DRESS began its first incarnation in an Alexander technique class, lead by Mona Stiles. We were asked to bring in music, props, and text that expressed who we were. I came in wearing a 50's housewife dress and an apron, carrying a bowl of green beans. I tried out a few monologues I had been working on, added music from La Boeheme, and thus a housewife was born. I took my monologues, my dresses and my 50’s music to Boston and in my last year of graduate school at Brandeis University, asked 4 women to help me to develop a show: Julie Jirousek, Devon Jencks, Laura Wickens, and Sarah Rose. We used a 1950’s Home Economics book called DRESS to shape the show, using it’s outdated advice as a through-line throughout the show. A disembodied announcer dictated instructions on what to wear when cleaning, how to cover your figure flaws, and how to dress safely in the home.

With the support of Brandeis University Theatre Arts Department, we created and presented the first incarnation of DRESS, followed by performances at HERE as part of the American Living Room Festival, August 2000. The housewives of DRESS 2000 were longing to escape reality into a Technicolor world of romance and excitement. The monologues and scenes were a combination of my writing, improvised dance and vocal scores, work by Silvia Path and Maria Irene Fornes, and autobiographical monologues written by the cast about a dress that had significant meaning to them.

I put the play aside for a few years, but kept coming back to it. The five housewives became one complete with a sitcom family, next door neighbors, and a milkman. Six years later in 2006, after presenting new scenes I’d written at the Isadora Reading Series, DRESS was presented by the Six Figures Theater Company and Isadora Productions, in the Artists of Tomorrow Festival. The cast included, Sheila Bandyopadhyay, Jenny Lee Mitchell, Matthew J. Nichols, Therese Plummer, Al Pagano, Many Newkirk and myself. While the themes of escapism from conformity and gender roles remained, the show turned its focus to McCarthy and the Cold War, religion and sex. In collaborative workshops and rehearsals, the cast brought the characters of Betty, Madge, Susie, Ace, Bill, and Ralph the Negro Milkman to life, adding their own creative contributions in the form of physical comedy, monologues, and scenes. Through her unique staging and choreography, Sheila Bandyopadhyay created a Technicolor world of fantasy moments, dance, and physical theater.

For the 2008 Artists of Tomorrow Festival we’ve developed the story further, found new characters, added original songs, and will be adding video to this incarnation of DRESS. This has truly been a collaborative effort -- each cast member has added something new: a scene, a monologue, an idea, a song, and a website…