The Footlight Club, America’s oldest community theatre, will stage the Boston community theatre debut of “Intimate Apparel” by Lynn Nottage this month. In the play, hard work and creativity are no strangers to Ester, a successful 35-year-old African-American seamstress whose business of creating sensual ladies’ un-dergarments can take her from a bawdy bordello to a high-class boudoir in the span of a day. Her talent al-lows her freedom experienced by few African-American women in 1905, but what she really wants is love.
Performances at Eliot Hall at 7A Eliot St. at Monument Square will be Jan. 30 and 31 and Feb. 6, 7, 13 and 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.footlight.org.
Three quilts handmade by Philip B. Russo and used in the show will be raffled off to benefit women in the Sudan through My Sister’s Keeper (www.mskeeper.org), an organization that “…envisions a world where women all across the globe can imagine, create and sustain vibrant and joyous communities.” Recent contributions to My Sister’s Keeper helped build a school for 1,000 new enrollees in an area that has been devastated by 20 years of civil war.
Nestled in a residential area near Jamaica Pond, the Footlight Club has had performances every year since 1877. The Footlight Club membership strives to present the best in nonprofessional theater to a broad-based audience and to preserve and maintain Eliot Hall as a community resource.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, a local agency which is funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Spe-cial Events.
Based on press materials.