* RAVE review for "QUILTERS" at Actors' Summit* Tickets are on sale NOW!!! 330-374-7568 or www.actorssummit.org (Equity actors free ticket with your current Equity card, Thursday and Friday shows only.) [image: Ohio.com] 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 [image: Print] <http://www.ohio.com/cmlink/1.631784?print=1#> [image: Facebook] [image: Twitter] [image: Add This] 0 <http://www.ohio.com/cmlink/theater-review-quilters-at-actors-summit-a-poignant-journey-with-pioneer-women-1.631784?comments=y> 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@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-a... -- *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/>*