<div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><br><br>•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span><br><br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="OLE_LINK1"><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino">“We’ve come a long way baby”—no, not
quite…ANCESTRA @ CPT</span></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Roy Berko</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino">(Member, American Theatre Critics Association
& Cleveland Critics Circle)</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Watching Cleveland Public Theatre’s ANCESTRA is both an enlightening
and a depressing experience.<span style>
</span>Depressing in that the play adds yet another layer to the still on-going
tale of the fight for women’s equality in what was and in many ways still is a
conservative white man’s world.<span style> </span>In
spite of progress, such issues as gender equity, equal pay for equal work,
women’s health care and reproductive rights are still lagging.<span style> </span>Yes, women now have the right to vote,
own property, aren’t regarded legally as possessions, and can get advanced
collegiate degrees (even though some fields are still generally closed to
females).</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Enlightening, especially to those who know little about the rights
movements in this country,<span style> </span>the
rights of women, blacks and homosexuals/transgendered persons.<span style> </span>Unfortunately, those who really
needed to get the edification probably won’t attend the play.<span style> </span>It would be too threatening to their
closed minds and unbending beliefs.<span style>
</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">The National Women’s Rights Convention was a series of annual
meetings that brought visibility to the women’s rights movement in the United
States.<span style> </span>The first convention was
held in 1850, in Worcester, Massachusetts.<span style> </span>That session attracted men and women who were advocates for
temperance, abolition and suffrage for women. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:rgb(28,28,28)">As
one of the speaker’s stated, “I conceive that the first thing to be done by the
women of this country is to demand their political enfranchisement. Among the
‘self-evident truths’ announced in the Declaration of Independence is this –
‘All government derives its just power from the consent of the governed.’”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">“Ancestra,” which is now in production at Cleveland Public Theater,
is a play by Holly Holsinger, Chris Seibert, Renee Schilling and Sally Groth
that was inspired by the 1853 National Women’s Rights Convention held in
Cleveland.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">At that convention, </span></span><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:rgb(28,28,28)">in a letter read aloud, the Reverend William Henry Channing,
a leader of the Christian socialism movement, suggested that “the convention
issue its own Declaration of Women’s Rights and petitions to state legislatures
seeking woman suffrage, equal inheritance rights, equal guardianship laws,
divorce for wives of alcoholics, tax exemptions for women until given the right
to vote, and the right to trial before a jury of female peers.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">The authors have creatively woven flashes from the past with
instances of the present to create an effective portrayal of their message “to
celebrate those who came before and champions of current efforts to achieve
dignity and justice.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Interesting to locals, who tend to be proud that Oberlin College was
the first institution of higher learning to admit women, is a segment which indicates
that their education afforded women was not parallel or equal to those given to
men.<span style> </span>The women were restricted as
to the courses they were allowed to take, how they were treated, and the need
to hide in the woods to be able to speak their minds and just not be sponges in
the classroom.<span style> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">The play is well staged by Holly Holsinger in a creative setting
designed by Aaron Benson.<span style> </span>An inner
proscenium consisting of twigs and trees, with platforms for portraying various
places, providing a pleasing and practical acting space.<span style> </span>Having those from the past always in
the background, and vise versa added much to creating the image of the past as
it affects the present.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">The cast is excellent.<span style>
</span>Special kudos to Chris Seibert as Cora, a modern day reporter who fights
to continue the assault on tradition to make for continued changes to help the
cause of women through the power of activism.<span style> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Anne McEvoy does a nice transition from the stern administrator at
Oberlin to Cora’s caring mother.<span style>
</span>Rhoda Rosen, as the emblem of elderly women, is endearing.<span style> </span>Katy Lynn Patterson is excellent as the
educationally frustrated Lucy.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">As is often the case in the CPH theatre, being able to hear the
actors is a problem.<span style> </span>The high
ceiling, open fly gallery and distance between the audience and the stage makes
for echoes and a loss of projection.<span style>
</span>Since the production I saw was a preview, I don’t know if several of the
females, who were very difficult to hear due to a lack of projection, improved
during regularly scheduled productions.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Capsule judgement:<span style> </span>“Ancestra” is a well written play that
gets an excellent production at Cleveland Public Theatre.<span style> </span>It is a story that needs to be told.<span style> </span>It should be seen by everyone who
assumes that the rights movements…the march for equality for women, blacks and
homosexuals, have completed their tasks.<span style>
</span>Kudos!</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"><span style> </span>“Ancestra” runs through
June 7, 2014<span style> </span>at Cleveland Public
Theatre.<span style> </span>For tickets call
216-631-2727 or go on line to </span></span><a href="http://www.cptonline.org"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">www.cptonline.org</span></span></a><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></span></p>
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