38°
“The Bedquilt,” a program of two vibrant, vintage stories, is performed exclusively by Michèle LaRue, a professional actress specializing in tales from America’s Gilded Age.
The unlikely heroine in “The Bedquilt” is a downtrodden, elderly spinster taken for granted by her New England family. Otherwise unskilled, Aunt Mehetabel is “clever in the way of patching bedquilts.”
The story follows her journey to admiration and self-respect, as she painstakingly devotes herself to the realization of her ideal: “a pattern beyond which no patchwork quilt could go.”
“The Bedquilt,” written by Dorothy Canfield Fisher in 1906, is introduced by the gleeful account of “A Quilting Bee in Our Village,” written by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, eight years before. In Freeman’s little town, good food, gossip and games make a successful bee.
These stories return attendees to a time when literature was written “for the ear,” says LaRue. “Before radio, family and friends made their own home entertainment—reading aloud by flickering candle, kerosene lamp, and gaslight. Today, only the lighting has changed: adult audiences still hang on every word. Despite TV and films, the Internet and special effects, we still crave to simply listen to a tale well told,” she continues.
From New York City to Seattle, LaRue’s performances of vintage Tales Well Told number more than 450. A member of both Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA actors' unions, she is also a published theatre writer and book editor.
The public is invited to attend the free program to be held in the library auditorium and to the coffee and socializing session taking place at 10 a.m.
The Teaneck Public Library is located at 840 Teaneck Road.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Teaneck and receive free news updates.
