Who's Who - Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc was actually born as Jehanne D'arc  she referred to herself only as “Jehanne la Pucelle” (“Joan the Maid”) and initially testified that she didn’t know her last name.

Joan allegedly first heard the voice of god at age 12. When Joan was 16 she left home in order to answer the call of god who informed her that she was to assist the future king in recapturing French territory form its English invaders.

 

She was the youngest person in history to have ever commanded the armies of a nation, she was only 17 years old at the time. Yet she never actually fought in any battle. During her battles she was wounded twice, once in the chest with an arrow and once in the thigh after being hit by a crossbow. It is said in several contemporary sources that she predicted both of these injuries prior to their happening.
 

In modern times she has been diagnosed by various doctors and scholars as suffering from one of numerous neurological and psychiatric condition that trigger hallucinations or delusions, including migraines, bipolar disorder and brain lesions, to name just a few. Yet another theory holds that she contracted bovine tuberculosis, which can cause seizures and dementia, from drinking unpasteurized milk and tending cattle as a young girl.

She Crowned King Charles VII at his coronation ceremony after being told to by the voice of god she allegedly heard.

In 1431 she was put on trial for heresy by her English captures. The English supposedly threatened to torture Joan if she did not deny the voices she had been hearing. She eventually abjured and gave in to the wishes of the judge. But her resumption of male military clothing was labeled a relapse into heresy and the reason for her execution. The reason for the relapse? Men's clothing deterred rape.

On May 30th 1431 Joan  was burned at the stake. She was only 19 years old at the time. 

 In 1920 the Catholic church canonized her and made her into Saint by the same church that burned her at the stake centuries earlier.

 

Who's Who? - Amelia Earhart

At the age of 7, Amelia Earhart and her sister constructed their own roller-coaster using fence rails and roller skates.

After working as nurse and a telephone operator, Amelia became a social worker in Boston where she taught English to immigrant children.

In 1928, only one year after Charles Lindbergh's flight, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make the flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Bill Stultz was flying the plane and Amelia was checking maps and keeping recordings. Since she didn't fly the plane herself, she later said that although it was a "grand experience," that she had felt like "baggage."

On Feb. 7, 1931, Amelia Earhart married George Putnam. In the past Earhart had turned down a proposal from another gentleman, saying that she didn't want to be a "domestic robot."

In 1932 she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Three other women had previously died trying.  Acknowledging the dangers of attempting a flight around the world, Amelia Earhart said, "If I should pop off, it will be doing the thing I've always wanted to do."

Awards Won:
U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross;
Cross of the Knight of the Legion of Honor, from the French Government;
Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society
Harmon Trophy as America's outstanding airwoman in 1932, 1933, 1934, and 1935.
Romania - Award for Aeronautic Merit

On June 1, 1937 Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, began their flight around the world, covering the first leg from Florida to Puerto Rico. The flight took them to South America, Africa, India, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Guinea. Amelia Earhart and Noonan left New Guinea on July 2, 1937, headed for Howland Island, a tiny island in the Pacific only two miles long and one mile wide. They never arrived. Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Pacific on July 3.

 

Who's Who - Susan B. Anthony

Susan was a very precocious child learning to read and write at the age of three. Susan was then home-schooled because her father was unimpressed with the education level at the local schools.

At seventeen, Anthony went off to a Quaker boarding school, but was forced to return home after only a single term. Her family was financially devastated by the economic downturn known as the "Panic of 1873". To assist her family Susan left home to teach at another Quaker boarding school.

Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 and for the next five decades the Anthony and Stanton worked together on suffrage, equal rights, temperance and anti-slavery issues. Stanton was known as the more philosophical of the pair, while Anthony was considered the organizer and rally leader.

Anthony was tireless in her efforts, giving speeches around the country to convince others to support a woman's right to vote.Susan always suffered severe stage fright. Anthony sometimes had to grip the podium hard to restrain herself from shaking. Anthony wrote in 1878: "It always requires a painful effort to face an audience. I have never felt at perfect ease on a platform".

