Plays For Women:!
A collection of overlooked suffrage plays
Biographies
Maria Burnham
Maria Burnham [she/her] (Dr. Strong/Chairwoman/Gertrude Silberthwaite) is a Greek-American writer, director and sometimes actor and a founding member of Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre. For Ghostlight she has directed Six Characters in Search of an Author and Krampus! as well as writing and directing The Princess Without Pots and The Selfish Giant, among other company endeavors. Maria is excited to be returning to the Driehaus Museum as part of For Your (Re)Consideration after starring as Kate Derwent in last year’s co-production of The Shadow of A Doubt. Thank you for supporting women artists and helping us rediscover so many forgotten works by women. Special thanks to her husband, Chad, who is her best editor and her biggest fan.
Christine Marie
Christine Marie [she/her] (Mr. Billings/Hilda Crowninshield) has been a co-producer of Yippiefest since 2019 and is a member of Ghostlight Ensemble. From 2012-2016, she won Best Performed Monologue, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress and Best Director for the Black and White Festival at Pittsburgh Playwrights' Theater. She has written, directed and performed in Bad Theater Fest and Bad Film Fest taking home Best Adaptation in the latter. Regarding adaptations, she has adapted The Scottish Play (No, I won't even write it in the Bio, how dare you) for the competition show Bard Wars and 12th Midsummers Night Tempest highlighting the loyalty and dedication between two of Shakespeare's common but overlooked characters, Antonio and Sebastian, as a fundraiser for Pulse and the community therein. She has toured Brimstone and Grind, a series taking things in the public domain and telling them in the medium of Vaudeville/Burlesque. Since moving to Chicago, she wrote, directed and starred in 2 Idiots in a Haunted House for the Rhino Fest, ran plenty of box office, stage managed and designed sets. In the summer of 2023, she was lucky enough to be cast in Ghostlight Ensemble's Make/Believe Festival, and feels empowered to be considered a peer by any one of the names above and below, and hopes to contribute to the incredible work this talented team is doing.
Jessye Mueller
Jessye Grace Mueller [she/her] (Mr. Arnold/Dr. Alice) is an actor, writer and improviser based in Chicago. Jessye is thrilled to return to Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre. Previous Ghostlight credits include Miss Elizabeth Bennett, Warp and Woof and Playoffs. Selected credits include Improvised Jane Austen (iO Chicago), Ask Your Doctor: A Pharmaceutical Musical, Trigger Happy! Lab Cast Season 5 (Annoyance Theatre), Buzzed Broadway (CSz Chicago), This American Lie, Mary Scruggs Works by Women Festival, Improvised Young Adult Fiction (de Maat Studio Theater), The Masterpiece Players Present: Improvised Masterpiece Theatre (Donny's Skybox), Jessye has studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in its Experimental Theatre Wing and has her bachelor of arts in theatre and drama from Indiana University-Bloomington. She also studied in The Second City Training Center’s Conservatory and Music Conservatory. Jessye has also appeared on the podcasts Hello from The Magic Tavern, its spinoff series Usidore's Fetching Quests, and on The Topical, a daily podcast from The Onion.
Squeek Rangel
Out loud Squeek Rangel [she/her] (Miss Carrie Turner/Mrs. Puckle) is an improviser, voice actor, writer and performer. Quietly? She's a nerd. You're just as likely to see her on TV (Work in Progress, The Big Leap) or in a commercial (International Delight, Rocket Lawyer) as you are to catch her on the soccer field, at an anime screening or organizing a highly cultured and historically classic movie marathon..,(Twilight). Say hi/bye on Instagram: @squeekrangel
HOLLY rOBISON
Holly Robison [she/her] (Director, Miss De Lacey) is Interim Co-Artistic Director with Ghostlight Ensemble and a Chicago-based director, actor and improvisor. Favorite directing credits include An Ideal Husband, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as numerous other short productions. For Ghostlight, she conceived and curates For Your (Re)Consideration, a reading series that looks at historically overlooked plays by women. She has studied directing with various organizations, including the summer program, A Practical Approach to Directing, at Yale School of Drama and is a member of Lincoln Center Directors Lab. She is also a cast member and Producer with Improvised Jane Austen.
Sydney Ray
Sydney Ray [she/her] (Mrs. O’Shane/Nora Baillie) is an actor and educator based in Chicago. Theatre credits include: The Princess Without Pots (Queen), Ghostlight Ensemble; The Wild Party (Kate), Music for Theatre Chicago; Into the Woods (Baker’s Wife) and Spoon River Anthology, E.D.G.E. Theatre; and Ruddigore (Women’s Chorus), Savoyaires . She is an Ensemble Member with Ghostlight Ensemble, is currently pursuing her Masters of Social Work from University of Illinois, Chicago, and is incredibly delighted to be part of this staged reading.
Sera Rae Young
Sera Rae Young [they/them] (Mrs. Carroll/Nellie Grant) is an actor, writer, improviser and producer. They have produced for and performed in multiple shows for their sketch comedy group First Day of School, including Hamster Party, Discount Candy, and The Asteroid. When they aren't putting together a show, you can see them performing around town with their teams Whimsy Lohan and Improvised Jane Austen.
Juliana Rose Zepeda
Juliana Rose Zepeda (Mrs. Reedway/Lady Geraldine) is a comedic actress and singer from San Antonio, Texas. She earned her bachelor of fine arts in theater performance with an emphasis in musical theatre from Baylor University. She is a member many esteemed improv and sketch groups around Chicago including Improvised Jane Austen, Whimsy Lohan: iO House Team (Chicago) and Voila at iO. She also loves getting to play on Wheel of Improv and Improvised Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants the Musical at Second City, and Girl Party at the Annoyance where she also got to play the Nun in Splatter this past fall. She loves her family, friends and the Lord and hopes to make people laugh for a long, long time. Follow her on instagram! @jayz_nottherapper
Playwrights
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman [1860 - 1935] (Something to Vote For) was an acclaimed American feminist; sociologist; writer of novels, short stories, poetry and nonfiction; and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist during a time when her accomplishments were exceptional for women, and she served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.
Beatrice Harraden
Beatrice Harraden [1864–1936] (Something to Vote For) was a British writer, feminist, suffragette, journalist and a tireless worker for wounded soldiers in the First World War. She published 17 novels, as well as writing letters to the editor, short stories, a suffrage play and pamphlet and children's books. In 1893, she found fame with her debut novel, Ships That Pass in the Night, a love story set in a tuberculosis sanatorium.
H.M. Paull
H.M. (Harry Major) Paull [1854-1934] (An Anti-Suffragist, or, The Other Side) was an English playwright and secretary of the Dramatists' Club. He worked at H.M. Office of Works and published over 20 plays and books between 1880 and 1930, including "The New Clown" (1902) and three plays for all female casts: "The Last Day of Term" (1922), "Back to College" (1923) and "Chums" (1925). He was a contributor to the "Nineteenth Century" and to the "Fortnightly Review."
Mrs. Harlow Phibbs
Mrs. Harlow Phibbs, nee Frances Clarke, (The Mother’s Meeting) was the wife of the Church of England Curate in Hastings and appears to have been very active in the Suffrage movement there, including leading the local Women’s Suffrage Choir. She wrote The Rack (1912) and is very probably the author of Jim’s Leg (1911), another suffrage comic monologue featuring a working class character.