The Freeing of Mollie Steimer – Rock River Players

– PERFORMANCES –

Friday August 15 at 7pm
Saturday August 16 at 7pm
Sunday August 17 at 3pm

A post-performance discussion with the company will be offered after the August 17th matinee performance.

Friday August 22 at 7pm
Saturday August 23 at 7pm
Sunday August 24 at 3pm

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WILLIAMSVILLE HALL
35 Dover Road
Williamsville, VT 05351
(ADA compliant)

TICKETS
General Admission: $17
Students: $14

Seating is limited – click here to reserve in advance!

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Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Rock River Players will stage the world premiere of Brattleboro playwright Patrick Keppel’s The Freeing of Mollie Steimer: the Compelling True Story of One Young Woman Who Stood Up to American Oppression… and Refused to Back Down.

A company of 24 area performers, designers, and crew will be joined by a trio of New York City-based musicians for the production, which is co-directed by Keppel and RRP founder, Annie Landenberger.

Reflecting many of today’s current political controversies and divisions, the play dramatizes the difficulty of maintaining ideals—or even one’s basic humanity—within an utterly corrupt society.

Following one young woman’s inspiring story, the play opens in 1913, as the Steimer family arrives in the US, having emigrated escape Czarist persecution and to create a new life in what they believed was “The Golden Land.” 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”). Encouraged by the Russian Revolution, they 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.

The passing of the wartime Sedition Act made such activities illegal and, in August 1918, Frayhayt members were arrested for distributing leaflets critical of the (illegal) US intervention in Russia. One member of the group was severely beaten by the police and died a month later. The trial of Steimer and the others was a travesty, and they were sentenced to twenty years in prison. Although their appeal to the Supreme Court inspired a landmark free-speech dissent from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, they remained in prison for several years.

Even in jail, Steimer refused to surrender to what she considered the arbitrary and inhuman exercise of authority. A hunger strike she began to protest prison conditions nearly resulted in her death—but it was successful. Finally, in 1923 she and the others were deported to Russia, which was then persecuting anarchists, as well. For the next sixty years, Mollie Steimer remained true to her convictions.

The play’s expressionistic montage of scenes is designed, says Keppel, “to engage and envelop the audience. The lively episodes are woven together by richly-layered instrumental themes and by an improvisatory soundscape” created by a New York-based trio.

The Mollie Steimer company, in addition to Keppel and Landenberger includes: Saskia Bailey-de Bruijn, Kay Becker, Peter Broussard, Walter Cramer, Amy Donahue, Tom Ely, 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, Rose Watson. Emmadora Boutcher assists with social media; graphic design by Donahue; Broussard is lighting captain; Jess Guerrero is stage manager and props master; Belle Coles is costumier. Original music composed for the production by Chris Ferrari, Leo Weisskof, and Alex Yoo is performed live by that trio.

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CONTENT WARNING
This show contains offensive language, mention of sexual assault, and depictions of police brutality; it is not suitable for children.

Tickets are available at the door or by using the form below.

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