About the play

“Awesome!”
“Inspiring play!” 
“I loved your play today at the Hardwick Town Hall (of all places). It reflects so many current events, especially the right to choose for women, as well as giving us a wonderful character from the past. Thank you!” 

Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, is up at 4:00am. She’s rehearsing a talk she’s about to give to the Boston Radical Club on representation for women, and she has some pointed questions for her audience. Prophetically, she foresees our nation’s crisis today, when she says that one day we will lose our democracy, if this remains an America for some of us, not an America for all of us. The stakes are high, and what – Julia demands to know – are we doing about it? 

The mission of this production is to lift the visionary politics of Julia Ward Howe into our own time. Collaborators Elaine Vaan Hogue (actor), Judy Braha (director), and Joyce Van Dyke (playwright) launched the play at the Hardwick Town House in Hardwick, MA, in November 2021, with generous support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and private donors.

We are touring this performance and call to action throughout New England—in historical venues, churches, living rooms, art centers, schools, rural settings, theatres and town squares. The show runs 45 minutes and can be performed anywhere with minimal technical requirements. We love to help organize post-show conversations at each venue with female-identifying community leaders to charge the audience with agency, hope, and a collective sense of the need to take action now.