"Most Dangerous Women" Performance on March 7

Presented at UWM as Part of Women's History Month

MILWAUKEE - "Most Dangerous Women," a musical "documentary" that is performed live, will be presented at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Peck School of the Arts Recital Hall, located in the Arts Complex, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. Tickets are $5. The performance will be repeated in a workshop format the next day from 9-11 a.m., also at the Peck School of the Arts Recital Hall.

"Most Dangerous Women" is being presented as part of Women's History Month celebrations in Milwaukee. One of the playwrights, Jan Maher, will direct this production as reader's theater with a local cast.

According to co-author Nikki Nojima Louis, "Most Dangerous Women" is not about doom and gloom. "It's about women who have resisted violence and oppression. It's about courage, humor, perseverance--and remembrance. It's also about seizing the present to work for the future."

The production was first performed in Seattle in 1991 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. To keep it topical, the original script is reworked each time it is performed. The script for the 2002 performance includes references to the struggles of Afghan women and other recent events.

The script of "Most Dangerous Women" is based on the activities of women in the peace movement from 1915 to the present. The program weaves together the words and music of an extraordinary group of individuals who have contributed their efforts to the creation of peace and justice. Also highlighted is the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's history.

According to sponsors of the Milwaukee production, the audience will get a sense of the complexities of history through "Most Dangerous Women," which shows the intersections of feminism and pacifism, as well as the tensions between pacifism and the concept of "just" wars and defense of one's own country. "Most Dangerous Women" has been presented at Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges, in a small Appalachian community in West Virginia, in Chicago, and in Milwaukee in 2000.

Campus sponsors are the UWM Center for Women's Studies, Women's Resource Center, Center for International Education, Institute of World Affairs, Center for Peace Studies, and UWM History Department. Other sponsors include the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Milwaukee Branch; Older Women's League; American Association of University Women, North Shore Branch; WomenSpirit/Emerson Guild, First Unitarian Universalist Church, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, and the Peace Education Project of Peace Action-Wisconsin. The production is supported by grants from the Wisconsin Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation-Annette J. Roberts

& Joan Robertson Fund for World Peace, World Law and Peace Education.

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