In 1872 she voted in the presidential election illegally. Anthony was arrested and tried unsuccessfully to fight the charges. She ended up being fined $100 – a fine she never paid.

In 1878 Anthony and Stanton arranged for Congress to be presented with an amendment giving women the right to vote. Popularly known as the Anthony Amendment, it became the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920

Who's Who - Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was born in Pennsylvania, and moved to Paris after failing to complete her medical studies at Johns Hopkins. A circle of writers and artists centered around first Stein and her brother, Leo, and later Stein and her partner, Alice B. Toklas.

She met her lifelong partner Alice B. Toklas on the first day she arrived in Paris, they were inseperable until her death.

During World War I Stein and Toklas served as volunteers for the American Fund for the French troops. Stein ordered a Ford truck from the United States, learned how to drive, and with Alice delivered supplies to French hospitals. They called the truck, their first vehicle, “Auntie,” named for Stein’s sensible Aunt Pauline, “who always behaved admirably in emergencies.” To show friends their wartime efforts, they sent photographic postcards of themselves with “Auntie.” These were the first photographs documenting the two women at work as a couple. The French government awarded them the Médaille de la Reconnaissance Française for their service.

In a conversation with Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein said "All of you young people who served in the war...you are all a lost generation". The phrase depicted a generation, characterized by doomed youth, hedonism and creativity, that had been severely wounded by their experiences and horrors of the war.

After meeting Pablo Picasso in Paris, Stein became fascinated by Cubism,

which concentrated on the illumination of the moment. Stein tried to translate Cubism's abstraction and disruption of perspective into a prose form and present an object or an experience from every angle simultaneously. The effect was reinforced by minimal use of punctuation and sentences that seemed to have no end.

Stein’s lived out the second World War in southeastern France against the advisment of many. She was Jewish, American, homosexual, and a radically modern artist, making her a highly potential target of Nazi persecution. German soldiers billeted with the women on two different occasions. Stein explained her survival as a simple matter: the Germans never recognized Stein as a famous American writer.

Who's Who - Isabella of Spain

Her name was Isabel, not Isabella...

Isabel's brother Henry IV did not support her marriage to Ferdinand II of Aragorn. He intended her to marry Alfonso V. Henry IV had a daughter Juana but there were questions raised about her paternity. So the Castilian throne was passed to his sister not his offspring. His plan was for Isabel to marry Alfonso, then for Juana marry to his son so that Juana could  take the throne by marriage. Isabel had other plans and chose to escape and marry Ferdinand then the heir to Aragon. Together Isabel and Ferdinand ruled a newly united Spain with equal authority (until her death) for nearly 30 years.
Isabel and Ferdinand were known as the Catholic Kings.

In the year 1492 Isabel:
Personally funded Columbus's trip to the New World
Expelled all the Jews from Spain.

As mother to  five children, she took great care that the children received a strong education, two of whom were Catherine of Aragorn (Wife of Henry VIII) and Johanna of Castile (Johanna the Mad).

When her five-year-old daughter fell into danger, being imprisoned by rebels in the Alcázar in Segovia. The Queen rode with only three companions right into and through the hostile and threatening mob outside to secure the safety of her child. Her courage placated the mob and her openness to their grievances won them over completely.


Founded the Spanish Inquisition in 1478

On her deathbed Isabel’s dictated her Last Will and Codicil, saying:

“no consent nor place is given for the mistreatment of the Indian natives and inhabitants of said Indies and Mainland...

...to their persons or their possessions, but it is so ordered that they be well and justly treated and if they receive any grievance that it be remedied, and that it be provided for”

.

Who's who - Pearl White.

The Girl in the Gossamer Dress - Pearl White


Born into poverty, she later became a shrewd businesswoman, investing in a successful Parisian nightclub, a Biarritz resort hotel/casino, plus a profitable stable of thoroughbred race horses.

Pearl went on the stage starting at the age of six, playing Little Eva in a production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to earn money for the family.

 

Around 1914-1915 she was the most popular female star in silent films, for a time even topping Mary Pickford's popularity at the box office.

