A Woman for Our Time

10/16/2019

Upcoming presentations. Please respond to the events we’ve shared in order to be reminded of the discussions you are interested in.

09/30/2019

Update: due to the PG&E power outage, opening night is now scheduled for Friday October 11th. Tickets already purchased for Thursday night will be valid for any of the remaining three performances - October 11, 12, and 13.

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Each passing year may be considered The Year of the Woman when women strive to shape the contours of a just, reasonable, well-educated, economically viable, and loving society.

“A Woman for Our Time” tells the story of Tahirih, a mystic and poet who emerged in the 1840s in the Middle East. In her twenties, Tahirih became the first Persian martyr for the education of women and for religious freedom.

This play also touches on other amazing women around the world from the same period of time who were promoting women’s issues and equality.
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“A Woman for Our Time” will be showing at the Nevada Theater in Nevada City from October 10th to the 13th. Tickets can be purchased online: https://paulemerymusic.com/a-woman-for-our-times/

Directed by Michael Gottlieb and narrated by Rene Sprattling, the original musical drama by Teresa Henkle Langness highlights parallels between Margaret Fuller (Emerald Stara), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Jill Gottlieb), Sojourner Truth (Renee Murray Smith), Lucretia Mott (Wendy Greene) and the Persian poet Tahirih (Ariel Elliott). (Chiana McCrea plays Tahirih as a child.) Leading men include Richard Fisher, Dar Chehrazi, Mike Ferguson, Bruce Barnard, Skylar Mims, and Sawyer Maddux.

Music co-directors Sage Arias, Kate Canan, Nancy Lee Harper and Beverly Marks join the orchestra and band of troubadors, which also feature Kelly Fleming, Jane Sinclair and Alexandra Roedder, with Maggie McKaig as Music Advisor.
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Like our page for details about follow up events and meaningful conversations on women’s issues.

October 10-13 $30 premium reserved seating $20 general admission $10 children 14 and under general admission

09/28/2019

Kaathlyn Connor

Kaathlyn has offered backstage support with props and online help with publicity. Her support of family members in the arts and her experience in event planning has prepared her to give the behind-the-scenes support that ensures a better on-scene performance.

09/28/2019

Karin Wine

Karen will join the production team in her first role as wardrobe manager for A Woman for Our Time. An avid theater goer, Karin is excited about this opportunity to participate in the production of this play. With a background in project management, Karin welcomes joining a dedicated team and contributing to wardrobe development.

09/28/2019

Jane Sinclair

Music has been a part of Jane’s life since she was able to drag a footstool to reach the old record player in the dining room in Inglewood, CA. Moon River was her first 45. A few years later, the Beatles would change everything, and she has been singing ever since.
During her 30 years of living in Nevada County, Jane has been a featured soloist in numerous local choirs and bands, entertaining at Assisted Living facilities, Tasting Rooms, private parties and fund raisers, such as the Night of Giving and Empire Mine’s Mine, Wine and Dine event. Recently, Jane was the inspiration behind, Simple Offering, a night of Carpenter’s music presented to a sold out Nevada Theatre to benefit Hospitality House.

09/28/2019

Beverly Marks

Beverly Marks was blessed with a peerless sense of pitch and the ability to play lovely arrangements by ear. Few musicians can do so while simultaneously directing the choir. Beverly can. She has lifted spirits while raising the voices of many Nevada County singers, some of whom went on to develop international acclaim for their skills. As a violinist for many years with the Classic String Trio and while playing in a due with harpist Lisa Stine, she delighted many ears. Some of her favorite performances include “A Child’s Christmas in Wales and all of the PAG Children’s Musical Theater productions.
She has taught many students, played in many shows, and still plays for the church choir. As a beloved voice coach and matchless accompanist, she has left a deep mark on the community and its generation of musicians.

