QUILTERS Music & lyrics by Barbara Damashek; Book by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek : Based on The Quilters: Women and Domestic Arts by Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Allen. Jack Lawrence Theatre, Broadway - September 25, 1984 (24 perfs) STORY Ostensibly the story of a pioneer woman and her six daughters, Quilters blends a series of interrelated scenes into a rich mosaic which captures the sweep and beauty, the terror and joy, the harsh challenge and abiding rewards of frontier life. Illuminating stories contained in various patches or "blocks" with music, dance and drama, the action depicts the lot of women on the frontier: girlhood, marriage, childbirth, spinsterhood, twisters, fire, illness and death. But, with this, there is also love, warmth, rich and lively humour and the moving spectacle of simple human dignity and steadfastness in the face of adversity. In the end, when the various patches are assembled into one glorious, brilliantly colourful quilt, the effect is both breathtaking and magical---and a theatrical masterstroke which will finger in the mind and memory long after the house lights have dimmed. CAST: - 7 women, 5 musicians (bit parts) MUSICAL NUMBERS: Act 1 1. Pieces of Lives (first four lines from “The Quilt” by Dorothy MacFarlane) 2. Rocky Road 3. Little Babes (lyrics from “Our Homes and Their Adornments” by Almon C. Varney) 4. Thread the Needle 5. Cornelia 6. Windmill 7. Have You Been to Jesus by E.A. Hoffman 8. Butterfly 9. Pieces of Children’s Lives 10. Green, Green, Green 11. Needle’s Eye (chorus from the lyric of a traditional folk song Act II 12. Quiltin’ and Dreamin’ 13. Double Wedding Rings 14. Every Log in My House (first line by Eleanor Pruitt Stewart) 15. Never Grow Old by J.C. Moore 16. Who Will Count the Stitches? 17. Crosses and Losses part 1 18. Crosses and Losses part 2 19. Dandelion (lyrics by Clara J. Denton from the poem “Blooming in the Fall”) 20. Everything Has a Time 21. Hands All Hands INSTRUMENTATION: Piano/Conductor, Harp, Guitar 1, Guitar 2, Bass, Strings, Orchestrated for. Violin, Bass, Harp, Piccolo Freaka, Flute, Concertina, Hammered Dulcimer, Guitar (12 and 6 skiing), Mandolin, Tenor Banjo, Spoons, Harmonica in D, Penny whistle (Flute), Twanger, Octave Mandolin, Irish Tenor Drum, Creaky Chair.
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