IF SHE STOOD • 2013
Written and directed by Ain Gordon
In collaboration with Nadine Patterson
Meet Philadelphia’s first multiracial collective of female reformers at the moment they chose to move. If She Stood is an immersive theatrical experience in which the Bride’s performance space is transformed into a 19th century Quaker meeting – the time and place that gave birth to the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Audiences step into the minds of Sarah Mapps Douglass, Sarah Grimke, Angelina Weld Grimké, and Sarah Pugh, who collectively stood to abolish slavery, literally invent the women’s rights movement and right a host of societal wrongs. If She Stood reveals the conversation and the influential deeds of these largely-overlooked heroines and petitions us all to revisit the way we view our city’s rich history. Audiences discover their courageous work which framed the social discourse and struggles that helped shape Philadelphia and the nation as a whole – their story continues to have significant relevance to social conversations we are having today about social equality.
Ain Gordon’s If She Stood was commissioned by the Painted Bride Art Center and has been supported by The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage and is made possible in part by support from the National Performance Network (NPN) Performance Residency Program.
Photos by Nadine Patterson