"Love, Loss, & What I Wore" at the Black Box Theatre -- April 22 through May 1.
Thursday, April 22, through Saturday, May 1
The Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
The late, great author and humorist Nora Ephron famously shared this piece of advice for women: “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” That message will also be shared in the Black Box Theatre's new presentation of Nora and her sister Delia Ephron's Love, Loss, & What I Wore, a stage serio-comedy that Variety magazine called “a bittersweet meditation on the joys and tribulations of women's lives” and that the Hollywood Reporter deemed “tender and insightful without being sentimental.”
Filled with sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking first-person accounts, Love, Loss, & What I Wore is based on the 1995 book by Ilene Beckerman and focuses on women's relationships and clothing – plus, at times, the interaction of the two – using the female wardrobe as a time capsule for the female experience. Since its 2008 stage debut, the Ephrons' collection of winning monologues has routinely attracted top-tier talent, having been performed by such stage and screen stars as Kristen Wiig, Linda Lavin, Brooke Shields, Rosie O'Donnell, Christina Lahti, Tyne Daly, and Marlo Thomas. Love, Loss & What I Wore has also been the recipient of glowing reviews, with TheatreMania.com labeling the show “so insightful and entertaining is its survey of sartorial preoccupations and the deeper questions underlying them that multiple viewings would be advisable.” PureWow.com, meanwhile, called the Ephrons' achievement “So funny and so powerful; so dear and sweet; so remindful of our female wiles, our worries, our insecurities, our remembrances of mother, father, sisters, brothers, lovers … . It can’t miss.”
Directing Love, Loss, & What I Wore for the Black Box is the venue's co-founder and artistic director Lora Adams, whose most recent presentations for the theatre include Dick Tracy: A Live Radio Play, Three Viewings, and The Turn of the Screw. Adams also serves as the show's scenic and costume designer, with Black Box co-founder David Miller providing lighting design and Michael Kopriva handling set construction. And the show's cast is composed of a sextet of gifted area performers, with the show's monologues and group reminiscences delivered by Liz Coin, Kimberly Kurtenbach, Joanna Mills, Susan Perrin-Sallak, Kayla Jo Pulliam, and Angela Rathman.
Love, Loss, & What I Wore will be staged at Moline's Black Box Theatre April 22 through May 1, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is $13-16, and patrons will be required to wear face masks, temperatures will be taken before entry, and only certain seats will be available in order to conform to social-distancing guidelines. Advance purchase of tickets is highly recommended in order to avoid the handling of money, and more information and reservations are available by calling (563)284-2350 or visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
