LWV to meet for information about 250th grant and for auditions

The Cheyenne League of Women Voters was recently awarded a grant from the Wyoming 250 Committee in celebration of America’s Semiquincentennial. As part of that grant award, the LWV Grant Committee will host semi-open auditions for “The Remarkable Susan,” a one-act play by Tim Kelly depicting the trial and conviction of Susan B. Anthony for the crime of a woman casting a vote. 

Auditions will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 5, in the Cottonwood Room of the Laramie County Library. According to the director, Denise Burke, the cast includes roles for six men and 10 women, plus many extras, including jurors and townspeople. All auditions will be conducted as cold readings with primary focus on vocal projection and interaction. All roles could be played by women, but we encourage both men and women to audition. 

In addition to the play, the grant project will include reenactments of 24 Remarkable Women of Wyoming who were “firsts” in their respective fields. This includes such notable figures as Nellie Tayloe Ross, Thyra Thomson, Therese Jenkins, Estelle Reel, Grace Raymond Hebard, and Liz Byrd. These reenactors will be situated in the Capitol extension to distribute stickers for passports, primarily to children. Persons interested in these roles should also plan to attend. Grant details and the first readthrough of the play will immediately follow the audition. 

The play is set in a courtroom in upstate New York in the 1870s, where Susan B. Anthony is on trial for voting, a right that had not yet been granted to women. The play is based upon the actual trial of Susan B. Anthony. Tempers flare, animosities run high, and insults are traded as the fiery defendant of women’s rights challenges the ruling of the court. While her trial is basically a sham, she storms, pleads, lectures, and skillfully turns defeat into victory—sounding a call for human dignity, which inevitably awakened the conscience of the nation, including suffragists in Wyoming. At the conclusion of the play, the 24 Remarkable Women of Wyoming re-enactors will be available in the Capital Extension Walkway, near the Esther Hobart Morris statue.

Even if you are not interested in an acting role, please still plan to attend as many people are needed to help with “backstage” components of this grant project.

Performance of the play will be at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, in the Wyoming Capitol Auditorium.