Confessions of a Flirt

Hey there! We’re setting up to present at the Orlando Fringe Festival May 22nd-30th. Distributing via Virtual Fringe in June!! CONFESSIONS OF A FLIRT is an original HERstorical Drama by Kristin Springer with music by Sir Mark Hill. #orlandofringe #confessionsflirt #herstory

Join celebrated Georgian-poetess Mary “Eliza” Perine and her partner “Rachel” on their journey through romances, marriages, and intrigue to defy the roles allotted to women and meddle their way toward civil liberties for all. This Reconstruction-era musical features poetry of the time set to rock and blues orchestrations for a contemporary take on a little-known HERstory.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER: “Sir” Mark Hill is a musician, composer, and producer from Jersey City, New Jersey who is currently earning his master’s degree in Music Performance Composition from New Jersey City University. He is the Music Director at Trinity Faith Church of the Living God of Jersey City and has over 10 years of experience in music performance, production and leadership. Grounded in his faith with a passion for philosophy and education, he intends to make a positive and life-changing impact on every platform and life he encounters through musical expression.

Scenes, Songs and Poems

SCENE 1.1: Perine Farm in Cahaba, Alabama (Summer 1854)

            Song: APPLE DUMPLINGS BY REQUEST – Edward, Frances

            Song: CAHABA WALTZ – Ensemble

            Song: WADE IN THE WATER – Rachel, Ensemble

SCENE 1.2: Train Station and Snow House in Macon, Georgia (Summer 1854)

            Song: LOVE IN VAIN – Robert

            Song: KINDNESS – Sydonia and Tootsie

            Poem: MRS. MYRICK’S LECTURE – Mrs. Myrick

SCENE 1.3: Grand Tournament at the Catoosa Springs Resort, Georgia (Summer 1855)

SCENE 1.4: The Servant Quarters of the Snow House in Macon, Georgia (1863)

SCENE 1.5: Front Porch of the Snow House in Macon, Georgia (Winter 1864, 1857)

Song: KNITTING – Eliza and Ladies

SCENE 1.6: The Tucker Farm in Milledgeville, Georgia (Spring 1865)

Poem: A SOLDIER BOY’S DREAM – Wiley with Sydonia and baby George Ann

SCENE 2.1: Lowe’s Bridge above the Broadway Market in New York City (Autum 1867)

Song: A BROADWAY IDYL – Eliza, Rachel, and Tootsie with Ensemble

SCENE 2.2: A Boarding House in New York City near Lowe’s Bridge (the same day)

SCENE 2.3: The Free State of Jones in Mississippi (the same day)

SCENE 2.4: FINALE Scene with Song (present day)

Our Show is Timely

CONFESSIONS was written during the 2020 pandemic when Black Lives Matter protesters are calling for equal treatment of BIPOC under the law. It is also a time when the New York Times is running a series of obituaries by women in history who never got the recognition that they deserved. There is a kinship of women to express in this story…as mothers and wives but also as historians, medics, scientists and politicians. It is my hope the story may inspire some unity.

Women have lost 5.4 million jobs since the pandemic began, with 2.1 million dropping out of the workforce entirely, according to the National Women’s Law Center. The percentage of women in the workforce is now as low as it was in 1988. [New York Magazine Article] For context, you may recall that Dolly Parton’s anthem for women in the workplace “9 to 5” topped the music charts in 1980. The song garnered Parton an Academy Award nomination and four Grammy Award nominations, winning her the awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Vocal Performance, Female. [Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944–2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 262.]

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? Ladies, we still have a long way to climb. #liftingasweclimb We have been working together this year to educate our children, vote for our most capable and empathetic leaders, hold corporations accountable, and keep each other safe from disease. Our nurses and teachers have met tremendous challenge with equally tremendous sacrifice. We are grateful to our front line workers and socially-conscious volunteers. We hold love in our hearts for our BIPOC and LGBTQ brothers and sisters–and recognize the need for kindness and equal justice under the law.

OUR SHOW IS SHEDDING LIGHT AND LOVE on a particularly dark chapter of our nation’s past. Around the Civil War and Reconstruction, there exists today many justifiably hard feelings regarding slavery, emancipation, suffrage, and assassination–yet there were people of varied genders, races, and creeds working together toward justice. Our story illuminates the contributions of Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. du Bois, Frederick Douglas, Victoria Woodhall, Newton Knight, and Cornelius Vanderbuilt to name few; all linked through the eyes and quill of our protagonist, my ancestor, Mary Eliza Perine, author of the memoires CONFESSIONS OF A FLIRT and BRICK BY BRICK as well as a litany of poems including “LOEW’S BRIDGE: A BROADWAY IDYL.”

References

Many of the songs in CONFESSIONS are sourced from the Mary Eliza Perine’s own 19^th Century publications (often under the pen name “Mrs. Edward Leigh”) such as Confessions of a Flirt, an Ower true tale (1865); Loew’s Bridge, a Broadway Idol (1867) also Poems (1867), and the Life of Mark M. Pomeroy (New York: G.W. Carleton, 1868). She is also described in Living Female Writers of the South (Mary T. Tardy, 1872) and Memories of Old Cahaba (Anna M. Gayle Fry, 1908, LOC.gov). Further compositional materials are sourced from her contemporary Sidney Lanier, a poet whom she likely would have known as a Macon socialite. The playwright claims genetic kinship with the protagonist, Mary Eliza Perine as listed in Daniel Perrin, the Huguenot (H.D. Perrine, 1910).

Supplemental references include the Reminiscences of My Life in Camp by Susie King Taylor [2006, 1902] and Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project [Library of Congress, 1936-38].  It is the playwright’s intent that voices of color are incorporated as a part of any future production team and that a donation from ticket sales be made for advancing racial equality in the U.S.