News & Reviews

‘Quilters’ returns to Stageloft for encore

By Paul Kolas Telegram and Gazette Reviewer
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

STURBRIDGE— Back for an encore run at Stageloft Repertory Theater is “Quilters,” the anecdotal, musically rich cross between “Little House on the Prairie,” and “Little Women.” Call it “Little Women on the Prairie”.

With the sole addition of Lisa Cohane to the cast, everyone who performed in last March’s popular production is back again: Ellen Cornely as Sarah, the matriarchal head of a family of six daughters, played by the aforementioned Cohane, Bethany Fournier Killeen, Kim Napoleone, Jill Bailey, Sally-Ann Dunn and Robbin Joyce. Combining storytelling with Barbara Damashek’s salt-of-the-earth music and lyrics, “Quilters” offers a generous look at the lives of these women as they journey westward in the 1870s to settle in America’s heartland, raising families, enduring the hardships of deadly weather, losing infants to cholera, rebuilding from the ashes of raging fires and somehow remaining resiliently, vibrantly alive through it all.

What unites them is their lifelong passion for quilting, and “Quilters” is structured around the display of 16 quilt patterns that serve as visual chapter headings for each story and song, and the cumulative effect of this narrative mosaic feels both intimate and epic. Each actress weaves in and out of multiple characters, including husbands and doctors, and while such multitasking is generally handled deftly, it can be confusing, repetitive, and blurring at times.

Still, it’s an engaging show, thanks to its ebullient cast, Ed Cornely’s loving direction and Amy Gamache’s lyrical choreography. Such songs as “Thread the Needle” are sung with vigor and earnest passion, and the ensemble quality of the acting satisfactorily mirrors the theme of family unity. Especially memorable is Jill Bailey as a woman who is afraid of having yet another child at the risky age of 35, fearing what might happen if her husband were left to care for their double-digit family.

Bailey has an unshakable frontier zeal that corrals the audience with its good cheer. Bethany Fournier Killeen also bursts with youthful exuberance as a daughter overly eager to please her mother. Sally-Anne Dunn can be both funny as a laconic future husband, and moving as a woman who has just lost her husband to a tragic train accident. And while Robbin Joyce’s character may be the most independent minded of Sarah’s daughters (“I never wanted to get married”), she isn’t necessarily the happiest of her sisters when she becomes a victim of bittersweet irony. Lisa Cohane and Kim Napoleone have their poignant moments as well, and Ellen Cornely binds them all together with a comforting, reassuring performance.

Perhaps the strongest virtue of “Quilters” is the impressive vocal harmony invested in almost every song. Except for a wavering moment or two, the singing is collectively lovely, ably supported by the instrumental quartet of Robin Gabrielli, Aaron Smith, Josh Knowles and Dave Clark.

At the end of the performance, an exquisite quilt, comprised of the individual 16 patterns, is unfurled in front of the prairie landscape mural dominating center stage. It will eventually be unfurled to the lucky winner of a quilt raffle, the proceeds of which will be donated to Abby’s House, in Worcester. Abby’s House is a shelter for abused and homeless women in need. Raffle tickets are $6 each, or two for $10. That should be another incentive for seeing Stageloft’s sonorous prairie saga.