[NEohioPAL] RAVE review for "QUILTERS" at Actors' Summit

Wed Oct 21 14:13:44 PDT 2015

*                 RAVE review for "QUILTERS" at Actors' Summit*

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www.actorssummit.org
(Equity actors free ticket with your current Equity card, Thursday and
Friday shows only.)

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ReviewTheater review: ‘Quilters’ at Actors’ Summit a poignant journey with
pioneer women

Actors’ Summit’s revival of pioneer women musical outstanding performance

By Kerry Clawson
Beacon Journal staff writer
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Published: October 12, 2015 - 05:39 PM

*Actors’ Summit’s *revival of the rich, folksy *Quilters* is just as
beautiful and moving this time as the show was when the theater first
produced it in 2008.

The play with music by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek, originally
produced at the Denver Center Theatre in 1982, is a celebration of American
pioneer women that ran on Broadway in 1985. This gem of a musical is
inspired by the book *The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art,* by Patricia
Cooper and Norma Bradley Allen.

At *Actors’ Summit, Quilters* is again directed by MaryJo Alexander with a
cast of five women.* Charlene DeJournett*, known locally as an R&B singer,
portrays mother Sarah, who is passing her legacy of quilt-making on to her
five daughters, portrayed by *Sally Groth, Shani Ferry, Hope Caldwell,
Sarah Slagle and Rachel Irwin.*

In the pioneer days, women created quilts not only for warmth and
protection on the bitterly cold plains, but also as a way of way of
recording their hopes, sorrows and family history. They turned to
quilt-making as a social opportunity and as a form of solace during
difficult times.

The presentation of each of 16 quilt blocks is accompanied by a different
vignette and a different mood in the lives of various characters. In this
way, the musical becomes a patchwork quilt of many pioneer women’s stories
of courage, hardship, joy and sisterhood.

Hardships included horrible fires, tornadoes and the loss of loved ones,
while the joys included childbirth, weddings and the building of log
cabins. The actresses bring us through the trip out West in *Rocky
Road* through
baptisms, school, courtship, growing families and more.

Through it all, alto *DeJournett *is a spunky presence as the
matriarch and *Groth,
Ferry, Caldwell, Slagle and Irwin *perform as a brilliant unit with a
bright sound and excellent harmonies. In this show, the singing is as
impeccable as the wonderful quilt blocks that are introduced one by one.

*Groth*, who performed with *Ferry* in *Actors’ Summit’s* original 2008
production of *Quilters,* does double duty as both an actress and a fiddler
in this version. The singers are led by Deborah Ingersoll on keyboard plus
Jon Mosey on banjo and Brian Mueller on guitar.

*Caldwell and Ferry* offer soaring soprano vocals, including *Ferry’s*
yearning *Green, Green, Green,* in which a girl makes up a fantasy story of
being born in a fancy house rather than in a dugout just up the road.

*Ferry* also is memorable at the other extreme as she plays a mute, shocked
mother who has lost her infant in the mournful *Butterfly Song*. Even as
this young mother is on the brink of death, she turns to quilting as a gift
to her remaining baby.

This scene of sorrow is nicely contrasted with a humorous one — a quilting
bee in which each girl divulges she’s in love with the same young man for
whom the quilt is being made.

*Mount Union *music and theater majors *Slagle and Irwin* are a youthful
asset to the cast with their strong singing and acting, engaging in
everything from jumping rope to creating corncob dolls.

The theater is again using the *Legacy Quilt *that it created with the help
of 12 volunteers seven years ago. It’s fun to see each unique quilt block
design pinned up on a clothesline as each vignette unfolds, but I wish the
theater had displayed all 16 in an easily visible manner. Six pieces were
prominently placed across the back of the stage but eight were hung up on
the sides where they couldn’t be seen well.

The musical comes to a close with the dramatic unfurling of a beautiful
quilting visual that audiences will never forget.

Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or
kclawson at thebeaconjournal.com. Like her on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/kclawsonabj or follow her on Twitter @KerryClawsonABJ.

*Find this article at: *
http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/kerry-clawson/theater-review-quilters-at-actors-summit-a-poignant-journey-with-pioneer-women-1.631784

-- 
*MaryJo Alexander*
*Artistic Director*
*Actors' Summit Theater*
*Greystone Hall---6th floor*
*103 S. High St*
*Akron Oh 44308 *
*330-374-7568*
*www.actorssummit.org <http://www.actorssummit.org/>*
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