For Virginia Roebuck, voting wasn’t always important.
“I remember being younger and not taking it seriously,” she said. “I also took it for granted that so many women fought for my right to vote.”
With Election Day looming, Orlando theaters have cast their eye on voting — in ways much more creative and entertaining than the average high-school civics class. Orlando Repertory Theatre’s latest production aims to inspire America’s future voters, while Mad Cow Theatre uses the past to consider our present.
And St. Luke’s United Methodist Church’s thriving theater program is presenting an original online miniseries highlighting local issues to consider in the voting booth, such as homelessness, unemployment and transportation woes.
Roebuck, an actor in Mad Cow’s 19th Amendment Project, has since changed her ways — and usually votes early. She remembers one year, though, when “I literally came off an overnight rehearsal and had to drive two hours to my voting precinct. I was like, ‘I have to do it.'”
Theater officials hope this flurry of voting-related shows will inspire audiences to think like Roebuck. The plays don’t tell viewers for whom to vote, but instead urge them to get out and be counted.
The genre can be a useful format for exploring social issues, officials said, because it presents them entertainingly and one step removed from actuality.
“In theater, we can embrace the theatricality of ideas,” said Monica Long Tamborello, one of the leaders of the 19th Amendment Project, celebrating the centennial of the 1920 constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote.
In that project, originally staged by the Burning Coal Theatre Company in Raleigh, N.C., a dozen short plays of about 10 minutes each will be presented online in four installments, Oct. 24-Nov. 1.
“This gives audiences a way to tap into the questions we’re asking in a more concentrated format,” said Tamborello, whose older daughter is volunteering to work at the polls.
The serious subject matter doesn’t mean the entertainment value is overlooked. Sometimes it’s written into the play. Ariel Zetina’s “Gerrymanderia, or The Miss Earth Vacancy in the Miss Universe Pageant System” uses the politics of a drag-queen pageant to look at voters’ rights.
“It’s about the over-the-top things that go with the idea of what it means to run for office,” Zetina said
Theater has long tackled social issues and responsibilities, from Broadway down to community troupes Lin-Manuel Miranda and performers from his hit “Hamilton” — a play about the men who set up our voting framework — released a “Hamilton”-inspired music video last month encouraging young people to register, and stressing how individuals can make a difference.
– Original Credit: McKenzie Lakey
That’s a recurring theme that officials at local theaters say was a motivating factor in producing plays about voting.
“There are so many narratives in the world, telling people their vote doesn’t matter, their vote won’t count for some reason,” said Tara Kromer, co-director of Orlando Repertory Theatre’s online production of “Vote?” In the play, which runs through Nov. 8, a young woman travels through history to learn about the sacrifices others made to ensure she could vote in the present day.
The play teaches that “you really do have this power,” Kromer said, “and need to honor these historical figures who made it possible.”
She sees “Vote?” as a direct response to voter-suppression efforts, and the play mentions various groups denied the civic right through the years: Jews, Catholics, Blacks, women, indigenous people, Asian Americans and more.
“If voting didn’t matter so much, people wouldn’t be trying to limit it,” said Jennifer Adams-Carrasquillo, the play’s co-director. “It’s a big deal.”
“Vote?” is presented in partnership with the Orange County Arts & Cultural Affairs office, as well as Dr. Phillips Charities.
The well-known charitable organization was interested in the community-building angle of voting.
“We hope that it will inspire and educate future voters to make a stronger community by their participation in the voting process,” said Ken Robinson, president of Dr. Phillips Charities, in a statement.
Community was also the basis of the initiative at St. Luke’s Church.
Written by Central Florida performers Shonn McCloud and Andrea Hochkeppel, St. Luke’s “The Power of One” miniseries streams new episodes at 7:30 Thursdays on the church’s Facebook page. (Previous installments are available to watch there, too.)
In the show, 19-year-old Ava doesn’t believe her vote will make a difference. But she starts to rethink that when her mother volunteers her to drive people to the polls, and Ava hears their stories.
“We are focusing on social issues facing Central Florida to raise awareness, educate and build empathy,” said the Rev. Jennifer Stiles Williams, lead pastor of the southwest Orlando church. “We hope to help empower our neighbors to vote not just for themselves, but on behalf of our whole community.”
Following each online episode, Stiles Williams hosts a “community conversation” discussion with local leaders who run charitable and voting-related organizations. The guest list includes Mary Downey, executive director of Community Hope Center Osceola County; Desmond Meade, president of Florida Rights Restoration Coalition; and Bill Cowles, Orange County Supervisor of Elections.
Those involved in the various plays say they have learned a lot while realizing there’s still much to do in the voting-rights arena.
“We still have such a long way to go to see true representation,” said playwright Zetina.
“We’re still fighting for so many rights in general,” Roebuck said. “It’s our duty, it’s our responsibility to see it through.”
More info
The Power of One: New episodes and discussions at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Oct. 29; go to st.lukes.org/powerofone
Vote?: Streaming through Nov. 8; go to orlandorep.com
19th Amendment Project: Oct. 24-Nov. 1; go to madcowtheatre.com
Find me on Twitter @matt_on_arts or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Want more news and reviews of theater and other
