The Four Corners Arts Center is pleased to host several theater companies and productions. Depending on the production, please join us either in the Meeting House, 3850 Main Road, Tiverton or outdoors on the lawn.

Wednesday, July 22, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.

HISTORIC RE-ENACTOR portrays AMELIA EARHART - Historic re-enactor, Jessa Piaia, will present a one-person interpretation of pioneer aviatrix Amelia Earhart entitled “Meet Amelia Earhart (1897-1937): First Lady of the Air”. The program is set in 1936, when Earhart was a popular speaker on the national circuit and preparing for take-off for the around-the-world flight in 1937. Acclaimed as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, she was previously part of the 1928 “Friendship” flight departing from East Boston Harbor on its historic trans-Atlantic flight. Inspired at an early age by the suffragist movement, Earhart identified with the generation of “the new woman” who had won the right to vote in 1920. At the time of the “Friendship” flight, Amelia Earhart was also a social worker at the Denison House in downtown Boston. She served as a role model while pursuing activities that ranged from being a guidance counselor at Purdue University, an aviation writer and author of three books, to designing luggage and a line of clothes for “women who live actively.” Sponsored by (name of group), the program runs 50 minutes in length with an informal Q&A to follow, and is appropriate for audiences ages 10 through adult.

Clad in basic aviator gear and bearing a striking resemblance to the subject of her character portrayal, Ms. Piaia uses drama to reveal the accomplishments, struggles, and contributions of women to American history. She is acclaimed for “recreating history in the fullest sense,” and for using “solid research, compelling writing, and artistry to bring off a one-woman show, perhaps the most difficult kind of acting challenge.” She performs at educational institutions, museums, libraries, worship services, and historical organizations. An eleven-site state tour of Susan B. Anthony in 1994 was supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, and a grant for a mini-tour was awarded in 1997 for “From Suffragist to Citizen: A Conversation with Susan B. Anthony and Eleanor Roosevelt,” with Piaia (as Anthony) and Elena Dodd (as Roosevelt).

Ms. Piaia studied performance at London’s Oval House Theatre and graduated from the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She currently works in the Anthropology Department at Harvard University. Research for this program began in 1992 and was conducted in the Amelia Earhart Collection at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge (MA); the Microtext Department at the Boston Public Library; the Earhart Archives at the Medford (MA) Public Library, and the Amelia Earhart Branch Library in North Hollywood (CA). She performs at educational and cultural settings, including the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids (MI) on Presidents’ Day Weekend, February 2004; at Miami University campus in Hamilton (OH) in October 2006; and as part of Chautauqua South hosted at the Martin County Public Library System in Stuart (FL) in March 2008.

Please call (401) 624-2600 or e-mail for more details

Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 2:00 p.m.
at The Meeting House
3850 Main Road, Tiverton

“Yorick’s Marionettes Play Shakespeare” - The new production of Yorick’s Marionette Theater, “Yorick’s Marionettes Play Shakespeare”, brings us a refreshing look at Shakespeare’s most famous plays and what may have been in the mind of the bard when he created his characters. Introduced by the “Fool”, a reoccurring character in his plays, the master himself answers questions about life and destiny.

Supported by a magnificent cast of marionettes and moving objects sculpted by Dusan Petran, the play offers a unique interpretation based on an original script by Agnes Novak. This work was funded by RISCA and Yorick’s Productions.

For adults and young adults.
http://home.earthlink.net/~puppetry