Profiles of Women Past & Present: Women History - Nine Writers

By AAUW Thousand Oaks,CA Branch, Inc

These original monologues describe the lives of nine women writers: Louisa May Alcott, Maya Angelou, Emma Lazarus, Pearl S. Buck, Zora Neale Hurston, J. K. Rowling, Beatrix Potter, Yoshiko Uchida, and Nellie Bly. These original monologue scripts were created by the AAUW Thousand Oaks, California Branch, Inc to enable parents, teachers, students, librarians and others to make women’s history come alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AAUW Thousand Oaks,CA Branch, Inc
• Release date: Jan 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463583920

AAUW Thousand Oaks,CA Branch, Inc

Thousand Oaks, CA is affiliated with AAUW and with AAUW California. We promote equity for women and girls by breaking barriers through advocacy, education, and research.

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©2018 Thousand Oaks California Branch Inc. of the American Association of University Women, PO Box 4223, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359-1223. All rights reserved for reproduction, sale and use by the holder of this copyright. Permission is granted to non-profit organizations and individuals to use these scripts in non-commercial performances as long as the Thousand Oaks Branch of the American Association of University Women is duly credited with authorship. Requests for other permissions should be sent to the address above.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832 – 1888)

MAYA ANGELOU (1928 - 2014)

EMMA LAZARUS (1849 – 1887)

PEARL S. BUCK (1892 - 1973)

ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1901 – 1960)

J. K. ROWLING (1965 -)

BEATRIX POTTER (1866 – 1943)

YOSHIKO UCHIDA (1921 – 1992)

NELLIE BLY (1867 - 1922)

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

AUTHOR

(1832 – 1888)

MONOLOGUE

Hello, I’m Louisa May Alcott, author of the book Little Women. Those words are from one of my very first poems. I always enjoyed writing and at the age of ten began a journal, in which I recorded my daily experiences. I continued this practice my entire life, and often used information from the journal in my stories.

My three sisters and I grew up in Massachusetts in the 1800’s. Our father was a teacher and a brilliant thinker. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with his ideas and he had a hard time finding work. We moved quite often and never had enough money. Our mother struggled constantly to keep us fed and clothed. I decided at a very young age to someday earn enough money to pay off our debts and make her life easier.

My teen years were my happiest. We lived in a country house called Hillside where I had a room of my own in which to think and write. My sisters and I enjoyed performing plays for our family and friends in the barn behind our house. I was the playwright, the director, the stage manager and the wardrobe mistress. The plays always involved courageous women in exciting adventures. Being a tomboy, I always wanted to be the pirate or the bandit.

It was a sad day when we moved to the city, but my mother felt fortunate to find a paying job as a social worker. My sister Anna and I earned money by sewing and holding school in our house. Later, when my family moved back to the country, I decided to stay in the city where it was easier to find work. I continued to teach and sew, but I also tried selling my stories to magazines. One editor told me, Stick to your teaching, Miss Alcott, you can’t write. That just made me more determined. I knew magazine readers liked thriller stories, so that’s what I wrote, sometimes twelve in one month. Finally, editors bought my stories, but I didn’t use my real name. It wasn’t only because men were paid more. I really didn’t want my friends to know I was writing such garbage.

After my younger sister Lizzie died of scarlet fever and my older sister Anna married, I felt lonely and restless. I wanted to join the Northern army and fight in the Civil War. I was very much against slavery. Women were needed as nurses, however, and I was assigned to an army hospital in Washington, D.C. I would never forget the sight of all those wounded and dying men. After six weeks of too much work and not enough sleep, I became ill with typhoid fever. The doctors gave me medicine called calomel to make me better, but calomel contained mercury, a poison which would cause me pain the rest of my life. After returning home, I wrote a book about my experiences entitled Hospital Sketches. It was the first time my writing was taken seriously.

One day my publisher asked me to write a story for girls. At first, I didn’t know what to