The Flora Dora Girls Weekly Sewing Circle
by Louis LaRusso II
Co-directed by Taylor Keith & Lillian Ribeiro
Featuring
Mary Lois Adshead, Kathi Carlson, Wendy Eaton, Eileen Gaughan, Angela Kariotis,
Susan Mirwis, Ellen O’ Neill, Florence Pape, Chelsea Lee Richardson, Margo Singaliese, and
Trish Szymanski
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Two Readings @ Five and Eight o'clock
The Flora Dora Girls Weekly Sewing Circle (‘Flora Dora Girls’, Louis LaRusso II’s pet name for his mom, Mary, and her fistful of friends), is Louis LaRusso II’s loving tribute to the strength and solidarity of the hard-working, passionate, and funny women who labored in the sweatshops together in the working-class city of Hoboken circa 1965. They come together for a weekly sewing circle, the one place where they didn’t have to be ‘ladies’. They sew, gossip, laugh, cry, fight, curse, ask big questions, tell great stories and bond – like a fist! This is Louis LaRusso II’s last hurrah to his extended family of Hoboken women who were way ahead of their times. Louis LaRusso II loved these women - all of them - and The Flora Dora Girls Weekly Sewing Circle will provoke heart and soul as well as lots of laughter.
Louis LaRusso II, Hoboken’s theatrical chronicler, wrote about family and working-class life lovingly and humorously depicting the Hoboken experience in 26 plays including the Tony-nominated Lamppost Reunion, perhaps his best-known "Hoboken Play."
13 comments:
I wish to thank the Flora Dora actresses for answering the Big Questions in character and along with the co-directors for putting on two amazing readings.
The sewing circle of West Sussex wish to support the Flora Dora girls of Hoboken.
In tribute yesterday we sewed and listened to Frank Sinatra and drank wine
Thank you West Sussex. We tip our glasses and sewing needles back to you!
Now for the big questions.....
Something that is raised in the play is what holds a group together, who emerges as a leader and why. _gaia is a collective of women, and with the Hoboken Museum, they presented the play. As a member of the _gaia collective, I am interested in other groups, what activities they share, and what emerges from a collective making that members feel is different than what would be created individually. My interest comes from the ways what we make shapes who we are. Collective actions are inclusive of many perspective so seem to me mark us differently than actions we do to realize an individual desire.
Joy,
I have been trying to learn more about West Sussex, the Downs, Arundel Castle, and your waterfront. Hoboken is a Hudson riverfront town just 1.3 mile square. Once it was a day resort for New York City, then a major port, industrial center, and now residential housing for commuters. I have lived many places, and wonder how a place marks what one makes.
Joy says
I am quite a sucker for 'sisterhood' plays, films, artwork etc..
1965 wasn't big on that in England - the pill was just in use and 'Swinging London' just starting - ten years on there was the 'consciousness raising groups' (with a bit of slagging off men) and ten years on from that 'sisters were doing it for themselves'
I have seen groups change from Solidarity to 'Girls Nights Out' - though our circle is a new venture for me.
I, too, have been looking up about Hoboken and gaia - I find the link quite exciting.
The sewing circle have all arrived in Chichester from different places.
I am a Londoner - others come from Norway,Denmark,Sweden,Germany, the North of England,India and elsewhere
I have been fudging responding to your question - as an answer would have to be be long - and although unused to blogging, I feel a
lengthy reply would be unreadable.
I'm Western , so the individual is everything. Oh no, so much happens in groups , whether social,work,religion,political, artistic,communes,philosophical, physical (maybe even family or sport) - so the group is everything. But no ,that way could lead to conformity and totalitarianism ( 1984,Brave New World).
Actually, not a British compromise, the reality is ,it is possible to be both.
The sewing circle is a circle, there are no leaders.
OK a strong personality (not me) suggested a social group about having fun.But we each chip in our ideas - mine was the sewing circle.
And already it is moving from making our individual pieces to a desire for a group piece.The fun will be how it develops (or doesn't) without a leader.
The West Sussex Sewing Circle might be interested in the Colcha project done by one of _gaia's founding members Doris Cacoilo http://thecolchaproject.org/
Doris did two colcha blankets, one with her family and one with some fellow students and friends. From each experience, marked and remembered by what was made, emerged a different process, blanket, and meaning. I think you are right, the fun is watching what comes from being together.
Thank you for sending details of the colcha project.
How did gaia start, by the way.
I love all processes and journeys that are collaborative - whether artistic,social or part of the workplace( I remember in the 80s our union group that had a women's collective that moved from photocopying to reclaiming the night.)
I used to work in this way in the last 10 years of my working life with children who had been multiply excluded from schools.
In your drawing project you have a photo of 3 (or more?) women working on white material. What was happening there?
Places
Yes, important, especially in childhood. Unfortunately not many people can choose.Hoboken sounds OK.
Last night was a party for the volunteers at
www.chichestercinema.org
or
www.newparkcentre.org.uk
where there were many of the stitching circle . I had already told them about the Flora Dora Girls' Sewing Circle - but not about the blog.
I said what a great exchange it was - but that it seemed to have turned into Sherrard and myself being pen pals.
The ones there thought the blog sounded great - so at our meeting next Thursday, I'll explain the whole thing - and let's hope more people will contribute.
Roll on.
Sherrard and Joy,
I heard a little about the Flora Dora Girls Weekly sewing circle when I met you, Sherrard, in Pittsburgh at the beginning of the month.
I am equally interested in reading the play as I am in hearing about the current collaboratives Gaia and and West Sussex Sewing circle. Is the play available for purchase? I am an individual artist who has been part of various artist's groups over the years, although they have always included men as well as women.
Your conversation reminds me of a show of work by Women artists who are part of printmaking co-ops in Ohio, at the Massillon Museum close to where I live. http://www.massillonmuseum.org
Unfortunately the link doesn't have any images of the show, but it does bring up a a guide with co-op links and a statement made me think about your comments:
"It is a common perception that the role of women in society is to gather, teach and share — all skills required for the successful functioning of a printmaking co-op. The co-op environment seemed a natural place to explore how the idea of women’s roles is expressed in the arts, and what impact group identity might have on the personal work of an artist. As you view the prints of these individual artists in the context of their respective groups, consider whether or not these ideas of gender and group identity are visible." --Collective Ink Gallery Guide, Massillon Museum
As I looked at the show, I saw various connections between artists' work---and can't help but think that though their individual styles were evident, there was a commonality amidst the groups and a loosely shared aesthetic. I wouldn't use the term group identity, though. Is this collective identity something that comes up in your groups? How has the group piece developed, Joy?
As I shared with you Sherrard, I am seeking connections to women (though in a different way) in my own current art project. Perhaps this link would be of interest to you as well, Joy. www.constellationsofwomen.wordpress.com
the West Sussex Sewing Circle still exists but has morphed into something quite different - though still sewing. Like the Flora Dora girls it has its own soap opera - mine being thaat my husband managed to die very dramatically 3 weeks ago.Thank heavens for the Sewing Circle and my ongoing project (individual not collective) - working title - the West Sussex Sweatshirt.
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