Theatre Forty has done us all a great favor in staging All These Women, a meticulously researched play by Melanie MacQueen, who also directs. After all, it is well known that the fight for women’s rights began in the mid-19th century and concluded with ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, but little or nothing remains of the fight that women took on to get the amendment crafted in Congress, and then sent out to the states for ratification. To me it is daunting just to think about how many state house-members had to be convinced that women even deserved the right to vote!
In a nutshell, the story can be summed up: Two women, Lucy Burns (played by Kristen Towers Rowles) and Alice Paul (Anica Petrovic), take opposing pathways in trying to accomplish the same thing – the success of the amendment to grant voting rights to women – and finally work together with help from Woodrow Wilson (played by Lary Ohlson), the newly elected President of the United States.
Along the way, playwright-director MacQueen has woven in contributions from other women, April Audia, Jessica Kent and Michelle Schultz, who endured hunger strikes and even jail. Todd Andrew Ball and Daniel Leslie round out the cast.
Played against Theatre Forty’s traditional backdrop, the production benefits from projections by Gabriel Griego, and, especially, the lovely costumes culled by designer Michael Mullen, augmented by hair and makeup by Judi Levin. Traditional lighting is by Derrick McDaniel. The play has only this weekend more so I hope all can drop everything to see this important history brought to life. It provides pressing lessons for us to learn for today’s cultural problems.
All These Women continues Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, tctober 19, 2025, at Theatre Forty’s Beverly Hills High School location; 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills 90212. All tickets are $35. For reservations, or subscription information, phone (310) 364-0535 or online at http://theatre40.org.
