“Frances Perkins: A Woman’s Work”
original play performance
Sunday July 31, 2022 – 2:00 p.m.
One Hour performance – On North Hall Stage.
40 Searle Road Huntington
Admission: FREE, donations accepted,
Mask required- hope our patrons are vaccinated but we will NOT ask for proof.
Jarice Hanson portrays Ms Perkins of Massachusetts, the First Woman Secretary of Labor who worked to create Social Security.
BIO
Jarice Hanson
Jarice Hanson is a resident of Whately, Massachusetts, and Professor Emerita of Communication at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. She is also a member of Actors’ Equity (AEA) and the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG-AFTRA). She has hosted public television programs at WGBY (Springfield, MA) and WHYY (Philadelphia), and has performed in theaters throughout New England. Her most recent performances were at Provincetown Theater as Amanda in “The Glass Menagerie,” and Violet in “August: Osage County.”
Story teller
Her passion for telling the stories of women who change the world has come together in the original performance piece called “Frances Perkins: A Woman’s Work” in which she portrays Ms. Perkins, the First Woman Secretary of Labor in the United States, who crafted many social policies that have influenced the quality of life in the U.S. Perkins’ achievements include the creation of Social Security, the 40 hour work week, child labor laws, workplace safety (eventually, OSHA), the groundwork for what became MEDICARE, and she is credited with having created the “Rosie the Riveter” campaign—bringing women into the industrial workplace during WWII. She has been called “The Woman Who Crafted the New Deal” for the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins, a native of Massachusetts by way of Maine—exemplified Yankee practicality and progressive politics. Her activist awakening began at Mount Holyoke College, where she observed the working conditions of immigrants—primarily women and children, in the factories of nearby Holyoke. Her commitment to democratic principles and her compassion for those who had no voice in government resulted in unique solutions for dealing with the problems of the Spanish Flu Pandemic, exploitation of immigrants, child labor laws, the power of labor unions, the economy of the Depression, the WPA, and a host of progressive programs that resemble a striking number of contemporary challenges.
This performance piece has been created with the generous assistance of the North Dakota Chautauqua Scholar’s Program and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.