A show about women and women’s rights, “Ancestra” gives a voice to historical women.
Written by Kasey Sheridan
I’ve been a student at Cleveland State since 2020. I started as a journalism major with a theatre minor but decided to double-major in the two disciplines in 2021. For a while, I had a hard time excelling at either. I couldn’t quite land a role in a show, and I had a hard time finding my voice when it came to writing articles.
Now, it’s 2024, and I graduate at the end of the semester. I finally feel like I’ve found my voice. Being a part of “Ancestra” was an incredible experience for me, and it changed the way I view womanhood and myself.
"As I stood on that stage, I could almost feel my grandma watching me from a seat in the audience. I wanted to make her proud. That’s what’s so beautiful about the show — it tells so many women’s incredible stories, and it creates this invisible connection between women of the present and the past, connected through generations of shared experiences."
The show
“Ancestra” is a passion project that made its debut in 2014, but a decade later, it’s just as impactful as ever.
Written by CSU’s own Holly Holsinger, Chris Seibert, Renee Schilling and Sally Groth, “Ancestra” tells the stories of both real historical figures and fictional modern characters inspired by real struggles women face today. It’s a show that gives a voice to those who were once voiceless by telling the story of the women of the 1853 National Women’s Rights Convention that so many haven’t heard of.
Auditions were unlike any other audition I’ve ever been to. You didn’t just walk in, perform a monologue, and walk out — the process was collaborative and immersive from the beginning. Rehearsals started in mid-January, and the process was freeing. Holly encouraged us to make discoveries as we did our work, and there are pieces of ourselves scattered throughout the show.
Finding a voice
In December last year, Holly asked me to read the “Ancestra” script because (as a theatre and journalism double-major) she had some questions about Cora, the student journalist and lead character of the show. In the original production, Cora was a working journalist, but Holly decided to update the script to be more relevant for the Cleveland State audience by making her a student.
Cora is not exactly the ideal journalist. She gets fired up easily, responds directly to hate comments she receives on social media and doesn’t necessarily follow the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics when it comes to researching a story. But, in many ways, I admire her. She wants to use her words to create change — I think that’s admirable. As a student journalist myself, I’ve learned that it’s important to learn from our mistakes, and Cora’s arc reinforces the idea to not back down.
My Ancestra
The character I played in the show is a woman named Mrs. Emily Pillsbury Burke. She wrote a book, “Reminiscences of Georgia,” reflecting on her time in the South. She wrote about how pleasant her time was there, but also reflected on the evils of slavery and the poor living conditions faced by lower-class people.
Burke served as the principal of the Oberlin Female Department for a brief period between 1849 and 1850 and was dismissed from her position after she allegedly kissed a male student. As I researched the character, reading her book and reading her plea to the Oberlin Board of Trustees, I didn’t know what to believe. A male student reported her and she wasn’t even given the chance to defend herself before the Oberlin Ladies Board. Students had signed petitions to have her reinstated, but in the end, her scandal ultimately resulted in her dismissal.
At first, I had a hard time approaching Mrs. Burke’s character because I wanted to do her justice on the stage. She speaks about the joys of marriage, but when pressured by female students to speak the truth about women's rights under marriage, she is honest about the confines of it — similar to the dichotomy of pleasure and pain she reflects on in her memoir.
One day, cast members were asked to bring in a picture of our own Ancestra — women, dead or alive, who inspire us. I immediately thought of my grandma, Laurel (“Lolly”), who I’d recently lost to cancer. She, like Mrs. Burke, was a widow, and she’d talk about her late husband to anybody who’d listen to her. She was the traditional housewife — stay at home, cook, clean, serve the husband — and I always wondered if she wanted more. But she was happy. And when her husband died, her entire world was torn away from her. Is that what it was like for Mrs. Burke?
As I stood on that stage, I could almost feel my grandma watching me from a seat in the audience. I wanted to make her proud. That’s what’s so beautiful about the show — it tells so many women’s incredible stories, and it creates this invisible connection between women of the present and the past, connected through generations of shared experiences.
We will not be silenced
“Ancestra” is a feminist play. It tells the stories of the feminists of the 1853 National Women’s Rights Convention and, as you’re reading this, I want you to do me a favor. I’m going to list off a few names: Lucy Ann Stanton, Antoinette Brown, Lydia Jenkins, Martha Wright, Frances Gage, Ernestine Rose, Lucy Stone, Mary Jane Patterson, Lucretia Mott. If you haven’t seen the show, do you recognize a single one of those names?
My guess is your answer to my question was no. I hadn’t heard of any of them prior to reading the script. Those women were among the first to attend college, speakers at the Convention and trailblazing feminists who fought for equality for all, regardless of race or gender. Why aren’t we taught about them in schools? Why are the women who spoke up being silenced over a century later?
I’m so proud of what the cast and crew accomplished with this play. And, above all, I’m proud to be a woman.