SAILING TOWARD SUFFRAGE. As a part of the centennial celebration of women's rights, the Eau Claire Women in Theater group have organized a series of theatrical vignettes to celebrate women's suffrage. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society)

“Well-behaved women rarely make history.” It’s a common enough quote, but one local theater group – in partnership with the League of Women Voters – decided to take a look at the women who led the movement for women’s suffrage. “I hope people realize the difficulty that it took to get to that point of getting the vote,” said organizer Debbie Brown. It’s a sentiment that Kathleen Sullivan, a fellow theater group member, shares. “I hope that people do take seriously their right to vote,” she said.

The Eau Claire Women in Theater group – otherwise known as ecWIT – planned a theatrical performance culminating a year of research from local museums and universities about women’s suffrage. Because of the coronavirus, they changed gears to produce three vignettes, or short video performances, telling the story of important women’s rights leaders. The vignettes, together called “Failure is Impossible,” include “Beginnings – Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton,” “On Wisconsin – Theodora Youmans, Belle LaFollette, and Olympia Brown,” and “Finally – Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul.” “We focus on the words and on bringing the words alive,” Brown said. The amount of research and thought they put into each of the performances is extensive, she said, but not unusual.

The theater group is composed of veteran female performers from the Chippewa Valley who sought more opportunities in theater, and together they have created a number of productions that include research-heavy topics, including one they performed last year at the Chippewa Valley Book Festival. In fact, many of their performances are based on their own writing, rather than copyrighted plays. Despite the extensive local and global information they’ve found, Brown said these feminist stories provide “fascinating” insights into women who all wanted to achieve suffrage but had vastly different ideas of how to accomplish it – not unlike the divisive political climate today. “It’s not over,” Brown said. “Not everyone has the rights that they need.”

Though the group hopes to share its full performance in 2021, you can watch the three short vignettes online here.