Celebrate Centennial Of Women's Voting With TheatreWorks & The Woman's Club Of Palo Alto

In celebration of Women's Equality Day and the Centennial of the 19th Amendment, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and The Woman's Club of Palo Alto present a virtual performance of excerpts and songs from Perfect 36, with lyrics and book by Laura Harrington, music by Mel Marvin, and direction by Mac Pirkle.

This dynamic musical commemorates a pivotal moment in Democracy when white women won the right to vote. In 1965, The Voting Rights Act was signed into law, outlawing discriminatory voting practices and ensuring that women of color were also given the right to vote. Set in 1920, Perfect 36 honors the indomitable spirit of the suffragettes as they battle to secure a 36 state majority in order to ratify the 19th Amendment. Tennessee's vote marks the final chance as partisan politics, misogyny, and racism contribute to a razor-thin margin between victory and defeat. This timely digital presentation of Perfect 36 not only celebrates a historic anniversary, but reminds audiences to honor these women by exercising the hard fought right to vote as the 2020 election approaches.

This special online event will take place 5:30pm PDT Wednesday, August 26. Hosted by TheatreWorks's Artistic Associate and Director of New Works Giovanna Sardelli, it will also feature a conversation with the show's book writer and lyricist Laura Harrington. A link to stream the show will be available at TheatreWorks.org for no charge, although donations are encouraged to support TheatreWorks and The Woman's Club of Palo Alto. For information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

With productions at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival and Tennessee Repertory Theatre (now Nashville Repertory Theatre), Perfect 36 recently received readings at Nashville's Hermitage Hotel and New York's New 42nd Studios in the heart of the Broadway Theatre District. Variety said the musical "celebrates the courage, tenacity and hard-core savvy of the American women, and men, who risked so much in the battle for voting rights."

Laura Harrington (Book and Lyrics) is an award winning playwright, lyricist and librettist. The winner of the 2008 Kleban Award for "most promising librettist in American musical theatre," Harrington has written dozens of plays, musicals, operas and radio plays which have been produced in 28 states, Canada and Europe, in venues ranging from Off-Broadway to Houston Grand Opera. Harrington has twice won both the Massachusetts Cultural Council Award in playwriting and the Clauder Competition for best new play in New England. Additional awards include a Boston IRNE Award for Best New Play, a Bunting Institute Fellowship, a Whiting Foundation Grant-in-Aid, a New England Emmy, and a Quebec Cinemateque Award. She taught playwriting at MIT where she was awarded the Levitan prize for excellence in teaching. She has been a guest artist at Harvard, Wellesley, Tufts, and the Jack Kerouac Writer in Residence at UMass Lowell. Alice Bliss (Penguin), her first novel, won the 2012 Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction and was published in the UK, Italy and Denmark. Playwrights Horizons in NYC commissioned Alice Bliss, the musical, which won the 2019 Weston Playhouse New Musical Award. A Catalog of Birds (Europa), her second novel, was published in 2017.

Mel Marvin (Composer) has had six shows on Broadway - including Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yentyl, Christopher Durang's A History Of The American Film, Tintypes (for which he was nominated for two Tony awards), and, most recently How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The Grinch continues to perform in a seasonal national tour playing scores of venues, including Madison Square Garden and the Grand Ole Opry, and, for the last 21 seasons, San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. Marvin has also had 11 shows Off-Broadway, and he has served as composer or director of scores of productions in most of America's regional theatres, including Lincoln Center Theater, Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, American Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, Berkeley Rep, and the Mark Taper Forum, where he composed the original music for the first full production of both parts of Angels In America. His most recent work, in addition to Perfect 36, is Truth And Reconciliation, an, opera, produced in 2020 at Opera America. He is a member of the Alumni Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group, a frequent participator in awards panels, and a mentor at the O'Neill Theatre Center. He is Head Faculty Composer of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.

Mac Pirkle (Director) is a veteran of theatre, film, and video. Mac founded three theatres, including Tennessee's regional theatre company, the Tennessee Repertory Theatre (Nashville Rep) and Southern Stage Productions, producing and directing over 65 major theatre productions. After 25 years in theatre, Mac moved into film and video in 2001 with David Earnhardt and their company, Earnhardt Pirkle. Mac is now the CEO of Creative Communications. His work has won an ACE Cable Award, numerous Telly Awards, a Parthenon Award, and Gold Pen Award. In 2012 Pirkle produced the world premiere of The Nutty Professor musical in Nashville, with Jerry Lewis, Marvin Hamlisch and Rupert Holmes.

Giovanna Sardelli's (TheatreWorks Artistic Associate and Director of New Works) many directing credits at TheatreWorks include the March 2020 Northern California Premiere of They Promised Her the Moon, as well as Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph's Archduke (2019), FINKS (2018), The Velocity of Autumn and Crimes of the Heart (2016), Joseph's The Lake Effect (2015), Somewhere by Matthew Lopez (2013), and the World Premiere of Joseph's The North Pool (2011). She is an award-winning director who has worked on numerous plays by Rajiv Joseph including the world premiere of Archduke (Mark Taper Forum) and Guards at the Taj (Geffen Playhouse; 2016 Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play) and the World Premiere of the Obie Award Winning play Describe The Night (Alley Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company in NYC). She has directed world premieres of plays by Theresa Rebeck, Lynn Rosen, Joe Gilford, Jeff Augustine, Lauren Yee, Zayd Dohrn, Melissa Ross, Lila Rose Kaplan, Matthew Lopez, and Zoe Kazan among others. Sardelli is set to direct TheatreWorks's upcoming productions of It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play and Nan and the Lower Body in its 51st season.

Uniting people and place, The Woman's Club of Palo Alto builds on a proud history of public engagement since the 19th century. Its members apply themselves in creative and philanthropic ways to accomplish great things both in the local community and within the club. The Woman's Club of Palo Alto is a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs as well as a member of the California Federation of Women's Clubs. It is the largest club in the state of California, in terms of membership.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is the recipient of the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award. Led by Artistic Director Tim Bond and Executive Director Phil Santora, the Palo Alto-based theatre company serves more than 100,000 patrons per year and has captured a national reputation for artistic innovation and integrity, often presenting Bay Area theatregoers with their first look at acclaimed musicals, comedies, and dramas, directed by award-winning local and guest directors, and performed by professional actors cast locally and from across the country. The company recently announced its 51st season will be postponed until March 2021, in accordance with global efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

To post a comment, you must register and login.