The Woman Question - Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards

Synopsis: A new play with local roots, The Woman Question unearths the stories of medical pioneers who led the charge for women’s health and reproductive freedom 150 years ago. This world premiere docu-fantasy follows the 1894 class of the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, an intrepid cohort of students whose struggles and joys reverberate across centuries. Written and performed by acclaimed theatre-maker Suli Holum (Hurricane Diane) in collaboration with Company Artist Melanye Finister (A Raisin in the Sun) and a remarkable cast and creative team, The Woman Question blends archival research, flights of collective imagination, and a delightful, Victorian-infused theatricality.

Artistic Statement

A top priority for People’s Light is the development and production of new work rooted in local history that resonates broadly across our diverse region. Thirteen years ago, we launched the New Play Frontiers Residency & Commission program (NPF) to achieve this goal. NPF has since become a national model for community-based new play development, generating acclaimed works such as Dominique Morisseau’s Mud Row, Karen Hartman’s Project Dawn, Eisa Davis’ Mushroom, and Steve H. Broadnax III’s Bayard Rustin Inside Ashland—each deepening connections among local partners and audiences while illuminating a wider American story.

The Woman Question (TWQ) extends this legacy, merging the NPF approach with the ensemble-based, physical-theatre practices of Suli Holum and award-winning actor Melanye Finister, in collaboration with a distinguished creative team including director Melissa Crespo. Drawing on decades of shared artistic vocabulary through Pig Iron Theatre, Wilma’s HotHouse Company, and People’s Light, Holum and Finister bring rigorous research, inventive world-building, and choral storytelling to the project.

A docufantasy inspired by the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, TWQ explores the legacy of this groundbreaking institution through the lens of a strikingly diverse group of medical students from the class of 1894. The play unearths untold histories and celebrates a toolkit for resistance against misogyny in contemporary medicine and law. Its ensemble style is a playful, body- and pleasure-forward explosion of Victorian theatrical forms—charades, melodrama, vaudeville, pantomime, and tableaux vivant—that transform archival material into something alive, humorous, and subversively current.

At its heart, TWQ dramatizes a classic American struggle for recognition, opportunity, and equity across race, gender, class, and faith. The Edgerton Foundation’s support is a profound endorsement of The Woman Question’s national significance. Its imprimatur affirms how regionally-inspired theatre can shape the national conversation on representation, history, and collective healing. - Zak Berkman, Producing Artistic Director

Grant Statement

This unexpected and generous support from the Edgerton New Plays Award will immediately provide THE WOMAN QUESTION team a much-needed additional week of rehearsal for this

ambitious world premiere. New works are fundamental to growing the American theatre canon, which serves as a unique, real-time repository of, and reflection on, our world. So, this award doesn’t just pull the curtain back on a little-known and remarkable story of Philadelphia history; it reveals how frontiers closing in on us today were first pushed more than a century ago, and shines a light on the path forward for the entire country. - Shonali Burke, Managing Director

Cast:

Suli Holum: Anna
Melanye Finister: Rebecca
Claire Inie Richards: Sasha
Eli Lyn: Nat
Avanthika Srinivasan: Ananda
Jacinta Yelland: Susan
Minou Pourshariati: Tabat
Noelle Diane Johnson: Eliza
Kendyl Ito: Kei

Creative team:

Playwright: Suli Holum
Director: Melissa Crespo
Line Producer: Molly Rosa Houlahan
Scenic Designer: Ann Beyersdorfer
Costume Designer: Lux Haac
Lighting Designer: Lily Fossner
Sound Designer: Daniela Hart
Projection Designer: Lisa Renkel
Stage Manager: Jess McPhillips