Kittie Knox was a young biracial cyclist who fought against race-based limitations in America's post-Reconstruction reaction against Black advancement. During her cycling career (1893- 1899), she became a well-known century (100-mile) rider, protested the League of American Wheelmen's color bar, and refused to conform to conventions about "ladylike" speed and fashion while cycling. These vibrant plays chronicle the dramatic story of a turbulent time in America's history, with lessons for today's struggle for racial and gender equality and justice.
This book includes: the scripts for this innovative, site-specific project, information on the history of Kittie Knox and the Cycling Craze of the 1890s, production photos and reflections
from artists involved in the world premiere production, and discussion questions for use in the classroom. It is intended both to spur discussion and as a leaping off point for new productions.
Gabridge, Patrick: - Patrick (he/him) is the producing artistic director and founder of Plays in Place and has created site-specific plays in partnership with many museums and historic sites, including Mount Auburn Cemetery, Boston's Old State House, Old South Meeting House, Historic Northampton, and Old North Church, among others. He is an award-winning playwright and has written 24 historical plays, along with many contemporary plays that have received more than 1,000 productions from theatres and schools around the world (17 countries so far). He's also a screenwriter, novelist, and a writer of audio plays. A longtime cyclist, for a time Patrick published the blog Choosing No Car, about his family's adventures with car-free life in Boston.
Gardner, Claire Soleil: - Claire (They/She) is a multi-disciplinary playwright, director, dramaturg, and performer with a BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University. Based in Boston and NYC, recent work includes playing "Zanj" in Into Your Hands by Tomi Endter at The Public, membership of the inaugural cohort of the New to the Neighborhood residency commissioned by What Will the Neighbors Say?, playing "Moon" in Two Spirit F(l)ag by Ty Defoe in the Say Gay Plays festival at NYU Skirball, and assistant direction of Number Our Days at the Perelman Performing Arts Center. Claire is a proud Indigenous (Metis-Plains Cree) queer individual whose passion for history, education, and social justice are central to their work.
Greenidge, Kirsten: - Village Voice/Obie and PEN America/Laura Pels winner Kirsten Greenidge is the author of The Luck of the Irish, Milk Like Sugar, as well as Our Daughter's Like Pillars and Common Ground: Revisited, an adaptation of J. Anthony Lucas' Pulitzer Prize winning book about Boston's desegregation efforts in the 1970s. A hallmark of Kirsten's work is her focus on the nexus of race, class, and gender in the United States in the past and present. More recent work includes Matilde: A Fable, commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival and last seen at the 2024 DNA Festival at La Jolla Playhouse, the libretto for The Anonymous Lover, an adaptation of the original by Joseph Bologne, which premiered at Boston Lyric Opera in February 2024 and was presented at Opera Philly in Winter 2025. Kirsten is an Associate Professor of Theatre at the School of the Theatre at Boston University, where she oversees the playwrighting track of study, and also serves as the school's Director. Kirsten attended Wesleyan University and the Playwright's Workshop at the University of Iowa. She is currently working on commissions from the A.R.T., Fourth Wall Theatricals, for which she is developing the musical Shelter, based on the journalism of Lauren Sandler, with music and lyrics by Crystal Monee Hall, with direction by Lorin Latarro, and was recently workshopped at New York Stage and Film in July 2025. Kirsten's adapted libretto of Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment, was presented-with a Revolutionary Boston twist-in April 2026.
