Director's Notes

As a native New Englander, I have always recognized that our collective culture is inextricable from the explosion of mill factories across this region in the 19th and 20th centuries. Both their rise and their fall have shaped who we are. I have headed to the extraordinary mill that is the heart of the Lowell National Historic Park on several occasions, and though a northern Vermonter by birth, I found myself reflected in the tall windows, the imposing machines and the endless belts that consumed these factory floors along the Merrimac River. It was on my first outing to the mill museum that I discovered just how enmeshed my understanding of New England was with the history of the factory workers of Lowell. Several years ago, I was searching for potential musicals I might submit for consideration to be included in our main stage season when I stumbled upon Factory Girls. Reading the synopsis of the plot, it mentioned the Lowell Offering, a 19th century magazine written entirely by the women who operated the Boott Mill Factory looms. I remembered learning about that publication on one of those trips to the museum and was immediately enmeshed in the musical’s story. From there, I began hunting down any recordings I could find of the show’s music. The first one I found was titled Live Free or Die. As the New Hampshire connections become more and more evident, I wanted to know more about the two creators of this musical. Who were these guys? Creighton Irons and Sean Mahoney had written the music, lyrics and book, and at the very end of a biography about Sean that I had finally tracked down, it stated that he received his MFA from NYU’s musical theatre writing program, and had a BA in English from….UNH. Wait…what? Like OUR UNH? Having a song in this musical that used the state’s moto was no longer a mystery. Now the desire to make sure this piece was performed in New Hampshire became all the more important. As I listened to more of the music, the more I fell in love with the musical. The more I read the story, the more I saw the deep-rooted connections I experienced in those visits to the factory museum in Lowell. With the struggles of workers and the friction of labor and corporate America once again in the forefront of our national consciousness, the connection to these early attempts for fairness, reasonable working conditions and equity are all the more powerful. It was the women of Lowell, taking these brave steps to declare that they “would not be a slave” that slowly resonated across the country and to our present day. What a joy to have found this powerful musical, that is so very much about all of us.  

--David Kaye

 Special Thanks to Hackmatack Playhouse, Berwick, ME