With A Simple Herstory Jocelyn Kuritsky sheds light on a piece of history that many of us never knew.
Much different than your garden variety let’s-bring-on-a-bunch-of-talking-heads podcast A Simple Herstory is scripted theater with a topnotch cast of Tony winners and TV stars. In fact, the series, produced by The Muse Project and presented by The Tank feels more like radio plays.
“Victoria Woodhull was a piece of work. Like me and all the women I know,” says Florencia Lozano who plays her. “She is complicated, multi-faceted and in some ways a different woman at different times in her life. Her lust to be free is entirely awe- inspiring. She stood on her literal soap box and campaigned for herself. God forbid a woman be ambitious. I wanted the permission she gave herself to create the life she wanted.
“Victoria forged hardship into tools. She knew what she wanted and went after it, when that was not a thing many women did,” says Lozano. “I love that she insisted on having a seat at the man’s table.”I had been thinking about women and power for a while—thinking more about what power is, who has it, who wants it and why. I thought about who we consider to be the most powerful person in the United States, possibly the world.
Brunner: How does this season address failure, particularly the “failure” of women to capture the presidency?The series is all about failure. You can imagine how well that went over in pitch meetings. No woman has captured the presidency. They’ve all failed. So far. I think it’s important to note that, to own that.