She was famous for her blond hair, which was actually a wig she began wearing early in her career. She discovered that it photographed better than her own naturally dark hair, and it eventually became her trademark. Whenever she wished to be unnoticed in public, she would appear without the wig - using her own hair as a disguise.
 

Second husband, actor/director Wallace McCucheon Jr. had been gassed in World War One, later suffered mental problems and eventually committed suicide.
 

Flying airplanes, racing cars and swimming across rivers, Pearl did much of her own dangerous stunt work and as a result she suffered a number injuries that forced her to begin using a stunt double in her later films. Over the years, White's alcohol use increased substantially to help numb her chronic pain from all those injuries. In 1933 she had to be hospitalized for alcoholism and became addicted to the drugs used during her treatment.

 

 

8 Women in an Asylum in 1939

That is the premise of Chamber Music.
That is an interesting place to inhabit.

Exploring the reality of that place is the work we as a group have just begun,
and it's going to be an exciting trip.
Some of Olympia's strongest talent has been brought together to bring this
thought provoking, frightening, yet often funny piece of theater to life.
It is obvious this is going to be one wild ride.

The playwright, Arthur Kopit has put together quite the parfait, there are layers
upon so many delicious layers. So many questions. Who are these women?
Why are they in this institution? What do they really believe?

Choices, so many choices...

Each actor must decide if their character is one of the many women of the period
who were cast off, locked away simply because they didn't fit the societal norm,
which was despicably common, or IS their character dealing with actual mental illness.
If so, what is their affliciton, and where on the spectrum are they?
That's savory stuff for any actor to chew on. When questions like those
are dealt with and fleshed out, even if those questions are not asked in the text
of the script, it translates into dynamic performances. Last night was our first real
rehearsal, those questions were already being asked and dealt with. It is exciting and heady stuff.

If that was not enough of tasty treat, these characters each have alter egos.
So in addition to the usual character work we must explore the truth of the
women that the inmates have chosen as their facades.

Layers upon layers...

Why Chamber Music?

Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) began as a group of like minded theater folk who simply wanted to do good work, and work on shows they had a passion for.

The first full production  ever mounted was Chamber Music by Arthur Kopit at the Mariah Art space. The show was very well received and the process enjoyed by all.

Here it is 11 years down the road and TAO is at the threshold of a great change. Up to this point it's been a gypsy life, performing in 10 different venues up and down  I-5 from Centralia to Tacoma.

The Midnight Sun, a venue that has been used through the years is now no longer going to be a place visited, it's going to be TAO's home. Returning to Chamber Music seemed fitting as a great way celebrate a whole new beginning.

Chamber Music is an absurdist black comedy set in the year 1939. We join the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Duly-Elected Grievance and Someday Governing Committee of Wing Five, Women's Section. And there is much to discuss. Poor Amelia Earhart, she just wants to go home, captured and left to rot in the asylum with all the other members of the committee, who unlike Amelia (?) all suffer from delusions of grandeur believing they are famous women from across the centuries. Susan B. Anthony doesn't want to hear it, Joan of Arc's pants keep rusting, and Isabella of Spain just can't figure out what to do about Columbus. While these are all compelling issues. the important topic of discussion is what to do about the threat from the men's ward.

TAO is proud to announce the cast for Chamber Music::

Woman Who Plays Records         (Constanze Mozart) ..... Amanda Stevens
Woman in Safari Outfit          (Osa Johnson) .....  Kim Holm
Woman with Notebook             (Gertrude Stein) ..... Kate Ayers
Girl in the Gossamer Dress      (Pearl White) ..... Vanessa Postil
Woman in Aviatrix Outfit        (Amelia Earhart) .....  Cheyenne Logan
Woman in Queenly Garb           (Isabella of Spain) ..... Priscilla Zal
Woman in Armor                 (Joan of Arc) ..... Alayna Chamberland
Woman with Gavel               (Susan B. Anthony) ..... Debbie Sampson

Man in White                        Michael Christopher
His Assistant                       Christopher Rocco