Intimate Apparel

NAU Theatre’s 2017-2018 Season: Past and Present

George Bernard Shaw wrote, “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” This season, we look at four plays that reveal that the past is staring us down, and, even more, that we are poised to repeat it. Theatre is said to transport, to transform and to tickle our fancy, and we hope this season of stories will take you on a road trip through our past while allowing you to keep an eye on our present.  As journalist and historian Leslie Chang says, “The past has been there all along, reminding us: this time–maybe, hopefully, against all odds–we will get it right.” Perhaps the stories we have chosen to tell this season will help our future selves to “get it right.”

Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, Directed by Bob Yowell

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony nominated playwright, Lynn Nottage tells the story of Esther, an unmarried African-American, independent seamstress who fashions fine lingerie in her boarding house bedroom. Financially secure, yet longing for a husband, Esther finds love with a Hasidic shopkeeper.  Sadly, the impossibility of the match drives her to make an unacceptable bond with George, a Caribbean immigrant whose only desire is to steal her wealth and sow his oats. Intimate Apparel is a play about people striving for better lives; where privilege and ambition are mixed with society’s realities of race and class. Nottage’s story is as eerily profound in 2017 as it was eleven years ago when it took Broadway by storm.

Rising above racism, classism and oppression of women, Nottage explores those who have been forgotten by history.

Individual tickets for performances are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and NAU employees, and $8 for students and children. Group discounts available. 

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