The beginning of the twentieth century saw the rise of socialism and the union movement in the United States. Immigration brought waves of Europeans into the mill towns of the Northeast. With this came overcrowded tenements, income disparity, and anti-immigrant sentiment. All of these elements converged In Little Falls, New York, a mill city in the Mohawk Valley of central New York. Strike Story is a dramatic retelling of events leading up to and during the Little Falls, New York, Textile Strike of 1912. Presented as readers' theatre, the play relies on the words of people involved as well as the published accounts of the events from contemporary newspapers and material from government documents. The play dramatizes the impact of the tuberculosis crisis in Little Falls, the role of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire on mills throughout New York State, and the day-by-day events of the strike with focus on the free speech fight and the riot of October 30, 1912.
The beginning of the twentieth century saw the rise of socialism and the union movement in the United States. Immigration brought waves of Europeans into the mill towns of the Northeast. With this came overcrowded tenements, income disparity, and anti-immigrant sentiment. All of these elements converged In Little Falls, New York, a mill city in the Mohawk Valley of central New York. Strike Story is a dramatic retelling of events leading up to and during the Little Falls, New York, Textile Strike of 1912. Presented as readers' theatre, the play relies on the words of people involved as well as the published accounts of the events from contemporary newspapers and material from government documents. The play dramatizes the impact of the tuberculosis crisis in Little Falls, the role of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire on mills throughout New York State, and the day-by-day events of the strike with focus on the free speech fight and the riot of October 30, 1912.
Little Falls resident, Angela Harris, was moved by the contemporary themes that converged in the Textile Strike of 1912 in that city, and chose a reader's theatre format to tell the stories of the events and individuals involved. Harris is a retired Community College English Professor and hold degrees in English Literature from Fontbonne University and the University of Kansas. She has been active in professional organizations and has published in the field. She comes from a family of professional and amateur historians, and her first venture into writing for theatre, Strike Story brings to life the surprisingly relevant 100 year old story of immigrants in the society and the role of unions in equalizing opportunities.
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