Prayer Without Words by Debbie Denison
A Hundred Times More
A musical celebration of the 19th amendment
and women's work for freedom
Saturday, October 26, 2019, 7:30PM
First Unitarian Universalist Church
4700 Grover Ave, Austin, TX
Music and lyrics by Nell Clowder
Conducted by Jenn Goodner
Director/Dramaturg, Linda Nenno
Help us celebrate the 19th amendment, women's rights, and racial justice. Although the show is over, we can still use your support to defray expenses and to help us mount another performance. Tax-deductible donations are made to Austin Creative Alliance on behalf of Nell Clowder: A Hundred Times More.
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"Can you not see that women would do and could do a hundred times more for the slave if she
were not fettered?" Angelina Grimke
A Hundred Times More is a musical celebration of Sarah and Angelina Grimke and Sarah Mapps Douglass, women who helped to end slavery and start the women's movement. Sarah and Angelina Grimke were born (1792 and 1805) into a wealthy, slave-owning family in South Carolina. Among all the white people they knew, including the fourteen Grimke children, these two sisters alone could not abide slavery. Growing up at odds with their family and society, they eventually left home (an extraordinary thing for unmarried women to do in those days) and moved to Philadelphia. There they met Sarah Mapps Douglass, a black abolitionist, and connected with the abolitionist community. |
The sisters' passionate opposition to slavery, their experiences as southerners, and their talent for speaking and writing led the abolitionist movement to take them in as speakers—the first women to become agents for the abolitionist movement. While the Grimkes became notorious as women assuming the man's role of public reformer, female anti-slavery societies like the one founded by Douglass labored behind the scenes to collect anti-slavery petition signatures and raise money. Unwilling to accept a gender code that prevented them from doing all they could to end slavery, the Grimkes, Sarah Douglass, and others pressed the issue. Their efforts led directly to the first American convention for women's rights in 1848. 2019 is a doubly significant year to remember women like the Grimkes and Douglass. The 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote, was approved by congress in 1919. In June 1920 it achieved ratification by the states and became law. Four hundred years ago, in 1619, the first slave ship arrived in the American colonies. Sadly, the courageous work of these women against slavery and racism still speaks to issues in America today. |
| Cast | |
Natalie Howard as Sarah Mapps Douglass Natalie Howard is a professional full lyric soprano based in the Austin area. Ms. Howard has performed numerous roles, including the title role in Pucinni's Suor Angelica and Erste Dame in Mozart's Die Zauberflote. In addition to operatic roles, Ms. Howard has performed several recitals, including being featured in the Alexander von Humboldt Chapter Meeting recital of Songs of Richard Strauss and Gerald Finzi: Based on the Texts of William Shakespeare. Ms. Howard also appeared as an Emerging Artist with the 2019 Victoria Bach Festival. Ms. Howard has competed in several competitions and most recently placed second in the National Association of Negro Musicians Southwestern Region Competition and received a finalist award in the Houston Saengerbund Vocal Competition in 2019. She also holds the Butler School of Music Presidential Scholarship for 2015-2016 and for 2016-2017, was a semi-finalist the Orpheus Vocal Competition as well as a finalist in the Henry Charles Memorial Concerto/Aria Competition. Ms. Howard received her Bachelors of Music from Illinois Wesleyan University under the tutelage of Dr. Carren Moham and Dr. Jamie-Rose Guarrine. She has recently received a Master's degree in Opera Performance from the University of Texas at Austin under the instruction of Darlene Wiley. Music has always been a large part of Ms. Howard's life. She fondly remembers singing for church and family gatherings as well as church services with the local Veteran's Hospital. In addition to an active performing career, Ms. Howard serves as an arts administrator for Conspirare in the Austin area, is a certified Music Together Teacher, and is a member of the Carol Hickey Acting Studio. |
Charissa Memrick as Angelina Grimke Charissa Memrick is a dynamic crossover coloratura soprano, described by broadwayworld.com as 'show-stopping.' Ms. Memrick has portrayed a wide variety of characters including The Governess in Turn of the Screw, Crystal in Little Shop of Horrors, Amy in Alex in Transition by Anthony Green, Trio Member in Trouble in Tahiti, and many more. Ms. Memrick earned a Bachelors degree in Vocal Performance and a Masters degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy. Her vocal ability flowered through more than a decade of classical and musical theatre. Her stage presence is grounded in her passion for expressing the human condition and bringing complex characters to life. |
Page Stephens as Sarah Grimke Page Stephens is a mezzo soprano, voice teacher and arts administrator, based in Austin, Texas, who has a soft spot for new music. Notable premiere performances in the last two years include Dana Lyn's A Pont on a Slow Curve with Lyn's band Mother Octopus; Adrienne Inglis' Innocent Blood as Mary Esty with Inversion Ensemble, Mark Kilstofte's The White Album with Copland House in New York, the UT New Music Ensemble in Austin and pianist Chuck Dillard in Portland, and the Texas premiere of Harold Meltzer's Variations on a Summer Day with the UT New Music Ensemble. Recent musical and operatic roles include Yvonne in Sunday in the Park with George with Austin Shakespeare, Cecilia March in Little Women with the Butler Opera Center, and the Dating Coordinator in Speed Dating Tonight! with Alamo City Opera. This coming season, Ms. Stephens will premiere Russell Podgorsek's operetta The Two of Swords with Invoke String Quartet as part of the Butler School's new Small Batch Series. She will also play Auschwitz survivor Eva Kor in Thomas Yee's new opera Eva and the Angel of Death in April with Density512 at the Austin Central Library. When Page is not singing or teaching, she serves as the Assistant Director for Operations at the Butler School of Music. |
David Small as Theodore Weld Baritone David Small enjoys an established and continuing career on the operatic and concert stage. Equally comfortable with comedy or drama, his repertoire is richly varied, including performances of over sixty different operatic roles. He has performed Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia well over 100 times, charming opera audiences throughout the United States, France and Spain. Other roles include: Escamillio, Dr. Malatesta, Belcore, The Pirate King, Girard (Andrea Chenier), Valentin, Danilo, Don Giovanni, Il Conte d'Almaviva, Guglielmo, Papageno, The Four Villains, Marcello, Scarpia, Sharpless, High Priest (Samson & Delilah), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Faninal (Der Rosenkavalier), Germont (La Traviata) and many others. Mr. Small sang and recorded the role of Tony in Menotti's Help, Help, the Gobolinks! for Madison Opera and is heard on Newport Classics with John DeMain conducting. He is featured on the recording of Jerre Tanner's The Kona Coffee Cantata with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, as well as The Songs of Joseph Marx and Classical Carols, produced by Hal Leonard Publications. He has sung solo recitals with pianists Anton Nel, Claude Cymerman, Ann Epperson, Kathleen Kelly, Chuck Dillard, Rick Rowley, Jason Peterson, Steve Wogaman, Elden Little, among others. His oratorio repertoire includes Elijah, Ein Deutsches Requiem, Faure Requiem, Messiah, Szymanowski Stabat Mater, John Adems The Wound Dresser, Duruflè Requiem and many more. He has been featured as soloist with St. Louis Symphony, Cincinnati May Festival, the Haifa Symphony (Israel), Austin Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Canton Symphony, Missouri Symphony, Lansing Symphony and Bravo! Colorado Music Festival. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in the Lord Nelson Mass and Schubert's Mass in G with John Rutter conducting. |
Tapestry Singers
and
Austin Creative Alliance