[NEohioPAL] "Quilters" opens Feb. 4

[Jan Harcar]

Weathervane Playhouse's 'Quilters'

Stitches Together the Stories of the Pioneering Women Who Settled the American West

 

Porthouse Theatre Artistic Director Terri Kent
Directs Weathervane Ensemble
 

(Jan. 24, 2011 - Akron, Ohio - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) - Weathervane Playhouse's 2010-2011 Founders Theater season continues with Quilters - the  inspiring musical about the pioneer women who settled the American West -  live on stage from Feb. 3 to 20, 2011. 

 

Quilters depicts a series of short tales, each depicting an aspect of womanhood. This musical mosaic examines the significant milestones of a pioneer woman's life - girlhood, marriage, childbirth and spinsterhood - against the backdrop of the perilous and uncertain journey out west through twisters, fire, illness and death.

 

These heart-rending scraps of stories - much like the assembled blocks or patches of a quilt - reveal the larger narrative of the American experience as told by the brave women who blazed a trail in an unfamiliar country while shouldering the burden of raising of a family.

 

Written by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek, with music and lyrics by Damashek, Quilters was described by Newsweek as ".a tender and moving theatre work, a human patchwork rippling in the breeze of memory."

 

Weathervane Playhouse welcomes Terri Kent as the guest director of Quilters. Kent is the artistic director of Porthouse Theatre, which performs each summer on the grounds of Blossom Music Center. Jonathan Swoboda, a featured keyboardist for Mannheim Steamroller, serves as the production's musical director along with Jen Korecki.

 

During the three-week run of Quilters, Weathervane Playhouse's main lobby will play host to a large display of handmade quilts by members of several local quilt clubs . This exhibition is made possible through the coordinated efforts of Judy Holder a member of Weathervane's Board of Trustees.

 

The Quilters Cast and their Ohio Hometowns
 

Lenne Snively (of Cleveland) . Mother

 

Patricia Bestic (of Hudson) . Daughter

 

Danielle Dorfman (of Silver Lake) . Daughter

 

Kristy Tucci (of Venango PA ) . Daughter

 

Kaitlyn Warren (of Uniontown) . Daughter

 

Erin Diroll (of Stow) . Daughter

 

Caitlin Rose (of Madison OH ) . Daughter

 

About the Show's Director 
 

TERRI KENT directed Weathervane Playhouse's Children of Eden in 2008. She is an associate professor at Kent State University, where she serves as head of the acting and musical-theatre programs and as artistic director of Porthouse Theatre (which performs each summer on the grounds of Blossom Music Center). During Porthouse Theatre's 2010 season, she directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Bye Bye Birdie. In previous years at Porthouse, she directed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, The Music Man, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Spitfire Grill, West Side Story, Godspell, Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon, Oklahoma! and Big River. Her affiliation with Porthouse goes back to 1983 and she has also performed on the Porthouse stage in such shows as Dames at Sea, Quilters, Fiddler on the Roof, Twelfth Night and The Importance of Being Earnest. She is a member of Actors' Equity Association and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and has performed both regionally and internationally. Locally, she has directed at Cain Park, the Halle Theatre and the Working Theatre. She has also served as an assistant director and movement coach for several Great Lakes Theater Festival productions.

 

About the Show's Musical Director 
 

JONATHAN SWOBODA served as the musical director for Weathervane Playhouse's They're Playing Our Song in 2010. He is the music director for the Kent State University School of Theatre and Dance. In addition to teaching, Jonathan has music directed KSU's productions of A New Brain, Jane Eyre, Rent and Oklahoma! as well as Porthouse Theatre's productions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Annie Get Your Gun. Jonathan is a graduate with high distinction from the University of Michigan School of Music and holds a master's degree from the University of Nebraska. He has music-directed more than 75 productions throughout the country including numerous national tours. He was an assistant director for Purdue Musical Organizations, at Purdue University, directing numerous vocal and instrumental ensembles. As a pianist, Jonathan is equally at home in the classical world as both a soloist and accompanist. More recently, Jonathan spent three years as a Resident Music Director for PCPA Theaterfest in California, and he toured as the Featured Keyboard Artist for the internationally known performing ensemble Mannheim Steamroller. 

