Buy Photo TROY ESPE Entertainment Editor For centuries, women have sewn quilts to mark family milestones. Martin Ensemble Theatre captures the essence of these family heirlooms in the new play Quilters . Opening tonight, the musical follows a mother and her six daughters as they head west during the 1800s. At each crossroads, mother Sarah creates a quilt patch. At the end of her life, Sarah writes a letter to her daughters.
Family members reenact scenes from their lives as the mother reads.
We go back and relive the whole journey out west. It's a history of how hard the pioneers worked, the different passages of their lives, the births, the baptisms, the weddings. Many scenes are told through song. Quilters contains several varieties of music including Appalachian, hymns, swing waltzes and square dances. The music sounds better than anything we've done.