Commissioned by the Associates of the Boston Public Library, the world premiere of ONWARD – Votes for Women is a documentary play created by Lisa Rafferty, with music arranged and composed by Adam McDonald. 

The third event in the prestigious Pierce Performance Series, ONWARD celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.  The production offers the voices and perspectives of the extraordinary women who fought for 70 years for equality. Over thirty historical characters from the movement, along with women leaders from our time,  were portrayed by a cast of ten for three performances at Boston Public Library's Rabb Hall on November 16 and 17.

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The cast played multiple roles throughout the 70-minute performance, including Susan B. Anthony,  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Alice Paul, Mary Church Terrell, Shirley Chisholm, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Gloria Steinem.  The script is created verbatim from documents from the Special Collection, and other speeches, letters, articles and interviews from a variety of sources.  Suffrage music and songs were interspersed throughout, along with an original score.

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