September 2024 Program

Fanny Kemble at the Slave Plantation, a one-woman play that examines the rights of women in the first half of the 19th century, will be performed at the September open meeting of the Erie Branch of the American Association of University Women. Performed by Lydia Axelrod and produced by Ron Flucker, the program is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, at the Jefferson Educational Society. The program is free and open to the public. Members are encouraged to bring guests.

The 40-minute production to be presented is an edited version of Shame on the Devil, a production created by author and actress Anne Ludlam in 1980. Fanny Kemble at the Slave Plantation illustrates famous British actress and author Fanny Kemble's reaction to the conditions faced by enslaved people in the 1880's using facts gleaned from a journal Kemble kept after her marriage to a wealthy Georgia plantation owner and grandson of a U.S. senator. The monograph examines the rights of women at the time and provides a description of slave treatment on the plantation. Fanny Kemble at the Slave Plantation re-creates a scene wherein Kemble addresses an audience in a New England town with a thriving textile industry.

Axelrod, a professionally trained actress and motivational speaker, received her doctorate from Columbia University in school administration and has taught English and drama at the high school and college levels. Flucker, the producer, was trained as a structural engineer but derives great pleasure from his "side gig" of writing and producing presentations.