Oftentimes art memorializes life, but it may be hard to imagine how effective artistic works can be in conveying an artist’s story–or that the creator might even be considered an artist in the first place.
Such is the case with the characters of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre’s upcoming production of “Gee’s Bend,” which previews Saturday, kicking off a three-weekend run at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center.
The award-winning 2008 play, penned by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, is based on a true story about an African American women’s quilting group in the tiny Alabama community of Gee’s Bend.
The quilters’ colorful, unique work, consisting of fabric scraps and boasting bold geometrical patterns, were eventually discovered by art collector William Arnett, who organized a touring exhibit, thrusting the quilters into the spotlight. Prior to that, the ladies had no idea their work might be seen as having artistic merit.
Over the years, the quilts have been featured in many prestigious galleries around the world, and, in 2015, some of their creators were awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, a prize the government awards to folk and traditional artists.
Tim Rhoze, the theatre’s artistic director, is not new to the play. “The story itself I was always drawn to,” he said, adding that he first produced the show in Evanston “about 12 or 13 years ago.”
He said he made some changes to the new version, adjusting the play’s story arc because “I saw some nuances that I wanted to explore this time.” The set was also redesigned, and local artist Melissa Blount was tapped to create prop quilts to be used in the show.
The play’s fictional protagonist is quilter Sadie Petway, and she appears in all three of the play’s time segments. She is depicted as a teenager in the 1930’s, then as a middle-aged woman in the mid-60s who is involved in the civil rights movement. During the last segment, the play depicts her as a 70-year-old woman in 2002, discovering some of her quilts at a museum exhibit.
Rhoze said the quilts are “some of the most amazing pieces of folk art that I’ve ever seen…there’s a very distinctive Gee’s Bend style.” He added the quilts themselves were roadmaps through the quilters’ family histories. “They were telling stories about the birth and the life and the death of their relatives…it really was a very clever way of recording history.”
He said the Black community has always imbedded its history in art because, for a long time, Black Americans were thwarted from participating in the country’s written history. Rhoze added that “the story of Gee’s Bend…is an example of how American history can be told through the eyes and the point of view of Black America…humanity grows in abundance in places like Gee’s Bend.”
Tickets to the show can be purchased on the city’s ticketing site. Showtimes are 7 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through June 7.
