Theater Review : ‘Quilters’: Warmth in the Wilderness

An actress once commented that playing one of the pioneer women in Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek’s musical drama “Quilters” is far more difficult than playing, say, one of Shakespeare’s court women. With Shakespeare, she explained, at least there’s a theatrical tradition to fall back on. What do you have with pioneer women, except mostly bad movie stereotypes?

With the retreat of America’s wilderness and folk traditions, the struggles and dreams of the hardy women who went West now seem at least as remote as Henry IV’s court. Willing “Quilters” to life on stage comes down to pure imagination.

The imaginings at Cal State Fullerton’s Recital Hall, in director Joseph Arnold’s staging, are as fully realized as any “Quilters” this reviewer has seen, including the edition staged by GroveShakespeare. The play’s built-in problems aren’t overcome, but this group has put its signature firmly on this dramatic quilt of story, song and memory.

Pioneer matriarch Sarah (Laura Lossing) passes life’s lessons on to her six daughters through quilting, a still-vital art of mixing and matching multicolored fabrics into a domestic kaleidoscope to keep warm by. This is no linear family tale: The actors playing the daughters must spin out and become a whole variety of women (and sometimes men) on the range and in the mountains.

And , while doing all this, they must sing in complex harmonies, often a cappella.

The ensemble under Sarah’s tutelage--Shauna Daigle, Theresa Finamore, Wendy Ham, Erin M. McNally, Dana Meller and Sarah ramsey-Duke--seems to find none of this daunting. Indeed, the performers seem to relish the pleasures and pains of the quilters, immersing themselves completely in the distant time and place. This “Quilters” is the real deal.

Or as real as the play allows. No amount of stirring performances, for instance, can eliminate the sense midway through Act II of an overly long book. Beyond that, the very core of “Quilters”’ popularity--its deliberate mixing of homespun feminism and old-time nostalgia, and its shifting from Currier and Ives-like sentimentality to Walker Evans-like harshness--ultimately seems too calculated.

But the hearts and voices of these actresses burst the difficult dramaturgical wall with uncommon passion. This production affords a rare chance for serious female college drama students to work together, and their joy is palpable. Though the unit is fairly seamless (good, tight threads are important in both quilting and ensemble theater), McNally sings a little above the rest, especially her splendid “Butterfly Song.”

Lossing may smile a tad too often as she builds her family history quilt by quilt, but she carries herself with a rough assuredness that is passed on to the others. Whether as children huddled in mom’s bed during the nighttime creaking of their log cabin home, or as women bearing more babies than their bodies will allow, or particularly as a chorus realizing every nuance of Damashek’s rich, unpredictable score, this cast has learned the meaning of ensemble work.

Lara Hanneman’s set combines a proscenium arch in the form of a spinning wheel with an epic backdrop of hanging white sheets (a wall of laundry?) and a wood-planked platform stage that is very helpful to the show’s direct-address narrative. E. Junior Usaraga’s lights often make the set and the women sculptural, while Juan Lopez’s costumes make their own tapestry of fabric. We can wish that music director Chuck Estes’ trio were live rather than taped, but it delivers a warm sound.

Warmth, after all, is what the beautiful old quilts delivered, and warmth is what we get from from this fine, subtle production.

* “Quilters,” Recital Hall, Cal State Fullerton Performing Arts Center, State College Boulevard and Nutwood Avenue, Fullerton. Wednesday-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m. Ends Sunday. $8-$12.50. (714) 773-3371. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Laura Lossing as Sarah; Shauna Daigle, Theresa Finamore, Wendy Ham, Erin M. McNally, Dana Meller, Sarah ramsey-Duke as her daughters.

A Cal State Fullerton Department of Theatre and Dance production of a musical drama by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek, directed by Joseph Arnold. Musical direction: Chuck Estes. Set: Lara Hanneman. Lights: E. Junior Usaraga. Costumes: Juan Lopez. Choreography: Lara Teeter.