4 Women, Tea + 19 is an intimate live theatrical performance that imagines a conversation over tea among four historical figures who fought for women's suffrage and the 19th Amendment. The United States Constitution's Nineteenth Amendment states: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." Though these four women were never in the same room together during their lifetimes, the performance imagines them gathering on a Sunday afternoon to talk, reflect, and share the long journey toward winning American women the constitutional right to vote. Featured Historical Figures & Performers: Lucy Stone,(1818-1893), known as a leading suffragist and abolitionist. The first Massachusetts woman to earn a college degree, defied gender norms when she famously wrote marriage vows to reflect her egalitarian beliefs and refused to take her husband’s last name. [caption id="attachment_185942" align="alignleft" width="300"] Lucy Stone (Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)[/caption] Lucy Stone is played by Carolyn Hummel, a native Kansas Citian and history teacher whose love of the past and love of performing collided in the work of historical interpretation. She has been giving voice to history for more than a decade. Portrayals have taken her to the Wornall House, the Alexander Majors House, the Kansas City Library, Shawnee Town 1929, and the Ernie Miller Nature Center. In recent years Carolyn has leaned into the stories of women who refused to stay quiet, from Emma Goldman and Rosie the Riveter to the countless sturdy women of the prairie who shaped the 1800s and the turn of the century. As part of the America 250 programming, she presented a two-day event on Kansas’s role in the fight for women’s suffrage. In this performance Hummel brings you Lucy Stone, a woman who was never one to wait for permission to speak. [caption id="attachment_185945" align="alignleft" width="286"] Carolyn Hummel[/caption] [caption id="attachment_185949" align="alignleft" width="228"] Carrie Chapman Catt (Credit: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)[/caption] Carrie Chapman Catt, (1859-1947), a leading figure in the women's suffrage movement. Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 to support newly enfranchised women and promote civic engagement, and was an advocate for international peace and women’s rights, co-founding the International Alliance of Women, which focused on advancing gender equality worldwide. Carrie Chapman Catt is played by long-time Kansas City resident, Wendy Thompson, who studied with Actor’s Craft Studio in Kansas City and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Wendy's favorite roles include Carrie Chapman Catt, the women’s rights champion, and Olive Madison in The Odd Couple, female version. She has appeared on area stages in Women’s Suffrage in the Art Deco Era (Nelson-Atkins Museum), Barbecue (KC Melting Pot Theatre), Orphan’s Home Cycle (MET), Movers and Shakers of the Women’s Suffrage Movement (Shawnee Town 1929), The Crucible (MET), and A Streetcar Named Desire (MET) and Union Station Stories (City Stage at Union Station.) Thompson's film and television credits include Ted Lasso, CSA: The Confederate States of America and The Only Good Indian. For many years, Wendy wrote, directed, and produced murder mystery comedies with her company, The Mystery Train. [caption id="attachment_185951" align="alignleft" width="300"] Wendy Thompson[/caption] Ida B. Wells-Barnett, (1862-1931), born into slavery and later emancipated with her parents at the conclusion of the Civil War, was a prominent investigative journalist, editor, and anti-lynching activist, women’s suffragist, and early civil rights movement leader. Wells-Barnett authored A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, 1892-1893-1894, documenting history and statistical data on the lynching of African Americans in the United States during the late nineteenth century, publication year: 1895 (building on her earlier 1892 work, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases). Wells-Barnett's works documented thousands of racial terror lynchings carried out by white mobs in the post-Reconstruction South; dismantled common white Southern justifications for lynching (such as alleged race riots, political domination, or protection of white women); proved that lynching was used as an instrument of racial oppression, economic control, and white supremacy to strip Black Americans of their newly gained rights. Founder of the Alpha Suffrage Club for African-American women. [caption id="attachment_185960" align="alignleft" width="243"] Ida B. Wells wearing "Martyred Negro Soldiers" button, 1917–1919. Ida B. Wells papers, Special Connections Research Center, Univ. of Chicago.[/caption] Ida B. Wells is played by native Kansas Citian, KE Griffin, a textile, teaching, and performing artist—an art quilter and certified national and international storyteller. KE tells stories of African American experiences not only in her performances but in her quilts, weaving in symbols and materials such as traditional African cottons, at Art By KE Griffin. Since her first solo exhibition in 2020 she has participated in 41 solo and group exhibitions as well as 28 educational workshops, presentations, and special events. KE Griffin is the 2025 Missouri Arts Council Individual Artist Honoree. [caption id="attachment_185962" align="alignleft" width="199"] KE Griffin[/caption] Alice Paul, (1885-1977), feminist, suffragist, and political strategist was born to Quaker parents in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Paul dedicated her life to the cause of securing equal rights for all. She was a leader in the fight to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1920 to extend voting rights to women. Alice Paul authored the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and spent the rest of her life fighting for its ratification to ensure the U.S. Constitution protects women and men equally. Alice Paul is played by Jessica Whitfield , who earned her BFA in Theatre/Acting from Drake University, where she was an Irene Ryan Nominee. She was voted Best Local Actor by The Kansas City Pitch two years in a row. Steve Wilson of Broadway World calls her, "Marvelous," and says, "She has a good sense of comedic timing, utilizing humorous facial expressions, body language, and accent to keep the audience laughing." Whitfield is a writer and has enjoyed doing research to write her own material to play Alice Paul. She has previously portrayed Alice Paul at Shawnee Town 1929, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and Englewood Arts. [caption id="attachment_185967" align="alignleft" width="199"] Jessica Whitfield[/caption] 4 Women, Tea +19is hosted by Englewood Arts at 10901 E Winner Rd, Independence, MO 64052, in alliance with curator and performer KE Griffin. The special live performance will take place Sunday, November 1, 2026, 3pm-4pm. Urban Connections host, producer, engineer, Donna Morrow Wolfe
