‘Quilters’ a patchwork of fine performances

I spent most of the evening at CenterStage trying to decide what I love most about the musical “Quilters.”

Its respect for history?

Its deep roots in Americana, both musically and thematically?

Its deep regard for women and the importance of the work they do?

Or is it simply the show’s humanity?

Of course, there’s no need to choose one over the other, because “Quilters,” by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek, stitches all of these elements together into one moving show. The end result is a people’s history of the American West, with a focus on the strong women who helped settle it.

The concept behind “Quilters” is simple and elegant. As a group of women work on a “legacy” quilt, they tell the stories behind each of the 16 squares. These squares have names like Lone Star and Double Wedding Ring and Log Cabin. Newman and Damashek use each square as a way to tell the story of different aspects of the pioneer woman’s experience: migration, childbirth, shelter, schooling, marriage and death.

And we see quilting itself in its dual purposes. The first is utilitarian because, as one woman says, it takes a big pile of quilts to stay warm in a prairie winter. The other is artistic. A quilt is a canvas, on which a woman paints with colors and forms and symbols. As this show illustrates, the women didn’t love only the finished product; they loved the work itself (as many still do).

This CenterStage dinner theater production, directed with sensitivity by Kimberly Roberts, does complete justice to this treasure of a show. Roberts has taken seven performers and stitched them together, as well. Some, like Marianne McLaughlin show a flair for the dramatic. Others, like Sallie J. Christensen, are subtler and more understated. All seven harmonize together (both literally and figuratively) into what appears to be a seamless ensemble.

The others are Julie Croteau, Norilee Kimball, Ryan Marie Patterson, Selena Schopfer and Angela Snyder.

Roberts has clearly infused all seven with the love of this sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes poignant material.

The evening is filled with telling and cleverly staged vignettes. We see these women recreating their schooldays, their courting days, their work in building a house, their retrieval of water from the windmill-powered well. We see them teasing their sisters, consoling their children and burying their kin.

A great part of the pleasure in this show comes from the music, which draws on many kinds of traditional forms. We hear fiddle-based reels, impassioned spiritual hymns and sweet folk ballads. Some of the songs are traditional, but others are original songs in the old styles.

The windmill song, for instance, has a jaunty and clever melody that only sounds as if it were written 100 years ago.

This music is played expertly by a quartet of musicians led by musical director Leslie Ann Grove.

I was also taken by the quality of the costumes, by Dee Finan. These traditional American dresses, circa the mid-1800s, not only looked authentic in their calicos and prints, but they served as works of American art by themselves.

Speaking of works of art, the climax of the show is the unveiling of a beautiful handmade quilt, made by local quilters (Naomi Hall is listed as the quilting consultant). This quilt, incorporating all of the 16 different squares, is beautiful in and of itself.

Yet it is even more impressive because we now know something of the history behind each square.

This is more than just a quilt; this is a piece of our American heritage.