Two March 13 performances by Lake Ridge playright-actor about suffrage movement in our backyard

Most people are taught in some history class that the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote was approved in 1920 and that Susan B. Anthony played a role.

However, most people do not know that part of the history of the suffrage movement lies right here in our own backyard.

Margie Tompros of Lake Ridge, a professional actor and playwright, found an art class for her daughter at Lorton Workhouse Arts Center, which operated as a prison from 1910 to 2001. Now it is a renovated, beautiful arts center with studios, galleries and theatre.

The center also houses a Workhouse Prison Museum where Tompros spent her time during a two-hour wait for her daughter.

As Tompros explains, she was “horrified at what [she] saw.” An exhibit replicates a graphic, bloody force feeding of a woman.

Tompros researched and found a bounty of information that she is bringing to a performance piece called “Deeds, Not Words.”

Tompros found the history of the suffrage movement intriguing. She retells the story with passion. She recounts that in 1917 women were silently protesting in Washington in front of the White House, which brought then-President Woodrow Wilson to his “breaking point.”

As women stood silently holding signs, men coming home from the war would start fights by tearing down signs and creating violence.

As Tompros tells it, Wilson was concerned about the image of the office of the U. S. President and “losing face” during the war.

He had the D. C. Commissioner arrest the women. They were sent to Lorton prison. Some 72 suffragists were imprisoned including Alice Paul, a leader of the National Women’s Group, a scholar, attorney and civil rights activist.

Prison officials separated Paul from the other women–since she spearheaded the movement–and sent her to psychiatrists to deem her insane. Psychiatrists, however, determined she was not insane, but acting for a cause.

The imprisoned women used an “old Irish tactic,” according to Tompros, of going on hunger strikes. Tompros notes that this worked in Ireland because people would not want a “stinking corpse on their steps” to shame them or show others that they wronged someone.

To ensure the women would not die due to hunger, tubes were put down their throats and raw eggs poured down in bloody scenes.

Tompros says the conditions were “deplorable” with worms in their food, straw for beds, women in shackles. She says those in power wanted them to give up on their cause. The message got out to the media and the women received sympathy from the rest of the country which pressured Wilson and Congress into passing the law.

The actions of these women gave way to the Civil Rights Movement, according to Tompros.

To memorialize Alice Paul, the leader, Tompros has written a performance piece which will be performed on Sunday, March 13 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton.

March is Women’s History month, which the playright-actor Tompros believes is time for people to learn about these women whose stories have somehow received very little acknowledgement in history books, but also the history that gave women the right to vote is right here and most do not know it.

Performing with Tompros will be Ellen Hart McKinstrie, who teaches and directs the theatre program at Woodbridge Middle School, Paul E. Tompros, professional actor and director for the Capitol Steps and Amelia K. Tompros, an eighth grade student at Woodbridge Middle School.

Lorton Workhouse Arts Center is located at 9518 Workhouse Way in Lorton.
For more information, see http://www.workhousearts.org/event/deeds-not-words/ or call 703-584-2900.