(MURFREESBORO) A multifaceted project involving several members of the MTSU community will honor great women in Rutherford County history to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in America.
The Rutherford ARTS Alliance and City of Murfreesboro Cultural Arts are spearheading the partnership as a part of the national centennial celebration of American women's right to vote. Tennessee became the 36th state to approve the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, which provided three-fourths of the states necessary for ratification.
"Leading Ladies of Rutherford County History" is a month long effort to bring the women who have shaped Rutherford County's history and culture to life through one-act dramatizations, podcasts and educational displays.
Committee members have chosen more than two dozen Rutherford County women to be highlighted. They include MTSU chemistry professor June Anderson, who championed women's issues on campus; Priscilla Carney, a slave who worked for the Union cause during the Civil War; and Annie Brawley Jackson, secretary of a Murfreesboro women's suffrage society.
"The project aims to encourage a sense of place within the community by lifting up the achievements of local women from the past, many of whom did not always receive full credit for their accomplishments," said Antoinette Van Zelm, assistant director of MTSU's Center for Historic Preservation and a member of the project planning committee.
The culmination of the project will be the premiere of the play "Party of Twelve" by Mary Donnet Johnson, which has been rescheduled for 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is slated to take place in Washington Theater at Patterson Park, 521 Mercury Blvd. in Murfreesboro.
In addition, Lauren Shouse, an assistant professor of theatre, and Claudia Barnett, a professor of English, assigned their students prior to MTSU's spring break to write and produce one-act plays of their own.
"They had to tackle it creatively and independently -- and not as we'd originally conceived it," Barnett said of the students. "But they really rose to the challenge and produced a fascinating body of work."
The university's transition to virtual learning after spring break forced the students to alter their plans and methods. However, Barnett said they came through beautifully.
"The playwrights met (virtually) with the directors to discuss their plays, and then the directors created the storyboards," Barnett said. "For our final event, ... the playwrights talked about their plays, and the directors showed and discussed their storyboards (via Zoom).
Collaborators for "Leading Ladies of Rutherford County" include the Center for the Arts; the African American Heritage Society of Rutherford County; Carpe Artista; Main Street Murfreesboro; the Smyrna Artist Cooperative; the Murfreesboro Art League; the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce Convention and Visitors Bureau.
MTSU collaborators are the College of Liberal Arts, the Center for Historic Preservation, the American Democracy Project and the Division of Marketing and Communication.
For more information, go to the website at http://webforu2.net/leading/index.html or the Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/y9dxqgn9 or contact Cathy Sgambati, public relations specialist in the MTSU Division of Marketing and Communications, at 615-202-0991.
