"Save the Country" by Allyson Adams

 My new play "Save the Country" is about First U.S. Congresswoman and Montanan, Jeannette Rankin. This marks my fifth work on Rankin’s life, and coincides with the 100 Year Anniversary of Rankin’s election to Congress in 1916. "Save the Country" will have its first staged reading at the Bozeman Library on November 1, 2016 at 6pm. Bozeman Public Library 626 E. Main St. Bozeman, MT 59715. Phone: (406) 582-2400My passion for Rankin ignited in 1997 when I moved back to Virginia City and discovered her biography “Flight of the Dove” by Kevin Giles. With a Montana PBS docudrama and a decade of one-woman shows under my belt, I am a Jeannette Rankin messenger for “Peace is a Woman’s Job.”Whereas, my previous works focused on six decades of Rankin’s life, “Save the Country” is a emotional triangle during the three year period between Montana’s Suffrage victory and Rankin’s first No vote. The play delves into the relationship between Jeannette and her remarkable campaign manager, Belle Fligelman. “the woman behind the woman,” and Wellington, Jeannette’s Harvard educated brother and financier.Within the span of three years, Jeannette led and won the fight for Montana Suffrage, immersed herself in New Zealand’s labor movement, became the first woman elected to any parliamentary body in the world and then voted No against U.S. entry into WWI, thus declaring her place in history. Yet nobody knows about her.During the experimental short play, the three actors cross the 4^th wall and reveal inner knowings with free poetic license. The play’s centerpiece is Rankin’s premonition of soldiers 28 years in the future, witnessing the first testing of the atomic bomb in Alamogorda, New Mexico.A new side of Jeannette Rankin emerges. She’s famous for her peace actions, but she was about a lot more. She was at the beginning of the Progressive Movement in the early 1900’s and her focus was on domestic issues for women and children, equal pay, education and healthcare. Unfortunately, we’re still fighting for the same basic human needs and rights.In 1916 Jeannette Rankin and Belle Fligelman changed the world.Actress Amber Rose Mason will read the part of Belle Fligelman, Allyson Adams as Jeannette Rankin and John Hosking in the role of Wellington Rankin.Belle FligelmanPlease visit my Jeannette Rankin blog called Peace is a Woman's Job  Jeannette Rankin movie and websiteHere's a new article in The New Yorker by Kate Walbert about Jeannette Rankin. Synchronicity!A Century Before Hillary in the New Yorker.Jeannette's time has come once again with her 100 Year Anniversary to her election to Congress in 1916. Please visit www.peaceisawomansjob.com for more about this remarkable woman."Save the Country" will have its first staged reading at the Bozeman Library on November 1, 2016 at 6pm. Bozeman Public Library 626 E. Main St. Bozeman, MT 59715. Phone: (406) 582-2400 Peace,Allyson Adams