Gee's Bend About The Playwright
Written By: Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder 

 

Elyzabeth is a graduate of the dramatic writing program at New York University, where she was a Tisch Dramatic Writing Fellow.  Her plays include Gee’s Bend, which was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and published by Samuel French.  The play was the recipient of the Osborn Award given by the American Theatre Critics Association and has been produced at ASF, Denver Center, Cleveland Play House, KC Rep, Northlight, the Arden and Hartford Stage. Her play, The Furniture of Home, which deals with the Gulf Coast recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina premiered at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2009.  Currently, Elyzabeth is completing new play commissions for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (The Flag Maker of Market Street) and the Denver Center (The Bone Orchard). Other plays include Fresh Kills (Royal Court/London), The First Day of Hunting Season(EST) and The Spirit of Ecstasy.  She is a proud alumnus of Youngblood at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. 

As playwright-in-residence at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Elyzabeth developed the curriculum for Playwright in the Classroom, a program aimed at inspiring more high school students to write plays.  For the past two years she has toured rural and inner city high schools teaching playwriting, a project that has been featured in American Theatre Magazine.  She has adapted her curriculum, aimed at improving reading comprehension and conflict resolution, to serve under-performing elementary students. Elyzabeth has also taught workshops for educators, as well as serving on the faculty at Spring Hill College.

An accomplished speaker, Elyzabeth has given lectures on playwriting and arts education at the Alabama Festival of the Book and the Alabama Writers Symposium, Rotary Club, Mobile Bay Monthly Women’s Luncheon, and the Mobile Library Foundation, among others.  She has also written articles for American Theatre Magazine, Mobile Bay Monthly and First Draft.  Elyzabeth has also served as the speechwriter for the Revlon Run/Walk for Women in NY, where she wrote for celebrities like Isabella Rossellini and Jesse L. Martin.

She worked as a staff writer on the CBS show, Love Monkey

Directed By: Charley Shafor
 
Performance Dates:
Thursday, February 16th at 7:30pm
Friday, February 17th at 8:00pm
Saturday, February, 18th at 8:00pm
 
Ticket Price:
All Tickets $13.00
Part of our "Unity Project" series

 

About the Show: 
Gee’s Bend is the story of the Pettway women, quilters from the isolated community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Beginning in 1939, the play follows Alice, her daughters Sadie and Nella, and Sadie’s husband, Macon, through segregation, family strife, and the Civil Rights movement. Throughout their lives, the women’s extraordinary quilts provide a respite from the turmoil around them. In the last act of the play, it is the year 2000; the quilts have been “discovered” as folk art and have become very valuable. Sadie is pleased with the recognition, but she returns to Gee’s Bend and continues to quilt. Wilder’s play explores the resilience of the human spirit, especially as it is expressed in art. "Gee's Bend is a lovefest -- between the characters in the play and the land they live on, between the actors and the characters they're portraying, between the play and the audience.” -Orlando Sentinel
"Touching, lovely, and true." -Chicago Sun-Times
 
2008 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award — American Theater Critics Association
 
The Cast:ABOUT THE UNITY PROJECT

Audrea  Johnson

Daj’sha Snow

Jada Woods

Brandy Chatman

Myka Lipscomb

Patrick Hill Jr.

Melani Harris

Angela Watson

Lydia Ware

William ‘Kip’ Moore

 The UNITY Project is new to our series of shows this year. The purpose of this project is to highlight shows of cultural, racial and ethnic significance. These shows may also deal with gender bias, religion and subject matter relating to sexual orientation. Whatever the show, musical or performance piece it is the goal of this project to enlighten, educate and empower our audiences into believing in a more socially conscious world.
 
Audience Advisory:
None
 
Produced by Special Arrangements with
Samuel French