Broadway San Diego is launching its 48th season with "Suffs," a musical that provides audiences with an American history lesson about the women's suffrage movement. The cast recently visited the Women's Museum of California to learn about the trailblazing women they portray on stage.
The museum tour offered the performers a chance to connect with California's suffrage history, including displays showing which California Assembly members voted for and against women's voting rights. California achieved voting rights for women in 1911, nine years before the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920.
"To get all this history about this particular state, it's really, really beautiful and be able to bring this particular story here is just very, very honored," said Danyel Fulton, who plays Ida B. Wells in the production.
Fulton portrays Wells, a Black American journalist who was an anti-lynching activist and part of the suffrage movement.
"She didn't take no mess from anybody," Fulton said.
The musical tells the story of women who fought for the right to vote, focusing on historical events leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Cast members found connections between the museum's artifacts and their roles.
"Taking in this art imitating life is just so impactful cause you're being entertained but you're not even realizing you're learning at the same time," Fulton said.
Livvy Marcus, who plays Doris Stevens, an advocate for women's rights and author who documented historic events in the movement, discovered props similar to those used in the show.
"It's so important to have these like written histories so that we can like humanize these historical figures. They weren't just like women in corsets who stood there," Marcus said.
Marcus noted that her character carries a small brown notebook throughout the show, and she found similar notebooks displayed at the museum.
"She carries around a little brown notebook for the whole show. There's like, several little brown notebooks over here that look very, very similar to my prop," Marcus said.
The museum tour highlighted how Hispanic women in Southern California translated suffrage materials from English into Spanish, demonstrating the diverse coalition that fought for voting rights.
"Suffs" will be playing at the Civic Theatre in downtown San Diego until October 5.
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