TALES WELL TOLD Women Breaking Loose: a double bill, by Kate Chopin and Edna Ferber told by Michele LaRue

TALES WELL TOLD

Women Breaking Loose: a double bill,  by Kate Chopin and Edna Ferber

On Sunday, March 11 at 3:00 PM the Fanwood Memorial Library celebrates Women’s History Month the old-fashioned way: with two short stories, vividly performed by professional actress Michèle LaRue. LaRue’s unique series of century-old American TALES WELL TOLD has garnered praise from Cape May to Kentucky: “It's difficult to find the words to describe the wonder of what you do!” and “You could hear a pin drop!”

Says LaRue, “This pairing of stories by Louisianan Kate Chopin and Ohioan Edna Ferber explores in fiction two dilemmas that women still face daily: Which comes first—me or my family? Where do I belong—at home or at work?” In Chopin’s poignant “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” widowed Mrs. Sommers takes an impromptu holiday from home. In Ferber’s “Representing T. A. Buck,” divorced “lady salesman” Emma McChesney longs for life off the road. In both women—our ancestors—we see ourselves.

Michèle LaRue is delighted to return to the Fanwood Memorial Library, where she previously delighted audiences with the compelling on woman show, Someone Must Wash the Dishes: An Anti-Suffrage Satire. Ms. LaRue —who tours nationally in many one-woman productions—began presenting short stories a couple of decades ago, on the porches and in the parlors of Victorian Cape May, for New Jersey’s East Lynne Theater Company. In the Garden State, she is a member of New Jersey Repertory Company and has performed as well for the Bickford Theatre, Centenary Stage, Garage Theatre Group, and Passage Theatre Company. Tales Well Told: Women Breaking Loose is her second performance for Fanwood Memorial Library. An Illinois native and Secaucus resident, LaRue is a member of the three major actors’ unions: Actors’ Equity Association, SAG, and AFTRA.

Kate Chopin (1851 – 1904) and Edna Ferber (1885 – 1968) were prominent and prolific authors in their times. Chopin’s controversial The Awakening remains popular today; Ferber’s Show Boat and Giant became, respectively, the often-produced major musical and the Oscar-winning motion picture.

“I love doing these old stories,” LaRue declares. “They were written for the ear. Their evocative descriptions and rich dialects paint pictures in the audiences’ minds. Adults light up like children at story time. Despite TV and films, the Internet and CGI effects, we still crave to simply listen to a tale well told.”

This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Fanwood Memorial Library. For more information and registration about this and other programs please call the library at 908 322-6400 or check out the events calendar at www.fanwoodlibrary.org.

For more information about Michèle LaRue’s productions, visit michelelarue.com.