“The Women Who Built Baton Rouge”

by Aileen Hendricks

Performed October 13 – 15, 2017

The play “Women Who Built Baton Rouge” by Aileen Hendricks is a series of fascinating monologues developed from personal interviews with a variety of women in Baton Rouge in 2002 and one with the present day mayor in September 2017.  The first monologue is based on Sarah Morgan’s diary, 1861 to 1865, and other researched sources.  The play honors the 200 year anniversary of the incorporation of Baton Rouge and some of the women who helped make Baton Rouge into the great city it is today.  Some of the women are better known than others.  Mary Frey Eaton and Sharon Weston Broome, the Mayor-President of Baton Rouge, are public figures.  Sarah Morgan’s family was often referred to as “The Aristocrats of Baton Rouge” and her diary gives a detailed account of The Civil War in Louisiana’s present-day capital.  These women represent all the women who work tirelessly to support and build our society, culture, and country.  Although they are all different, they all share one quality without which we could not survive and progress; they have a generosity of spirit that translates into working to build Baton Rouge and America into a great city and country.  Come listen to them; they have something to teach everyone.

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“Kalamazoo”

by Michelle Kholos Brooks and Kelly Younger

Starring: Aileen Hendricks and Dave Besse
Directed by Aileen Hendricks and Robert J. Wilson

Performed April 7th – 9th in the Studio at Theatre Baton Rouge

 Peg and Irv are two quirky but endearing baby-boomers who bravely venture into the world of modern dating. But when these opposites attract, they discover love isn’t any easier the second time around.

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“Failure Is Impossible”

by Rosemary H. Knower

AAUW Women’s Equality Day 2016

Performed August 26, 2016

To dramatize the debate for woman suffrage, playwright Rosemary Knower was commissioned to write a narrative script, drawing on the Congressional Record, petitions to Congress, personal letters within the legislative records of the Government, and other archival sources such as newspaper editorials and articles, diaries and memoirs. The story was told through the voices of Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Frances Gage, Clara Barton, and Carrie Chapman Catt, among others.

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“The Things You Least Expect”

by Joan Vail Thorne

LA VOW THEATRE COMPANY presented Joan Vail Thorne’s provocative and amusing play THE THINGS YOU LEAST EXPECT on November 18 & 19 (7:30 p.m.) and 20 (2:30 p.m.) at Theatre Baton Rouge Studio,
7155 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge, La 70806 .

In her late sixties, Clare Gardiner gets a second chance to follow her dreams of long ago to travel and pursue art.  The play raises many questions about age, love, and self-fulfillment in life.  Clare defies one of the most powerful taboos in our society when she and a much younger man, Sam, fall in love.  Running off to Italy, she leaves her older sister Myra and daughter Caroline to worry and wonder about her escapades. She sends them emails that do not include any information about her young lover.  Sam has convinced Clare that age doesn’t matter and encourages her to make the most of every moment.  But when Sam becomes insanely jealous of her passion for painting, Clare sends him back to the United States where he becomes involved with Myra and Caroline.  Myra becomes fond of Sam and Caroline falls in love with him, not knowing about his love for her mother.  When Clare returns to Pennsylvania, she finds out Myra has put money aside for college for Sam and Caroline plans to marry him. But Sam realizes he loves Clare and can’t marry Caroline.  The tension rises when Clare feels compelled to tell Myra and Caroline about her relationship with Sam; he takes the money, and Caroline becomes pregnant.

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“The Exact Center of the Universe”

by Joan Vail Thorne

Performed March 12th & 13th, 2016
in the Studio at the Creative Bloc
804 Main Street
Baton Rouge, La

THE STORY: Vada Love Powell, the self-appointed doyenne of a small Southern town, has invited Mary Lou Mele to tea. It’s Vada’s intention to scare off another prospective bride for her beloved son, Apple, but she meets her match in Mary Lou, who’s pretending to be her twin sister, Mary Ann, whom Apple secretly married that very afternoon. Now Vada must face her best friends, Marybell Baxter and Enid Symonds in Enid’s tree house, where the three gather to “play canasta and consume sweets. “They agree that Vada “had this one coming,” but she pretends nothing has happened. It’s a complete surprise when Apple returns with his shy bride, who astounds even Vada with her love for him. Ten years pass and “The Tree House Gang has grown old.” Vada “summons” Mary Lou, now an anthropologist, to discuss some photographs she took of a nearly nude tribe. Vada is appalled that Mary Ann is going to let her twins take these “suggestive” pictures to school. Apple blames his mother for offending his wife, warns her not to mention the photographs to the girls, and runs out before she can tell him she already has. Vada also “summons” Enid and Marybell to discuss the “unrest” in their beloved church guild. During their discussion Apple telephones that the twins have run away from school. After some panic, Mary Ann reports they’ve been found, but she holds Vada accountable: The girls ran away because Vada had said they should be ashamed of the photos. Vada apologizes to Mary Ann, and reveals to Apple “this little heart problem,” that she’s not going to let “change her life.” She asks him to plan her funeral, then proceeds to tell him exactly what to do!

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“Murder At the Polite Ladies Society”

An Original Play by Aileen Hendricks

A Comedy/Mystery Dinner Theatre
Original Debut July 25, 2015
Ralph & Kacoo’s
Baton Rouge, La

Polite Company

Audience input adds to murderous Louisiana Voices of Women show

Murder and money are always a good recipe for a dinner theater.

Now add a dash of New York Detective Daisy Doright, and the table is set for “Murder at the Polite Ladies Society.”

The Louisiana Voices of Women Theatre Company is premiering this play written by its founder and president, Aileen Hendricks, on Saturday at Ralph & Kacoo’s. Admission includes a three-course meal and cash bar, along with a little bit of audience participation.

Click Here To Read About Us in the Advocate!

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