We Did It For You!

The story of how women got their rights in America, told by the women who were there

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We Did It For You! - school film

If Susan B. Anthony were alive today, what would she be standing up for?

Dedham, MA, US

$2,246 raised of $50,000 goal
26 donations
-2067476 minutes left

Fiscally Sponsored by Fractured Atlas

In We Did It For You! Women’s Journey Through History, a high school student has a history project to figure out who has done the most for women of today. She learns the answer from a series of women who come back from the past to share 400 years of lived history. Audiences love the positive message that overarches the educational and fun script, and they have urged us to bring this musical into schools and history classes.

GOAL: Our goal is to create a high-quality filmed version combining elements from zoom performance, studio-filmed songs and monologues, and informational slides and graphics.

EXPENSES: Making a film is a collaborative effort among many people, including actors, director, producer, musical director, and video editor. There are expenses for studio time, improving our costumes, and paying royalties to composers and lyricists. There are administrative costs to coordinate everything. Many participants will be donating their time but we will have real expenses in order to create a high-quality film.

TEAM:

Thea Iberall (playwright, lyricist, producer, video editor) - studied playwriting at USC, the Moving Arts Theatre, and the Academy of New Musical Theatre. Edited and produced short film in six film festivals. Four other produced plays. Producing We Did It For You! (WDIFY) since 2011; developed and facilitating WDIFY workshops since 2013.
Kerri Cooper (director, choreographer) - studied directing University of New Orleans and Bridgewater State College. Drama and theatre teacher at Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School, professor at Massasoit Community College. With WDIFY since 2018.
Carolyn Waters (music director) - featured in the Boston Blues Society’s Ladies of the Blues Events. Performed at the Homegrown Coffeehouse, the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival, Serendipity, Beatniks, and was seen in Smokey Joe’s Cafe.
Shirley Riga (producer) - licensed workshop facilitator of Feel the Fear & Do It Anyway. WDIFY workshop facilitator since 2017
Christine Babson (producer)-founding member of the Brookline Community Theater. Marketing specialist, retired Spanish teacher. Producing WDIFY since 2019.
Michele Mangione (composer of "We Are One" finale) - acclaimed songwriter. Music from her 3 CDs has appeared on BBC's Skins, Army Wives, Witchblade and True Rights. Winner of two Orange County Music Awards.
Jamie C. Sterrett (composer “We Need To Rise”) - an award-winning composer, teacher, musician, and music director. Having composed a ballet, six musicals, and three films, Jamie was selected as a composer for the “Native American Experience” at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

AUDIENCE: We want to make the film available to high schools and middle schools. Our plan is to discuss our project with the social studies department in some initial pilot program schools. We will show the teachers the film and work with them to clarify how the film fits in with their curriculum. After viewing the film, the pilot program students and teachers will fill out an evaluation form so that we can identify the successes -- and weaknesses -- of the presentation in order to make it an even more effective experience for other students.

We also have had a great response from women's organizations, churches, libraries, military organizations, and museums. We will maintain strong connections with these presenters, keeping them informed of our work, showing them our work-in-progress appropriately.

IMPACT: At one of our shows in CA for disadvantaged high school students, we had an unexpected response. When we got up on the stage, all 350 girls started shouting and broke out into thunderous applause. They had never seen a live play before. We had tears in our eyes through the whole performance.

We have hundreds of testimonials from our performances. An audience member said: “I taught U.S. History in community college for 30 years and I learned so much from this show!” Another one said: “As a teacher let me say I wish you would present it in every high school civics class in US .” This is my favorite: “I LOVED it. I’m 11 and it got me interested in women’s rights.”