About The Penny Executive Project

The Penny Executive

Writer and Director FOSTER SOLOMON
Producers THOMAS FUSCO and RICHARD H. JONSEN

The Penny Executive is a one-woman play that tells the story of Maggie Lena Walker, a social entrepreneur and activist, who was the first woman president of a bank in the United States. 

Maggie Lena Walker was a descendent of enslaved Africans and early exemplar of transformational leadership and social entrepreneurship, two common topics in business practitioner and academic circles, yet the contributions of African Americans and women are not widely conveyed or explored in contemporary business curricula (Prieto & Phipps, 2019). We are bringing The Penny Executive to the Rohrer College of Business and Rowan University to begin addressing this gap.

This production will also serve as a prototype for future live theater-centric courses across the curriculum, demonstrating the potential for collaboration across disciplines that include people from all parts of the campus. Research suggests live theater enhances audience member empathy & prosocial behavior, important antecedents to antiracism (Chen & Lingo, 2020; Konrath & Kisida, 2021; Kou, Konrath & Goldstein, 2020; Tenenboim & Stroud, 2020). It is our hope that this type of education can become normal: a totally accessible, open brave space for conversations that serve as a catalyst for personal reflection and student antiracist activity.

The Penny Executive was originally commissioned by The Carpenter Theater Company of the Science Museum of Virginia to tell the story of their native daughter and prominent citizen of Richmond, Virginia, Maggie Lena Walker. The play’s writer, Foster Solomon, MFA, will also direct our production. Mr. Solomon wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the recent film Hawks Ridge, currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi. He is also a full-time faculty member at Brightpoint Community College in Chester, Virginia.

The play will be performed in the Business Hall atrium at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, on these dates in 2023: February 1 (5:00 PM), February 2 (5:00 PM), and February 3 (2:00 PM). 

Each performance will be followed by a panel discussion. Producing The Penny Executive will be discussed on February 1. The February 2 and 3 panels will dive deeper into themes from the play: the Golden Era of Black Business and Black Capitalism; the Black Club Women’s Movement and Black Womanhood; and Racial Uplift, Economic Empowerment, and Social Justice. 

This production is made possible by the generous support of these Rowan University groups:

The Department of Theater and Dance
The Department of Management
The Rohrer College of Business
The Edelman College of Communication and Creative Arts
The Rowan Center for Responsible Leadership
The Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Department of History
College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Additional sponsors from the Rowan University community and beyond are welcome and under development.

References

WeiLin Chen & Mitchell David Lingo (2020). Arts for a change: Collegiate arts attendance as a mechanism of social and civic growth. Journal of College and Character, 21, 263-280. doi:10.1080/2194587.2020.1822876

Sara Konrath & Brian Kisida (2021). Does arts engagement increase empathy and prosocial behavior?  A review of the literature. In L. H. Hersey & B. Bobick (Eds.), Engagement in the city: How arts and culture impact development in urban areas (pp. 7-38). Lexington Books.

Xiaonan Kou, Sara Konrath & Thalia R. Goldstein (2020). The relationship between different types of arts engagement, empathy, and prosocial behavior. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 14, 481-492. doi: 10.1037/aca0000269

Leon C. Prieto & Simone T. A. Phipps (2019). African American management history: Insights on gaining a cooperative advantage. Emerald.

Ori Tenenboim & Natalie Jomini Stroud (2020). Enacted journalism takes the stage: How audiences respond to reporting-based theater. Journalism Studies, 21, 713-730. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2020.1720521