Intimate Apparel

from Utah Shakespeare Festival 2021 Playbill

Pericles

By Lynn Nottage

Artistic Staff

Director Tasia A. Jones Scenic Designer Stephen Jones Costume Designer Raquel Adorno Lighting Designer Donna Ruzika Sound and Projections Designer/ Original Music Composer Joe Payne Dramaturg Martine Kei Green-Rogers, Lezlie Cross Voice and Text Coach Amani Dorn Intimacy Director Caitlyn Herzlinger Stage Manager Veronica Aglow*

Scene: Lower Manhattan; 1905 There will be one intermission.

Cast

Esther Afua Busia*

Mrs. Dickson Jasmine Bracey* Mrs. Van Buren Tiffany Scott*

Mr. Marks Josh Innerst* Mayme Constance V Swain George Yao Dogbe

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

The director is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.

The scenery, costume, sound, and projections designers are represented by the United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the IATSE.

Videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

Intimate Apparel is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

Commissioned and first produced by South Coast Repertory and Center Stage. Originally produced in New York by Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Artistic Director.

The Story of the Play

It is 1905 and Esther, an African-American seamstress who specializes in creating women’s intimate apparel, works at her sewing machine in Mrs. Dickson’s New York City boarding house. After eighteen years and twenty-two other boarders who have gotten married, Esther has given up on being a bride herself. Mrs. Dickson gives Esther a letter from George, who is working on the Panama Canal.

Esther visits Mrs. Van Buren, a wealthy White woman, who hopes a provocative corset made by Esther will attract her wandering husband’s attention. As they talk, Esther mentions the letter from George, but says she can’t respond because she is illiterate. Mrs. Van Buren excitedly helps her draft a reply. Esther goes to Mr. Marks’s fabric shop, where he sells her a beautiful silk. There is a strong connection between the two of them, but due to his Jewish faith, he is not permitted to touch a woman who is not his wife or a relative.

Esther takes a new corset to Mayme, a chanteuse and courtesan, who has become a friend. The corset is twin to the one she made for Mrs. Van Buren, which amuses the two women. Sharing dreams, Mayme admits to aspiring to be a concert pianist playing the world. Esther reveals her dream to open a beauty shop for Black women and that she has been stashing money in her crazy quilt to make her dream a reality. She shares her most recent letter from George, and Mayme helps her write a response. Back home, Mrs. Dickson brings another letter from George. She is afraid he is taking advantage of Esther and rips up the letter. Esther’s anger at Mrs. Dickson’s action shows how her feelings for George have grown strong. She goes again to Mr. Marks, and while they admire colorful silks, they talk intimately. She gently touches his collar without him noticing. It is obvious there is an unspoken attraction between them. George writes and asks Esther to marry him. Despite Esther’s excitement, Mayme and Mrs. Dickson both disapprove of her marrying someone she doesn’t know. George arrives in New York, they are joyfully married, move in together, and she gives him a special hand-made smoking jacket. George struggles to find work and begs Esther for money to start a business. She refuses at first, but eventually gives George all the money she has been saving, thinking he’ll start a business. Instead, he gambles it away. His behavior makes Esther suspect that he is not the person from his letters.

All her relationships are impacted. Esther leaves Mr. Marks with an awkward, unresolved silence between them. She and Mrs. Van Buren fight and Esther says they can no longer be friends. She also discovers that George has been unfaithful and gave away the smoking jacket she made for him. Grief-stricken and frustrated, Esther leaves George and moves back into Mrs. Dickson’s boarding house. She is heartbroken, but resilient, buoyed by her dreams of the future.