THEATRE

Your Theatre, Inc. proudly presents the Southcoast Area premiere of Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder’s powerful and heartwarming play Gee’s Bend supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency “The play tells the story of three determined Gee's Bend women. Beginning in 1939 and spanning more than sixty years, it embraces their stories of joy and heartbreak. Born into poverty and hardship, Sadie Pettway, learned to quilt at her mother's side. While it was a domestic responsibility to quilt, the women of Gee's Bend also turned to quilting as a comfort from the harsh realities of racial indignities, spousal abuse, isolation, and despair. Interwoven with gospel music, Gee's Bend is a deeply personal story of family, self-discovery and artistic expression.” – Arden Theatre, Philadelphia In 1960, an Episcopal priest recognized their talents and commissioned a group of women to make quilts for Bloomingdale’s. Then in 2002 the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Tinwood Alliance of Atlanta organized The Quilts of Gee's Bend exhibition. Since then, the women and their quilts have been featured and celebrated throughout the nation and described by The New York Times as "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.”