
And as she’s researched all these amazing women, Kordos says she’s found some real heroes — “the women who looked around, caught up in the time, and were able to look beyond what is accepted and say, sometimes very quietly, ‘No, this is wrong.’ Boy do I admire the woman who can do that.”
IF YOU’RE GOING
WHAT: HerStory
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Academy of Fine Arts’ Warehouse Theatre, 5th and Commerce streets
TICKETS: $14 for adults, $10 for seniors and students.
INFO: (434) 846-TIXX
COMMENTS
HerStory is happening THIS WEEKEND at the Academy; for show and ticket information please visit: http://academyfinearts.com/stage/herstory.asp