Life of 19th century woman is subject of upcoming drama

Off the Wall, a dramatic presentation about activist Charlotte Perkins Gilman, features a performance by playwright and actress Ann Timmons of Arlington, Va. Timmons wrote the drama, which ran off-Broadway in 1992.

Her 7 p.m. appearance in the University Theatre of McComas Hall is sponsored by the Women's Studies Program. Partial funding was provided by the Mississippi Humanities Council and a number of campus departments.

The performance is free and open to the public.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born in 1860, was a great-niece of American reformers Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. She saw herself as a humanist crusader in a "masculinist" world. She particularly focused on the plight of women and workers.

She wrote a utopian novel, Herland, and from 1909 to 1916 edited and published a radical monthly journal, The Forerunner.

While on campus, Timmons also will deliver a lecture on "American Women in the Late 19th Century" and will meet students during a reception at the University Honors Program House. The 2 p.m. lecture in the Laboratory Theater of McComas Hall and 3:30 p.m. reception at 45 Magruder St. also are open to the public.

Ann Timmons has performed extensively in regional theater in productions. Her film and television credits include "Wall Street," "Saturday Night Live" and "Another World."

For more information about her Mississippi State appearance, call Elizabeth Nybakken at 325-7086.