Kentucky Historical Society
Staging Voices Program Culminates with Premiere of Original Play at the Center for Kentucky History

FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 25, 2012) — Staging Voices, a program of the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS), brought 10 teenage girls from across the state together for a period of six months to collect oral histories, study women’s rights issues and create an original play based on their research. The final product, “…By Our Sisters,” will premiere during the Kentucky Junior Historical Society’s annual conference, April 27-28 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in downtown Frankfort. After that, it will be performed at 1 and 3 p.m. every Saturday through the month of May.

The program was funded by a grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women to advance positive social change through feminist-led, arts-based activities. The teens participated in theater games and group discussions, and learned the basics of documenting the past through oral histories. They interviewed six diverse Kentucky women and used a combination of stories and direct quotes to create the script for a theatrical production performed by professional actors as part of KHS’s award-winning museum theater program.

“I heard about the Staging Voices program from my A.P. English teacher. I was instantly drawn to the project because of its connections to history and acting. In my opinion the study of history is the key to success, and through its reenactment we open doors to the future,” said Montana Daniels, a junior at Wayne County High School.

“In my interview with Marsha Weinstein, the most interesting and surprising thing I learned is that two women from Kentucky wrote the ‘Happy Birthday’ song, but the only thing we have to recognize them is a parking lot in Louisville. I found this appalling and I wanted to give these women more recognition, and that was when I really got into the project,” said LaRosa Shelton, a sophomore at Louisville Male Traditional High School.

Members of the 2012 Staging Voices committee were:

Skylar Brown, Bondurant Middle School, Frankfort.

Montana Daniels, Wayne County High School, Monticello.

Lindsay Diggins, Montessori High School, Lexington.

Madeleine Hendrix, Franklin County High School, Frankfort.

Emma Hughes, Notre Dame Academy, Fort Mitchell.

Sara Hutson, Shelby County High School, Shelbyville.

Eva Luckey, Montessori High School, Lexington.

Paige Mason, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Lexington.

LaRosa Shelton, Louisville Male Traditional High School, Louisville.

Loren Weber, homeschooled, Gravel Switch.

For more information about KHS student and teen programs, visit www.history.ky.gov.

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