kimberley lynne.

The Last Battle of the American Revolution

• Produced in full, March 2001, AXIS Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Educational version travelled the Maryland Public School system, 2001-2004
• Copyright PAU 1-881-708

In August 1920, both fervent sides of the 72-year-old women's suffrage issue descended upon the muggy city of Nashville to debate the hotly-contested resolution to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. Even during those strict days of Prohibition, liquor flowed through the Hermitage Hotel where both Antis and Suffs encamped; the vote count shifted every day as bribes were bandied, telephones tapped and bargains made.

In the midst of all those nefarious dealings, a young foot soldier for the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) named Prudence Delavan is tested by a shady offer from a Tennessean legislator who wants to exchange his precious vote for her chaste kiss. Supporting Prudence's story, a loyal farmwife struggles with her husband's archaic view of women, the head of the NAWSA wrestles with the morality of her political tactics and a first-term legislator weighs whether his vote should guarantee him re-election or a clean conscience.

In a time when women couldn't speak in public without the taint of shame, they gracefully and tenaciously fought the remaining battle for the enfranchisement of half the country without spilling a drop of blood, believing in Susan B. Anthony's dictum that "resistance to tyranny is obedience to God".

Set: series of platforms depicting the Tennessee Courthouse, the Mason farm, the Burns farm, Carrie Chapman Catt's offices and in front of the White House.

Running time: 2 hours with intermission

Ten actors (five men and five women):

• Prudence Delavan, 20, suffragette, stubborn, proud, pretty
• Sarah Delavan Mason, 35, mother, Prudence's sister, plain, farm wife
• Aurelia, 22, suffragette, Prudence's best friend, boyish
• Paul and David, drunk young men
• Mabel, early 30s, WWI widow, suffragette
• Thomas Mason, 38, Sarah's husband, practical, opponent, farmer
• Jerrold Smith, 28, reporter
• Carrie Chapman Catt, 60, leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
• Harry Thomas Burn, 24, Republican legislator from Mouse Creek, TN
• Alexander Tazewell, 52, Republican legislator from Carter County, TN
• Febb Ensinger Burn, 40 something, Harry's mother, suffragette
• Jackson Ruppert, 50s, liquor lobbyist
• Speaker of the House of Representatives of Tennessee, Seth Walker