Women's tragic, hilarious stories stitch together musical P.E.I. play

Veteran P.E.I. actor Marlane O'Brien had never written for the stage before but hermusical playStories from the Red Dirt Roadcame together somewhat like the patchwork quilt at its centre with a lot of hard work, determination and imperfect moments.

Five years ago, then-artistic director of the Confederation Centre of the ArtsWade Lynch gave herthebook And My Name IsStories From The Quiltby Island author Margie Carmichael and suggested sheadapt it.

"He just gave it to me 'Fill your boots,'" O'Brien recalls Lynch saying.

Soon after that O'Brien metCarmichael by chance at the localflea market she took at as another sign the play was meant to be.

Real people live here and these are stories about real people surviving really difficult thingsand triumphing. MarlaneO'Brien

After scraping together money over the years to holdmany workshops, O'Brien said she began to seehow she could take the characters and stories and put them on the stage. Itwas a final "bang up" workshop in February that brought it all together, she said.

"It was like massively, creatively, wrenchingly amazing," she told CBCRadio Mainstreet's Angela Walker Tuesday.

Women heart of story

"It's got to do with the women at the heart of each of the stories," O'Brien said of why the story worked well for stage..

"There's six or seven stories in there and all of them are based on women that Margie met or knew."

A woman's story about a residential school experience was told to the book's author by a Mi'kmaw elder and O'Brien said actressAndrea Menardhas brought the characterto life onstage.

"Her knowledge and her sensitivities helped finish off that story," O'Brien said.

O'Brien said the other stories are of women like Flora Hill, an amateur mortician, another woman who has a baby out of wedlock and a senior who helps a young boarder recover from an abusive childhood.

"Real people live here and these are stories about real people surviving really difficult thingsand triumphing," O'Brien said.

Quilt blocks bring it together

O'Brienshe used music some of it also written by Carmichael poems and a central character of woman wanting to fix a quilt to help link the individual stories.

"She has patchy spots on a quilt she made with her grandmother and she wants to pass on to her niece. So she's trying to find some special quilt blocks toput over them and in the course of looking for the perfect ones, she comes across these stories and these quilts in the community that she lives in."

The show playsWednesday to Friday at the Mack Theatre until Sept. 21. Show time is 7:30 p.m.

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