 

The Quilters Backstage Team and their Ohio Hometowns

 

Assistant Director - Rocky Encalada (of Stow)

 

Stage Manager - Jill Forster (of Akron)

 

Costume Designer - Jasen J. Smith (of Akron)

 

Sound Designer - Drew Suffron (of Uniontown)

 

Properties Co Designers - Pamela Parks Costa (of Akron)

                                                   and Karen Burridge (of Brimfield Township)

 

Lighting Designer - Brandon Davies (of Stow)

 

Scenic Designer and Technical Director - Alan Scott Ferrall (of Cuyahoga Falls)

 

Assistant Technical Director - Kathy Kohl (of Akron)

 

About the Show and its Creators
 

About the Show's Production History
 

Artistic collaborators Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek based Quilters on the 1977 non-fiction book The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art, an Oral History, written by Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Allen, which collects the stories of American pioneer women. Quilters was originally developed and produced at The Denver Center Theatre Company in 1982. Following the premiere production in Denver, the show was staged at such regional theaters across the United States as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh Public Theater and in Washington, D.C., at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Broadway came next. After five preview performances, the show opened in New York City at the Jack Lawrence Theatre on Sept. 25, 1984, where it played for 24 performances before closing on Oct. 14 of that year. The production received six Tony Award nominations, including one for Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score. In 2009, The Denver Center Theatre Company revived the show in celebration of the theater company's 30th season.

 

 

About the Show's Creators
 

Quilters book-writer MOLLY NEWMAN was born in Indiana and moved to Denver to attend college. She began her career as an actor before switching gears to writing and producing. Although best known in the theater world as the co-writer of the musical Quilters, Newman also wrote the play Shooting Stars, a comedy about a minor-league women's basketball team touring the United States in the early 1960s. In the years since Quilters and Shooting Stars, Newman has served as writer and producer for television. In her various roles as a producer, writer and story editor, her TV credits include The Larry Sanders Show, Murphy Brown, Frasier, Sisters, 7th Heaven, Maximum Bob, Tracey Takes On. and Snoops. In 1997, she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for Tracey Takes On.). Since 2006, she has served as part of the producing team of the ABC-TV drama Brothers and Sisters. 

 

Quilters book-writer, composer and lyricist BARBARA DAMASHEK is an assistant professor of musical theatre at San Francisco State University. She leads the institution's musical-theater program, teaches workshops in acting for both non-musicals and musicals, directs musical and opera productions, and develops a lab for the creation of new musical-theater productions. She is the author of many musical-theater pieces, most notably Quilters, for which she was nominated for three Tony Awards, and which has been produced extensively all over the world. She has directed for many of the leading professional theatres in the United States, including Berkeley Rep, the Magic, South Coast Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Rep, and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. She holds an M.F.A. from Yale University, and has also taught at University of California at Irvine, American Conservatory Theater, the Trinity Rep Conservatory, and the O'Neill Theatre Institute.

 

Ticket and Performance Information
 

Quilters plays on the Weathervane Playhouse Founders Theater stage between Feb. 3 and 20, 2011.

 

The low-cost preview performance is Thursday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m.; the official opening-night performance is Friday, Feb. 4 at 8 p.m.

 

Between Feb. 3 and 20, 2011, performance days and times are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. In addition, a 10 a.m. performance will be offered on Wednesday, Feb. 16; discounted tickets for school groups are available for this daytime performance.

 

Tickets for the Feb. 3 preview performance only are $18 each. Tickets for performances after Feb. 3 are $24 each. 

 

$21 tickets for seniors and college students are available for Thursday and Sunday performances. Tickets for children (ages 17 or younger) are $19.50 at all performances after Feb. 3. Additional discounts for groups of 12 or larger are also available.

 

The Weathervane Playhouse Box Office is open Mondays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and is also open beginning one hour before each performance. For tickets, visit or call the Weathervane Box Office at (330) 836-2626 during Box Office hours or connect online to www.weathervaneplayhouse.com.

 

* * *

 

Weathervane Playhouse and its dedicated volunteers offer vital performing arts resources for the people of Northeastern Ohio. We create exciting and thought-provoking shows with impressive production values. Through educational programs and volunteer opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, Weathervane serves the theater community, our patrons and our volunteers.

 

The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, education excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

 

Additional 2010-2011 season sponsors

89.7 WSKU-FM

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

OMONOVA Solutions Foundation

Sisler McFawn Foundation

Akron Community Foundation

Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust

The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation

Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation

Janis Harcar
Director of Advancement
Weathervane Playhouse
330-836-2323 X16
www.weathervaneplayhouse.com
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