I’m so thrilled to be back on stage with Persistence, this time in an epic piece by Trudy Morgan-Cole about Armine Nutting Gosling, leader of the suffragist movement in St. John’s. Alison Woolridge is doing incredible work in the rehearsal room as Armine, and her real-life husband Brian Marler is holding the fort as the only man in the show, Armine’s husband Gilbert.
The title refers to Armine’s sister Adelaide (played by brilliant Bridget Wareham), who chose nursing and then teaching where Armine chose marriage, carving a path and leaving a legacy of women’s empowerment and pedagogy in her wake. In a way, Adelaide is what Armine might have been, in a parallel universe, if she hadn’t fallen in love. The play, which takes place about a hundred years ago (property-owning women gained the vote in St. John’s in 1921 thanks in part to Armine’s efforts), still rings true to those of us who seek a balance between ambition and family.
I’m delighted to be playing “Woman #3,” ie., a variety of ladies who pop up in Armine’s life. Women #s 1 and 2 (Terri Andrews and Wendi Smallwood) and I make up a sort of chorus that builds out the world beyond Armine’s immediate family.
Directed by Jenn Deon, assistant directed by Allison Moira Kelly, with movement direction by Lynn Panting, stage management by Stef Power and design by Renate Pohl, Alison Helmer, and Kathryn Burke.