Behind the Curtain: City museum hosts one-woman show
Filed Under Kitchen Curtain | Posted on May 7, 2008
The last time a museum in Attleboro hosted theater it was the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum, which rented a wing to Attleboro Community Theatre to stage plays along Union Street for a decade or more.
ACT eventually moved out and, after a three-year stay at a Firearms School in North Attleboro, settled into a splendid small space at the Bates Masonic Lodge on North Main Street in Attleboro.
Well, another Attleboro museum is taking a crack at putting on a show.
The Women at Work Museum is offering a Clara Barton Tea on Saturday, May 17, from 1 to 4 p.m. For $20, guests can enjoy breads, pastries and other delightful treats while watching another treat, an inspiring one-woman play based on the letters and speeches of Abby Kelley Foster. Called “Yours for Humanity, Abby,” it’s written and performed by Lynne Lydick.
The show paints a vivid portrait of Foster, a 19th century Worcester abolitionist and women’s rights activist. It’s a chance to travel back to 1854 and enter Abby’s world to hear her powerful orations against slavery and prejudice, which changed the hearts and minds of many.
Charlotte Meehan is a beloved play-writing professor at Wheaton College in Norton. Meehan - who watched her filmmaker husband die slowly of cancer while raising their very young daughter - has been lauded for her unusual multi-media works for the stage, which run the gamut of human emotions and events.
Meehan’s provocative, evocative work “Sweet Disaster” opened in April at Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire St., Providence and this is the last weekend to see it. The show closes Sunday.
Eugene and his family from Brighton Beach will return to the MMAS Black Box stage for the final play in Neil Simon’s semi-autobiographical trilogy.
Aunt Blanche (Springer) has married well and returns for a visit to coax “the grandfather” of the family to move to Florida to live in relative luxury. The grandfather, played by Bob Emery, being an old garment district worker and a socialist, wants no part of it. Jack, the father (Kelly), has another woman. The mother, Kate, played by Pettis, stands her ground.
In this comedy/drama the audience sees the final breakup of the Jerome family. Eugene says, “Contrary to popular belief, everything in life doesn’t come to a clear-cut conclusion. Mom didn’t do anything exciting with the rest of her life except wax her grandmother’s table and bask in the glory of her sons’ success. But I never got the feeling that Mom felt she sacrificed herself for us. Whatever she gave, she found her own quiet pleasure in.”
Tags: attleboro area, audience, bob emery, clara barton, curta, curtain, emotion, empire st, fathe, garment district, hearts and minds, human emotions, last time, lydick, masonic lodge, orations, perishable theatre, putting on a show, relative luxury, rights activist, stage plays, sweet disaster, turd, vivid portrait, wheaton college, women at workRelated posts
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