Voice, testimony, and the responsibility of listening
Start Here
This performance does not begin in the past.
It begins with you.
You are being addressed. You are being asked to listen.
Not passively.
Not as background.
But as someone who is now part of the work.
About the Performance
Unyielding Voices is a direct-address performance.
Direct address means:
the performer speaks to you, not just about events.
Frances Munds does not simply tell history.
She:
greets you
challenges you
questions you
hands responsibility to you
At the same time, the performance is carried through:
spoken language + American Sign Language (ASL)
This means meaning is created through:
voice
gesture
visual rhythm
embodiment
The performance is not just heard.
It is seen.
How This Performance Works
1. Direct Address
Frances speaks directly to the audience:
“Well, look at you, showing up today!”
This creates:
immediacy
relationship
accountability
You are not watching from a distance.
You are being included.
2. Time Collapses
Frances speaks from “the ethers.”
This allows her to:
move between past and present
comment on today’s world
connect history to now
Past and present exist at the same time.
3. Guided Witnessing
The performance leads you through history:
suffrage campaigns
victories
exclusions
consequences
But it does not stop at information.
It asks:
What will you do with what you’ve heard?
4. Embodied Language (ASL + Speech)
Because the performance includes a Deaf Sign Language performer:
meaning is visual as well as verbal
gesture carries emotional and rhetorical weight
timing and movement shape understanding
Ask yourself:
What do you understand through movement?
What feels different when language is seen rather than heard?
Key Ideas to Know Before Watching
Testimony
A personal account of lived experience, shared publicly.
Suffrage
The right to vote—and the struggle to obtain it.
Democracy
Not just a system of voting, but a process that requires participation.
Exclusion
The act of leaving individuals or groups out of rights or participation.
Before You Watch
Consider:
What does it mean to truly listen?
What responsibilities come with hearing someone’s story?
Can history speak directly to the present?
While You Watch
Focus on how the performance works, not just what it says.
1. Track Direct Address
When does Frances speak directly to you?
How does that change your role?
2. Track Time
When are you in the past?
When does the present appear?
3. Track Voice and Gesture
What is communicated through speech?
What is communicated through movement?
4. Track Inclusion and Exclusion
Notice:
who is included in victories
who is left out
5. Track the Questions
Frances repeatedly asks:
What will you do?
Pay attention to:
when those questions appear
how they build over time
After You Watch
Reflect:
What stayed with you?
What challenged you?
When did you feel addressed directly?
Most importantly:
Do you feel differently positioned than when you began?
Difficult Truths in the Performance
The play does not present a simple story of progress.
It includes:
support for literacy tests that excluded immigrants
delayed voting rights for Native American women
racial divisions within the suffrage movement
Frances states clearly:
“Justice that excludes is not justice.”
This is not background.
It is a central argument.
Discussion Questions
When did you feel most directly addressed? What created that moment?
How does the combination of ASL and spoken language change your experience?
What responsibilities does the performance assign to the audience?
How does the play handle the idea of progress—straight line or something more complex?
What does the performance suggest about democracy today?
For Educators and Facilitators
Use this guide to:
prepare audiences for active listening
discuss performance as a form of civic engagement
connect historical material to present-day responsibility
Encourage:
observation before interpretation
specificity over generalization
Final Frame
Unyielding Voices does not end with history.
It ends with a question:
What will you do with what you’ve been given?
The performance does not resolve that question.
It hands it to you.