Friday-Sunday, May 5-7

A WOMAN'S HEART by Judith Partelow

On Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6, at 7:30 pm and on Sunday, May 7, at 3 pm, Jacob Sears Memorial Library will present A Woman’s Heart, a play written and directed by Judith Partelow of Dennis. The play is presented as part of ArtSpring Cape Cod, a Cape-wide grass roots celebration of arts and culture sponsored by The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, and ArtWeek Boston, an award-winning creative festival in the greater Boston area. A Woman’s Heart is produced by ArtistsAndMusicians.org. Reservations are required and can be made by emailing [email protected]. Admission is $15, paid at the door in either cash or check. 

A Woman’s Heart explores the feminine spirit as it evolves through child-rearing, career, love relationships, and inevitable sufferings toward an integrated and joyful embrace of life. The play features three female actors who represent the story’s heroine at different stages in her life and a lone male actor who assumes multiple roles as the play proceeds. The actors are Cynthia Harrington of Dennis, Lee Roscoe of Brewster,  Rod Owens of Yarmouth, and Judith Partelow. 

In this innovative new work, Partelow brings to the stage poems she wrote at various points in her life and recently self-published in her chapbook A Woman’s Heart. Used as dialogue, her guileless poetry creates a distinct mood in each of the play’s seven scenes—at times self-doubting or disquieted, at times romantic or serene. There is also a richly detailed narrative thread—beginning in the 1950s and ‘60s and running through to the present day, with life events and cultural references that will likely resonate with any baby boomer. 

Immediately following the performance on Sunday, May 7, Judith Partelow will discuss the challenges and delights of bringing this work to the stage, in particular the adventure involved in transfusing theatrical life into words originally written as poetry. She will welcome audience accounts of their own writing experiences, answer questions, and sign copies of her chapbook. The audience will also have the opportunity to converse with the actors and members of the crew who worked side by side with Partelow to make this premiere of A Woman’s Heart possible. The latter include stage manager Judy l’Heureux of Harwich, lighting consultant Tony Fitsch of Brewster, set designer Mindy Olsen of Cummaquid, and stage crew Bragan Thomas of Orleans.

In addition to writing and directing, Partelow is also an actor. You can see her as Diane Delroy in OFFSEASON-- a 14 part series – on Amazon Prime. She has five fiction pieces in the latest Chatham Writers @ 02633-2016 anthology (from Lulu.com). 

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