Quilters at Bas Bleu Theater

(Adapted from a recent telephone conversation with my mother.)
Mom: “There’s a show at Bas Bleu I’d really like to see.”
Me: “Which one?”
Mom: “Quilters. It’s about a woman and her six daughters who tell the story of their lives using quilts. But the last show is this afternoon at 2:30.” (Because that’s how she rolls.)
Me: (checking website) “The online tickets are sold out.” (Not super-disappointed, as I had other things to get done on my Sunday afternoon).
Mom: “Well, I’ll just go down to the box office when it opens and see if they have any extra tickets.” (Because, again, that’s how she rolls.)

Fast-forward a few hours to 2:04. My phone rings.
Mom: “They’re holding two tickets for us.”
Man’s stern-sounding voice: “mumble mumble mumble”
Mom: “But you have to be here by 2:30.”
Me: (groaning inwardly) “Okay, I can make it.”


Fast-forward once more to 2:28, and me, having wandered through north Old Town in mild panic for six minutes, running down Willow Street, with my husband giving me directions via telephone. (I was sure I knew where I was going. I was wrong.) Thanks to cell phones and flat shoes, I made it. Just barely. And I managed to step on the feet of almost everyone in my row as I fumbled to my seat. Because that’s how I roll.

This year marks the excellent Bas Bleu Theater Company’s 20th season. Their current home, which I now know is at the corner of Pine and Willow Streets, is larger than the other Pine Street space I remember but still small enough to preserve the company’s “intimate salon theater experience.”

Like the domestic art from which it gets its name, Quilters pieces together the light and dark times of the lives of pioneer women through songs of laughter and joy, of grief and desperation. Accompanied by the live music of the Quilters Band, the talented women of the Bas Bleu cast hit every note—both musical and emotional—and made me really happy that my mom had compelled me to leave the house that afternoon for some quality mother-daughter time. And the amazing quilts hanging in the theater lobby served to enhance the experience.

Quilters was first staged in Fort Collins by Porter Woods in 1987, as part of CSU’s summer outdoor theater series. Mr. Woods died in July, and this run at Bas Bleu was dedicated to him. I think he would have been quite pleased.