INTIMATE APPAREL at Centre Stage to Celebrate Perseverance and the Power of Women

"Her strength was in every stitch."

The time is 1905, the place New York City, where Esther, a black seamstress, lives in a boarding house for women and sews intimate apparel for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes.

Her skills and discretion are much in demand, and she has managed to stuff a goodly sum of money into her quilt over the years. One by one, the other denizens of the boarding house marry and move away, but Esther remains, lonely and longing for a husband and a future. Her plan is to find the right man and use the money she's saved to open a beauty parlor where black women will be treated as royally as the white women she sews for. By way of a mutual acquaintance, she begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man named George who is working on the Panama Canal. Being illiterate, Esther has one of her patrons respond to the letters, and over time the correspondence becomes increasingly intimate until George persuades her that they should marry, sight unseen. Meanwhile, Esther's heart seems to lie with the Hasidic shopkeeper from whom she buys cloth, and his heart with her, but the impossibility of the match is obvious to them both, and Esther consents to marry George. When George arrives in New York, however, he turns out not to be the man his letters painted him to be, and he absconds with Esther's savings, frittering it away on whores and liquor. Deeply wounded by the betrayal, but somehow unbroken, Esther returns to the boarding house determined to use her gifted hands and her sewing machine to refashion her dreams and make them anew from the whole cloth of her life's experiences.

Written by Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage, this beautiful piece, directed Kerrie Seymour, is a tale of perseverance, acceptance, and love.

CAST:

Maegan Azar............Mrs. Van Buren

Antoinette Hall.........Esther

Gisele Anthony........Mrs. Dickson

Maury Reed..............Mr. Marks

Stephen Brown........George

Regina Wells.............Mayme

IN THE GALLERY AT CENTRE STAGE:

The art of Karen Leigh will be on display June 9 - July 10, Tuesday through Friday from 2-6 p.m. The exhibit is presented in cooperation with the Metropolitan Arts Council. This partnership is sponsored by South State Bank. Admission is free.

Tickets for Intimate Apparel are $30, $25, and $15. Student rush tickets are available for $15 with school ID (based on availability), one ticket per ID. Shows run Thursday through Sunday in concurrence with our Fringe Series production of Death and the Maiden. All seats are reserved. Tickets can be purchased by calling the box office at (864) 233-6733 on Tuesdays - Fridays from 2-6 p.m, in person at the Centre Stage Box Office, or online at www.centrestage.org. Handling fees will be applied to all purchases. Center Stage is located at 501 River Street in downtown Greenville, SC.

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