The actress began her presentation with "Bonjour" in a French accent. She wore a bob hairdo, oversized red glasses, and a matching red pin sweeping her hair to the right.

Dorene Ludwig with the American Living History Theater performed Monday at Casper College's Black Box Theatre.

Presenting history through the eyes of the beholder, rather than listing dates and names, engaged viewers and invited them into the history that is typically not discussed in schools.

In "Hemmed In Work-Life Patterns of American's Women," Ludwig acted scenes from the lives of several women in history. Her performance was the first of two in a series sponsored by the Casper College Women's Studies Department and the Casper College Career Center. The next is Tuesday.

She called Elizabeth Lucas Pinckney the "Superwoman of Colonial times" because at age 17 she managed three South Carolina plantations, taught her sister, studied French, cared for her invalid mother, practiced law, planted oak trees for lumber sale, and presented indigo trade for South Carolina.

Ludwig performed as Mary Reynolds, plantation slave; Dorothea Dix, an activist for the rights of the insane and imprisoned; Marie and Bessie Von Vorst, upper class women disguised as factory workers in the mills of the north and south; Elizabeth Butler, government survey investigator; Margaret Sanger, the mother of birth control; Johnnie Tillmon, leader of mothers on welfare; and a modern corporate lawyer on the "mommy track."

"The idea is to collaborate between Career Center and Women's Studies for our topic of women in the work place," said Janet de Vries, director of Career Center at Casper College.

Ludwig pointed out that when her company began there was no such thing as the Internet, so they performed omitted history in schools researching in-depth topics about historical figures such as Edgar Allen Poe and Columbus.

She wanted to inspire others to pass on the information and to question people's opinion.

"The more you research, the more you find out how much was missing," Ludwig said. "There is way too much information."

Talking about the portrayal of women on TV, Ludwig suggested that the ideal image was white, skinny and rich, which is not the majority of women anywhere in the world. She said that housewives should get a salary and that women's liberation was simple.

"It is women standing together on their feet," said Ludwig. "There are wonderful, wonderful people who you should know better, who have given you the rights you have today."