Cast
| Anthony Comstock |
John Felix * |
| Margaret Comstock |
Sandra Ives * |
| Dr. Porter Eldridge |
Dan Leonard * |
| Ida Craddock |
Jessica K. Peterson * |
| Mario Delucci |
Scott Genn |
| Mayor, Judge, Priest, Eddie, Brice |
Jim Gibbons |
| Kathleen O'Malley |
Kim Morgan |
| Nurse, Eliza, Matron |
Edna Schwab |
* Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States
TIME: The Beginning of the Twentieth Century
PLACE: New York City
A NOTE FROM THE PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
When I first learned about Ida Craddock and her clash with Anthony Comstock, I knew it had the potential for exciting theatre.
I asked Alice Jay if she was interested in the material-and she was immediately enthusiastic. The more we researched these characters,
the more relevant their stories became. Now, several years and many re-writes later, we are grateful to finally put the play before an audience.
The piece is inspired by the lives of Ida and Anthony. Many of their words come directly from their texts and newspapers of the time. The other
characters are fictional, but based on situations and people of the period. My heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation to Alice for her talent,
determination, perseverance and abiding optimism-without these qualities she would not have been able to endure working with me.
All works of art in the theatre for this production are on loan from the World Erotic Art Museum.
IDA CRADDOCK
Born in Philadelphia in 1857 to Quaker parents, her life was wholly dedicated to "preventing sexual evils and sufferings" by educating adults. Her publications and lectures were condemned as obscenities by some and praised for their educational value by others. Although she was a patient for three months at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, she was never adjudged legally insane by a court. Her puritan upbringing and intense moralistic conflicts brought her ultimately into mental hospitals and five jails. Criticism and persecution followed her to New York City and her final imprisonment. Her right to free speech had been suspended almost everywhere. Anthony Comstock was effective in persecuting her for "disseminating obscene literature" and "wrongful use of the mails." She died on October 16, 1902, one day before she was to have begun a five-year sentence.
ANTHONY COMSTOCK
Anthony Comstock (1844-1915) fought what he personally defined as immoral and obscene acts and publications. In 1871 Comstock, with the aid of the YMCA, organized a committee to further his work. Two years later he conducted a successful campaign in Washington, D.C., for a strong Federal law (known popularly as the "Comstock Law") making illegal the transmission of obscene matter through the mails. He was appointed a postal inspector, serving without pay. In 1873 he organized the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice and made it a national symbol of tireless defense of traditional values. Because Comstock's standards remained rigid, they became increasingly impractical. His last days were shadowed by reports that he was to lose his post as inspector and by his belief that he was the victim of a conspiracy. He died on Sept. 21, 1915.
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