For Immediate Release

July 28, 2015


Contacts:
Susan Goes, Executive Director, 541-942-8001


Quilters opens at Cottage Theatre on August 14


Cottage Grove, OR — A chapter of American history comes alive on stage in August, as Cottage Theatre presents Quilters, a musical patchwork of pioneer life. This fourth production of Cottage Theatre's 2015 season is written by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek and is based on The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art by Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Allen. Quilters opens August 14 for a three-weekend run at Cottage Theatre.

Based on true narratives of pioneer women, Quilters dramatizes the strenuous realities of 1800s frontier life. Prairie fires, twisters, starvation, and death are interspersed with lively, and often humorous, accounts of cabin construction, courtship, and childhood pranks. The patterns of life ─ the dark times contrasted with the light ─ are reflected in the women’s quilts, as are the connection, strength, and creativity they shared. Just as singing and dancing have helped people survive and celebrate their lives, so too music and dance enliven this show. The message is universal and timeless: human survival depends upon our ability to embrace both laughter and tears. 
 
Cottage Theatre's production of Quilters is directed by Eliza Roaring Springs, with musical direction by Catricia Mayhue, and choreography by Nancy Anderson. The all-female cast features Brenda Sawyer as the mother, and Stefhani Anderson, Siv Serene Barnum, Amber Brower, Rosalia D'Amato, Donia Hovet, Annie Read Pusey, Madeleine Sisson, and Nancy Anderson as her daughters.

Quilters runs for eleven performances at Cottage Theatre from August 14 - 30, 2015. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 pm.

Tickets are available online at www.cottagetheatre.org, by phone at 541-942-8001, or in person at the Cottage Theatre Box Office, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove. Tickets are $24 for adults and $20 for youth (age 6 to 18). Box Office hours are Wednesday through Friday, 10 am to 2 pm, and one hour before performances. 

In conjunction with this production, the Cottage Grove Museum will hold a special exhibit of historic quilts from their collection. Cottage Quilts: Piecing Together Our Past features 100 years of quilts from the museum collection dating from 1840 through 1940. Special museum hours during the run of Cottage Theatre's Quilters are Thursday, 4:00-6:00 pm; Friday & Saturday, 1:00-6:00 pm; and Sunday, 1:00-4:00 pm. The museum is housed in a unique, octagonal, National Register listed building constructed in 1897 and located just blocks from Historic Downtown Cottage Grove at 147 N. H Street. Admission to the museum is free.  


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Our 2015 melodrama opens tomorrow -- and tickets to our August production of Quilters are now on sale. Read all the details in the current issue of our newsletter.

For Immediate Release

July 13, 2015


Contact:
Susan Goes, Executive Director, 541-942-8001


Original melodrama premieres at Cottage Theatre July 17-19

Cottage Grove, OR — A villainous Mayor takes the stage this weekend during Cottage Theatre's 9th annual Bohemia Mining Days melodrama.  By Wing, By Wheel, By Engine of Steel . . . OR The Mayor Has Loco-Motives was written especially for Cottage Theatre by local playwright Keith Kessler. The family-friendly melodrama will run for three performances on July 17, 18, and 19 at Cottage Theatre.

This year's melodrama is set in 1871 in Bohemia City, Oregon. The long-awaited California, Oregon and Washington Railroad Line (the C.O.W. Line) is nearing completion. It is being built from the north and the south and will connect in good ol’ Bohemia City. Mayor Major Payne is scheduled to drive in one of the 26 coveted Golden Spikes at a huge celebration to declare the C.O.W. Line open. Unbeknownst to the good citizens of Bohemia City, though, Mayor Major Payne and his family plan to steal the Golden Spikes, hijack the Galloping Goose locomotive, and race away to the Mexican border to become filthy rich. 
 
By Wing, By Wheel, By Engine of Steel . . . OR The Mayor Has Loco-Motives features 29 youth actors (ages 9 - 14) from Cottage Theatre's summer melodrama camp. This show is appropriate for all ages and includes plenty of audience participation (in the form of booing and hissing and cheering) as well as an old-fashioned sing-along. In keeping with classic melodrama tradition, "Olios" (silly jokes which have nothing to do with the story) will also be performed. There will also be a pre-show performance showcasing some of the music and dance techniques taught during the two-week summer camp.
 
This year's Bohemia Mining Days melodrama is directed by Janet Rust, with music direction by Catricia Mayhue. The cast includes Maia Andrews, Lafe Bennett, Kira Carver, Alexis Christie, Campbell Conforth, Kenady Conforth, Hailey Cook, Aiden Dickinson, Abigail Earlywine, AJ Earlywine, Cedar Earlywine, Ireland Ellis, Kate Fairbairn, Rhea Florez, Connor Gill, Jenna Hovet, Owen Hovet, Claire Jenkins, Calvin Johnson, Hannah Mathis, Aislyn Morrill, Samuel Pearson, Eliana Piltz, Darcy Rust, Elise Smith, Catelyn St. Clair, Isabel Thompson, Maia Wilhour, and Piper Youngmayr.
 
Performances are Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18 beginning at 7:00 pm and Sunday, July 19  at 2:30 pm. Tickets are available online at www.cottagetheatre.org, by phone at 541-942-8001, or in person at the Cottage Theatre Box Office, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove. Box Office hours are Wednesday through Friday, 10 am to 2 pm, and one hour before performances. Tickets (reserved seating) are $7 for all ages. Advance purchase is recommended.
  

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