Massachusetts State House the unlikely stage for new play by Boston theater company
BOSTON - The Massachusetts State House may not be the first place you would think of to see theater, but that's what makes a new play so special. Performances of "A Light Under the Dome" are now underway in the Senate Chamber.
The State House is the perfect stage
The production is from Plays in Place, a Boston-based theater company specializing in creating site-specific plays. For each piece, the company partners with museums, historic sites, or, in this case, National Parks of Boston.
Katie Woods, a digital public historian with Parks, tells us work started four years ago, saying, "We came together and decided that we wanted to do a series of three plays that talked about the intersection of the suffrage and abolitionist movements in Boston."
"It's an element of Boston history that's often overlooked. We think of abolition, we think of the Revolutionary War a lot and all the time, but the role that the women's movement played here is often vastly overshadowed by New York and Philadelphia," explains playwright and producing artistic director of Plays in Place, Patrick Gabridge.
In 1838, Angelina Grimke addressed the Senate Chamber at the State House, becoming the first American woman to speak before a U.S. legislative body.
"She was really breaking new ground and in a space that not only was not open to her, but was not welcome to her, and so being able to kind of create this moment and bring it to life seemed like a perfect opportunity," Wood says.
"Really, really special"
The actors, including Marge Dunn, are reveling in the unique opportunity.
"There's nothing like performing in a room like this. Obviously, it's challenging in some ways because you don't have a strict audience space; you don't have a strict stage to perform on. Acoustically, sometimes it's kind of strange to talk in that room, but there's something that just brings this gravitas and this weight to the piece that is really, really special," Dunn says.
Gabridge tells WBZ-TV it's difficult to fully understand the past when you only have history books to rely on.
"Our work works to unflatten history and really show the complexity that people faced in historical times."
You can see "A Light Under the Dome," for free at the State House. There are two daily performances through Thursday.