OFF-THE-WALL celebrating Black History Month, 2019:

Intimate Apparel

 A Play by Lynn Nottage
 Directed by Gwen Ricks-Spencer

 Sunday, February 24, at 3:00 pm

 at the Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts - 10 Durand Road, Maplewood, NJ

New York City, 1905: Esther, a black seamstress, lives in a boarding house for women and sews intimate apparel for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to black prostitutes. Her skills and discretion are much in demand, but Esther longs for a husband and a future. When a long distance relationship leads to heartbreak, Esther must use her gifted hands and her sewing machine to refashion her dreams and make them anew from the whole cloth of her life's experiences. The play is based on the life of Nottage's great-grandmother.

"A rich, vivid portrait of turn-of-the-last-century New York; a feminist lament of intelligent, talented women defined and controlled by men; a soft-focus glimpse into the beating hearts behind the archives of African-American life a century ago." - New York Times

Winner - numerous 2003-05 Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, and Obie Awards