The play “Aprons Away: Women’s Work on the Mother Road” will be performed June 22-23 at the Eagle Theater and Performing Arts Center in Pontiac, Illinois.
The Cheryl Eichar Jett play is being co-sponsored by the Route 66 Association of Illinois and Pontiac Tourism to help celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame and Museum in Pontiac.
Performances will be at 7 p.m. June 22 and 2 p.m. June 23. Doors open 30 minutes before each performance. The Eagle Theater is at 319 N. Plum St., about 1 1/2 blocks west of the Pontiac Visitors Center.
Tickets to the shows will be free but must be reserved; the play’s website soon will post a link to reserve those tickets.
Route 66 author Eichar Jett, who’s written six books and dozens of articles for newspapers and magazines, researched the lives and work of women along Route 66 — including Dorothea Lange, Lucille Hamons and Joy Nevin — for a forthcoming book. That work led a two-act play, “Aprons Away: Women’s Work on the Mother Road,” that debuted in October with a one-act version during the annual Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference in Carlinville, Illinois.
Here’s a blurb about the play:
The most famous highway in the world. Twenty-four determined women. And Route 66 was changed forever.
All through the Route 66 era, some women put their domestic skills to work while others tackled man-sized careers. With their aprons tied on or flung to the prairie winds, two dozen women tell the story of Route 66 as you’ve never heard it before – through the voices of the women who left their indelible mark on the Mother Road!
Aprons Away: Women’s Work on the Mother Road is an original stage play about the work, careers, and contributions of women along the most famous highway in the world – Route 66 – with music, lyrics, and script by Cheryl Eichar Jett. Narrative monologues performed by an ensemble cast tell a new version of the Route 66 story you’ll never forget!
Eichar Jett is offering the two-hour version of “Aprons Away” for bookings at theaters across the U.S. in variations including the full production traveling to the venue to allowing local theater companies producing it. The one-act, 45-minute version of the play also is being offered at a lower cost for museums and schools.
Those interesting in booking the production or buying scripts can contact Eichar Jett here.
UPDATE: The Chicks on 66 group will lead a tour from Chicago to Pontiac as part of a fundraiser so the “Aprons Away” can be staged in more places in Illinois. Information is here.
(Logo for “Aprons Away” play via Facebook)