WILLIAMSVILLE-For better or for worse, I have some 90 shows under my belt - if you count the five co-created with Leland & Gray kids to tour the Peoples Republic of China with Journey East, and if you don't count the Peter Pan I abridged and "directed" the summer I was 9, or the many pageants I led in Providence and then in Brattleboro.
So when I was asked by the Rock River Players (RRP), which we founded 10 years ago, to direct something for the Williamsville theater group's anniversary, there wasn't much left on my shortlist save Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
For years, in the back of my head, though, I've held another possibility: The Freeing of Mollie Steimer: the Compelling True Story of One Young Woman Who Stood Up to American Oppression ... and Would Not Back Down.
The play was written 28 years ago by Patrick Keppel of Brattleboro, who is a professor of theater at the New England Conservatory and chair of the liberal arts department there.
Patrick first shared the script with me in 2010, but the play screams relevance today. While any play of merit bears witness to some aspect of the human condition that deserves attention, the time was ripe for this production.
I joined with Patrick to bring it to life, and our proposal was accepted by the RRP. Then, in the winter, we assembled a company that's extraordinarily committed to delivering Mollie's story with all its resonance for our times.
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Mollie Steimer is poignant and powerful, gritty and timely. Reflecting many of today's current political controversies and divisions, the play tells of the difficulty of maintaining ideals - or even one's basic humanity - within an utterly corrupt society.
Through Fighting Faiths, the late Richard Polenberg's history of the case of anarchist Jacobs Abrams, Patrick learned of Steimer and dug further.
She lived in the U.S. from 1913 to 1923, "her family having emigrated here to escape Czarist persecution and to create a new life in what they believed was 'The Golden Land,'" Patrick says.
"They soon found, as did so many other immigrant families of the time, that oppressive working conditions made it nearly impossible to survive. At 19, the self-educated Mollie Steimer joined a small group of young Russian-Jewish anarchists called Frayhayt (Freedom)," he continues.
Steimer and the other members of the group printed "leaflets calling for general strikes that they hoped would lead to a new social order in their new country - one based on individual freedom and mutual aid," Patrick says - acts made illegal by the wartime Sedition Act.
In August 1918, six Frayhayt members were arrested "for distributing leaflets critical of the (illegal) U.S. intervention in Russia," he says.
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The trials of Steimer and four other activists later that year were travesties. Although their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court inspired a landmark free-speech dissent from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., they were convicted and remained in prison for several years of their sentences.
Steimer was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $500 fine, which would be equivalent to more than $10,500 today.
"Even in jail, Steimer refused to surrender to what she considered the arbitrary and inhuman exercise of authority," writes Patrick. A hunger strike she led to protest prison conditions nearly resulted in her death - but it was successful.
Finally, in 1921, "she and the others were deported to Russia, which was then persecuting anarchists, as well," the playwright adds.
However, Steimer remained true to her convictions for the rest of her life.
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Amy Donahue, in the titular role, quotes one of her lines that captures Steimer's essence: "We can't just lie down, we have to fight - and keep fighting."
Amy beams in rehearsal rolling through character growth and lines with a powerful confidence and conviction. Some actors just get it. They need so little direction. This cast is full of such, Amy among them.
She says it's "been a profound honor to bring Mollie Steimer to life. Learning about her life and her legacy, embodying her convictions, struggles, and tenacity has all been as much a challenge as an inspiration."
"She was a unique force by any standard, and her legacy is even more remarkable given all that was stacked against her," Amy continues. "I know I'll carry what she's taught me far beyond the end of the show."
Patrick notes that "the play is not about 'right versus wrong,' but about how we're all trapped in systems that slowly eat away at our basic humanity, sometimes without our even knowing."
"And about how, ultimately, the only way to maintain that humanity is by embracing our deeply rooted sense of compassion for one another, our sense of being a part of something larger and more wonderful than we know," he adds.
Tapping the quintessence, Patrick adds that his play "dramatizes the difficulty of maintaining humane values in a society that requires one to compromise those ideals simply to participate in it."
With its ample Brechtian elements, the script led us to nontraditional staging with a minimalist mindset infused with live, original music to punctuate and complement the sequence of lively episodes. Props and set pieces are out in the open, waiting to be used, lights rarely go to black, thus exposing set changes, entrances, and exits. And each scene is punctuated with the reading of its title.
We hope it's perceived as theater without pretense.
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Directing again to celebrate the RRP's 10th anniversary, it feels good to exercise all those muscles I'd been developing since childhood. More important, it's an honor to work with this script and to help shape its premiere.
Hoping it will contribute to the potency of protest in our area, I'm reminded of the beauty of ensemble creation. It can be sticky, funny, crazy, enervating, challenging, despairing, wonderful, transformative, and just lovely.
That ensemble includes Saskia Bailey-de Bruijn, Kay Becker, Peter Broussard, Walter Cramer, Geof Dolman, Amy Donahue, Shafiya Finger, Sean Fitzharris, Magdalena Keppel, Dyana Lee, Randy Lichtenwalner, Leo Mousseau, Shey Nessralla, John Ogorzalek, Casey Parles, Dave Ramsdell, Jeff Seabaugh, T. Breeze Verdant, and Rose Watson.
Musicians are Chris Ferrari, Leo Weisskoff, and Alex Yoo. Working behind the scenes are Emmadora Boutcher, Jess Guerrero, Brittany Lacey, and Belle Coles.
I'm grateful to them all for reminding us that theater is a vehicle not only for entertainment, but also for enlightenment, awareness, and action.
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Hard to believe, but it was 10 years ago this month that the Rock River Players launched with beautiful, poignant performances in Our Town followed by a wild and wacky You Can't Take It with You, and a witty, tender On Golden Pond.
Since then, the Rock River Players have produced every year - even during Covid - and they have seen increasingly greater numbers of audience members and participating actors, crew, playwrights, and designers. (Production history is found on rockriverplayers.org.)
Having passed on RRP leadership a few years ago, I'm moved beyond words by how the Rock River Players have grown and grateful to Bahman Mahdavi and to Amy for nurturing that growth over the last few years.
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The Freeing of Mollie Steimer is suitable for teen audiences and older.
Performances at Williamsville Hall, which is accessible, are Fridays and Saturdays, Aug. 15, 16, 22, and 23 at 7 p.m.; and Sundays, Aug. 17 and 24, at 3 p.m. Admission is $17, $14 for students. A post-performance discussion with the company is offered after the Sunday, Aug. 17, matinee.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit rockriverplayers.org.
Annie Landenberger is an arts writer and columnist for The Commons. Founding director of the Rock River Players, she has coached, directed, and mentored young people onstage, backstage, and offstage with the Leland and Gray Players, which she founded in 1996 and led - while teaching English at the middle/high school in Townshend - for 21 years.
This Arts column by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.