Review: "Quilters"

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BY LARRY L. KUBERT / For the Lincoln Journal Star

The Barbara Damashek and Molly Newman musical “Quilters” is a theatrical piece that delivers as much pathos as tunes.

Currently on The Loft at the Mill stage, the TADA Productions effort sports a talented cast that ably answers both the dramatic and musical demands that the show dictates.

The production’s ensemble cast of Melodee Landis, Judy Anderson, Julie Enersen, Cris Rook, Sydney Timmons and Shaun Vanneman portray a variety of roles during the two-hour-plus performance.

The piece is centered on an aged pioneer woman named Sarah (Landis), who is working to finish a legacy quilt before her death to be shared with her daughters.

A variety of quilting blocks — beginning with Rocky Road and progressing through Dugout, Baby’s Blocks, Rebel Patch, Lone Star, Log Cabin and others, culminating with Tree of Life — are the inspirations for the presentation of memories, stories and recollections of the adversity of surviving on the American  prairie during the 19th century.

Although the characters of Sarah and her daughters introduce the various quilting blocks, the musical’s actresses then transition into different individuals who relate a personal tale that communicates the hardships of pioneer life.

There is humor as well as plenty of sorrow as the threads of these frontier women’s lives reveal family unity, achievement and found love, entwined with illness, death, miscarriages, lost love and vanished dreams.

Directed by Robert D. Rook, the TADA production is played against a massive prairie and sky backdrop and supplemented by a few fence rails, some wooden stools and a bench, with the performers utilizing a number of props to augment scenes and roles.

All of the cast members combine fine vocal talents with dramatic interpretation — although the prowess of theatrical veterans Landis and Enersen is decidedly obvious.

Landis settles smoothly and comfortably into the persona of Sarah.  She is not afraid to display patience in her performance, which leads to enhanced expression.

And her dramatic mien expands the intensity of her excellent vocal interpretations.

As for Enersen, the actress displays a flair for versatility as she produces a potpourri of characterizations and provides a vocal finesse that is enviable.

“Never Grow Old” in the musical’s second act features Enersen, with Landis following with “Everything Has a Time.”

But, while these are the actresses’ solo pieces, Landis and Enersen also are solid in the show’s ensemble songs, which constitute the majority of the musical.

Which is not to say that Anderson, Timmons, Vanneman and Cris Rook are not good singers or fine actresses.

It is just that the quiet, unimposing confidence shown by Landis and Enersen is hard to miss.

Indeed, Vanneman is pleasing during “The Butterfly,” while Timmons and Cris Rook combine on “The Windmill Song” and Anderson and Cris Rook work together on “Green, Green.”

However, at times Cris Rook — who also doubles as music director for the production — is a bit too strident and robust on the ensemble songs. 

A little restraint on her part would allow for a more appropriate vocal meshing with the rest of the singers.

The musical’s closing scene, which features the display of a massive quilt combining all of the featured quilting blocks, is an impressive homage that unites the stories told during the musical into an Everyman representation of the trials and toils of the homesteading women of our heritage.

“Quilters” is one of those rare musicals where the script and the songs are both vital to the communication of the required dramatic intensity.  The TADA production is a laudable effort of such.