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MARY ANN JUNG of Arnold, Md., com- bines a love of acting with a background in British history to create "Margaret Brent of Maryland," a one-woman show she has brought to schools, libraries and historical groups for 14 years.
Jung has a long association with the Maryland Renaissance Festival and also has created one-woman portrayals of other characters from history, including Queen Elizabeth I and Clara Barton. But she says Margaret Brent is her best-seller, especially in Maryland.
"She's such a pistol," said Jung of Mistress Brent. "I guess what most appealed to me was that she was the first woman to ask for the right to vote Most people think of women's suffrage in the late 1800s. But here we have a woman in 1648. She was so far ahead of everyone else just the fact that she had the temerity to ask is amazing."
During a recent performance for about 200 elementary and middle-school age children at Harmony Hall Recreational Center in Fort Washington, Md., Jung sprinkled her history lesson with surprises, challenges and humor.
"I'm in the attitude of the times, and I like to shock the audience about what a woman could and could not do in those days," Jung said.
She performed for about 50 minutes in the costume of a Colonial lady and with the accent of an upper-class British subject.
"I love history and I do all my own research," Jung said. "But if people are bored, then they don't care. So, I'm an actress first, and I'm there to entertain."
She told the children how the trip from England could take as long as four months on a wooden ship that was "crowded, noisy, dirty and dangerous."
She said the American colonies were a wilderness, and that early settlers faced many hardships. She also explained how the colony was ruled by a small group of powerful men and how women "were nothing" under English law.
"But I'm educated and outspoken," Jung said as Brent. "And I don't act like a lady is supposed to act."
Jung then spoke as Brent to the members of the Maryland Assembly, demanding the right to have two votes in their proceedings--one for her own lands and one as a representative of Lord Baltimore, the colony's proprietor.
The audience was asked to respond, prompting most of the girls to shout "aye" and the boys to say "nay."
"The men in the assembly were outraged and angry," Jung said. "They couldn't understand how dare I demand a vote.
"But in the 1600s, things were not fair or equal. Sometimes, it takes courage to be different."
Jung then told the audience about how she moved to Virginia and settled on a plantation called "Peace," which was located on Brent Point in the Widewater section of Stafford County.
She also described the colonists' early contacts with the Piscataway Indians and brought students on stage to act out various parts in the story.
Before her performance, Jung said that Brent's story spoke to literacy and reading books. And while onstage, she encouraged the audience to read more about history.
At one point, she asked the children to raise their hands if they owned a book. Tiny arms waved across the auditorium.
"Oh, you must all be rich," Jung said as Mistress Brent. "In my time, a book was something you treasured like a best friend."
