Quilters
1995 · Jacksonville Theatre Guild
Quilters is an all-woman musical — book by Molly Newman, music and lyrics by Barbara Damashek — based on The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art by Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Allen. Drawn from the diaries, journals, and letters of the women who helped settle this part of America, it tells their stories through the quilts they pieced together, each block a record of hardship, faith, joy, and triumph on the prairie frontier. As Ken framed it in his notes, this was "a beautiful woman's story...history, faith...taken from the journals and diaries of the women who settled the Midwest."
The Jacksonville Theatre Guild presented the show on October 6–8 and 13–15, 1995, sponsored by G. Ronald Kessinger and Associates. Ken had first directed the musical earlier in Pittsfield, and approached this version as a true ensemble piece. "So much mutual admiration in this cast," he wrote at the first rehearsal. "This is an ensemble piece...no stars...an overall effect." His own dedication captured what drew him to the material: "I grew up knowing nothing but strong, determined women: teachers, administrators, farm managers, home-makers. While few wrestled quilt hoops, all were spiritual heirs to the ladies in tonight's show. The midwest woman has no equal in the world."
A central figure named Sarah and her grown daughters move through the seasons of frontier life — the building of a sod house, births and deaths, fire and drought, the windmill and the butterfly — while the cast steps in and out of dozens of smaller roles. The story is told in beautiful choral work and the warmth of women playing many parts. Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion was among the many texts and voices the authors credited as inspiration, alongside frontier women's diaries and histories of prairie life.
Musical Numbers
Act I
- Pieces of Lives
- Rocky Road
- Little Babes That Sleep All Night
- Thread the Needle
- Cornelia
- The Windmill Song
- Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb? (by E. A. Hoffman)
- The Butterfly
- Pieces of Lives (reprise)
- Green, Green, Green
- The Needle's Eye
Act II
- Hoedown (traditional)
- Quiltin' and Dreamin'
- Pieces of Lives (reprise)
- Every Log in My House
- Land Where We'll Never Grow Old (by C. J. Moore)
- Who Will Count the Stitches?
- The Lord Don't Rain Down Manna
- Everything Has a Time
- Hands Around
Cast
- Sarah — Stephanie Smith-Jarratt
- The Daughters — Janet Auld, Debbie Bryan, Sylvia Burke, Bobbie Goodin, Sherri Maruna, Linda Schneider, Christine Smith, Leigh Ann Smith
- The Musicians — Ann Marie Stahel, Kurt Heller, Carol Newberry, Alice Cripe, Chuck West
Production Notes
- Director — Ken Bradbury
- Vocal Director — Julie Hood
- Technical Director — Chuck West
- Production Coordinator — Linda Van Aken
- Stage Manager — Terri Cormeny
- Lighting — Steve Eisenhauer, Chuck West, Ed Autrey
- Costumes — Janet Long, Patty Clinton, Jeri Ryan
- Rehearsal Pianists — Ann Marie Stahel, Jill Reither
- Properties — Helen Greenfield
- Program — Roger Deem
- Publicity & Marquee — Linda Van Aken, Sylvia Burke, Stephanie Smith-Jarratt
- Quilts — Martha Lou Dean
- House Manager — Betty Aldridge
Auditions were held August 14 and 15, 1995, at the Sophie Leschin Theatre on the grounds of the Jacksonville Developmental Center, calling for a cast of nine women. The cast members dedicated their performances to the grandmothers, mothers, and quilters in their own lives — a fitting echo of a play built entirely from the remembered voices of women.