09/28/2019

Richard Fisher
as Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Husband, a Merchant and a Servant

Richard Fisher broke into the acting world with radio voiceovers when he was so young his voice had not yet changed, initiating a lifelong love of music and theater. Since he moved to Nevada County in 1991, Rich has made his mark as a glassblower and Ayurvedic herbalist. For the past four years he has performed in the local Fringe Festival. In 2018, his 40-minute monologue paid tribute to the late Sam Shepherd. In 2019, he expanded his repertoire to include five characters from the rock and roll era. The acclaimed Rogue Festival invited him to repeat the performance. This coming year, Rich will co-produce the NorCal Fringe Festival.

09/26/2019

Emerald Alurin Stara
as Margaret Fuller and Tahirih's mother

Emerald has appeared in many theater and film productions. She has enjoyed onstage roles in Oklahoma!, Sonja Weissman and the Miracle Play and Harold and Maude; and film roles in Lost & Found, Hello! and Finding Charlie. Emerald's previous credits also include touring nationally with The Young Americans show choir, performing at Disneyland, CA, and acting in Hollywood. She has authored and illustrated a children's fantasy tale and written and narrated a guided visualization album. Emerald was the first recipient of the Gypsy Robe (recently renamed the Legacy Robe) awarded by Placer Community Theater.

09/26/2019

Each passing year may be considered The Year of the Woman when women strive to shape the contours of a just, reasonable, well-educated, economically viable, and loving society.
Lest we forget, however, this unseen influence began long ago. Voices around the world cut into the very bedrock of emancipation at a time when the wellspring of women’s potential could only gurgle beneath the surface. Nana Asma’u initiated the education of women in Africa in the early 1800s. In the late century, women learned to speak out, from China’s Qui Jin (b. 1875), to the first Native American female author, Mourning Dove (b. 1884).
In the mid-century, the greatest global effort peaked in the 1840s, with its zenith in 1850. During those years, almost as if choreographed, feminist leaders in Europe, America and the Middle East exemplified an intense and noble dedication, not just to the rights of women but to peace, the reduction of prejudice and the dignity of all people, setting the moral compass for the centuries of women who would follow.
A shining light among these women, a young poet and mystic, emerged from the most repressive regime on earth, in the region now known as Iran, Iraq and Turkey. She set herself apart through her life and death, as she anticipated martyrdom as a token of her devotion to the cause. Her name was Tahirih.
Tahirih (Her Highness the Pure) served as an exception to every rule. Consider her, like many of these scions, a woman for our time as well as for her own time. In her twenties, Tahirih became the first Persian martyr for the education of women and for religious freedom.
As Tahirih declared, “You can kill me, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women!”
After her ex*****on in 1850, her oppressors burned many of her poems and historical documents, yet archivists continue to unearth, translate and study her work, to try to comprehend her profound impact as the most celebrated woman in Iranian literature and the first feminist of the Ottoman empire.
Cambridge Professor Edmund G. Browne (1862-1926) wrote in her biography: “The appearance of such a woman as Tahirih in any country and in any age is a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as Iran--almost a miracle.”
Freedom of conscience had awakened in the East with the emergence of a young figure who called himself the Báb, or the Gate. He foretold a coming age that would honor the truths of past ages while healing the corruptions introduced by men. Tahirih became the first woman to acknowledge belief in these teachings that would strip away prejudice, outmoded and divisive religious traditions and promote equity, charity, unity, concord and nonviolence and to consult with men.
In the exact same year, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) convened the Suffragettes for the convention at Seneca Falls and wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. Meanwhile, Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) searched for alternatives to oppression as she strived to stir the masses in Europe to care about human suffering. As an author and journalist, making a mark in history before her own short life ended, Margaret Fuller wrote in 1843, “No doubt a new manifestation is at hand, a new hour in the day of man.”
These women gave their lives to usher in an era of social reform, hoping the unification of women, races and classes would help to forge human bonds until, ultimately, humanity would experience true peace on earth.

Tickets can be purchased at Briar Patch or online: https://www.facebook.com/events/2295119600801378/