Go, Granny D!" Show to Play at Fogartyville

SARASOTA – Currently touring nationwide, actress Barbara Bates Smith and musician Jeff Sebens will present "Go, Granny D!” on Thursday, September 18 at 7pm at the Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center. Off-Broadway actress Barbara Bates Smith and musician Jeff Sebens highlight the story of this crusader whose steel determination took the world by surprise and elevated her to national fame. 

Touting “You’re never too old to raise a little hell,” the 90-year-old Doris "Granny D" Haddock blazed a 3200-mile trail across America for campaign finance reform in the year 2000, precipitating the passage of the McCain-Feingold Act. She continued her bipartisan reform efforts in countrywide voter registration drives, issuing her final challenge in 2010 at age 100: "Democracy is a running game. You huddle and you go back in. You keep going."      

"This show totally rocks!" said Quaker Pastor Philip Raines of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Blog reviewer Michelle Grasty wrote, "This show will make you laugh and think and beg for more." Sponsor Felecia Shelor said, "A full house of Liberals and Conservatives all loved the play." "This fabulous show based on Granny D's memoirs brings her to life!" proclaimed her press secretary Maude Salinger.

This show is a benefit performance for the “In Granny D’s Footsteps” Project. This project was created by Rhana Bazzini, an 81-year-old woman committed to making a difference. She plans to walk from Sarasota to Tallahassee this fall to raise awareness of the Move to Amend Campaign and the need for Campaign Finance Reform. The Move to Amend Campaign is a grassroots effort to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to declare that corporations are not people and money is not speech. Tickets are $10. Advance tickets are available at www.wslr.org.