MANCHESTER THEATRE
Quilters opens May 14
Millennium (MRC) presents an All-Star cast of area favorites, to present the area premiere of the hauntingly beautiful musical Quilters, May 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 2010. Sunday performances at 2:00 PM, all others at 7:30PM. Tickets: $8 for adults $5 for students. Call (931)-570-4489 (HIVY) for reservations. Seating is extremely limited.
Quilters will be at 100 West Fort Street (formerly the DAV Thrift Store), in Historic, Downtown Manchester, TN (37375) next door to Larry Banks Photography.
In the American West, a pioneer woman, Sarah, and six women, who are called her daughters, face frontier life. Rather than a straightforward storyline, the musical is presented as a series of short tales and tableaux matched with musical numbers, each presenting an aspect of frontier life or womanhood. The patches or blocks show "girlhood, marriage, childbirth, spinsterhood, twisters, fire, illness and death."[9] The patches are ultimately put together to form one splendid quilt.
Rita Munn and her culinary arts students will offer a Pioneer Dinner which will serve to raise funds for "The Kitchen Table" which is a work in progress that will eventually make food available to hungry people in this area.
Quilt Walk featuring both historic and new quilts from local quilters and guilds. Area legends, The Grace Notes, will entertain patrons prior to the show with traditional, a capella Pioneer Gospel arrangements.
Quilters cast: Sarah -- Carolyn Bradford (Estill Springs) / Daughters -- Michelle Rowe (Winchester), Courtney Cox (Manchester), Gina Chapman (Fayetteville), Annie Flanigan (Tullahoma), Donna Brock (Manchester), Samantha Terrell (Nashville) / Cornelia Corn-Cob Doll -- Alex Ivans (Coalmont) / Understudy -- Crystal McCullough (Tullahoma).
Nothing is big in this production. Its strength is its unassuming honesty and simplicity. It creates moods, more than it does drama, and its best moods are straightforward, like the people it celebrates.
Tullahoma's Robert Allen is Directing and Designing. Emily Barnes is the accompanist. John Crawford will co-ordinate the orchestra.
Sewanee's Vicki Qualls will design the blocks and quilts.
This relatively obscure, unknown show was nominated for 6 Tony Awards -- including BEST MUSICAL in 1984.