There will be four performances of the show over two consecutive weekends.
Shafor said MLT first introduced the community to the show when some of MLT’s actors did the show as a reader’s theater piece about a decade ago.
“This time, we’ve expanded the setting, and gone just a little further with it,” he said. “We wanted to bring it back because people enjoyed it so much.”
Laced with humor, “Motherhood Out Loud” presents a series of scenes, monologues and vignettes about the joys and moving moments that celebrate the female experience. The production puts women in the limelight and shows what it’s like to be a woman in a number of different situations.
“This show not only highlights the older woman, but it also introduces a younger female to what it’s like to age in our world today, and it celebrates their experiences, and that’s really powerful,” Shafor said.
In line with real life, the show covers babyhood and childhood all the way through being an empty-nester and a great grandma — from labor and nights of no sleep to the bonding moments children and their mothers share.
“I come from a family of women, including five sisters, and a mother and grandmother who raised me, so I can relate to a lot of these stories and what these women have gone through, or what they give up, and what they do for one another to celebrate each another and I think it’s a good thing,” Shafor said.
He said the show touches on so many human emotions that everybody deals with from coming of age to sending a son off to war.
“These are strong, vibrant, educated women, who have made different life choices. So, what we hope to communicate is people will walk away and say, ‘you know, no one said it was easy raising a child, no one said it was easy getting a job, no one said it was easy being the other women, or teaching your kid about sex, or having loss.’ No one teaches you these things…So, to come and hear these stories, you might have a better appreciation of what the modern woman might be dealing with,” said Shafor.
The cast is comprised of Peggy Allen, Angela Brinker, Betty Coulter, Jason Easter, Heather Evans, Pam Fugett, Abbie Miller, Karen Oehler, Kurt Percy and Gail Rudolph. Mother’s Day is Sun., May 8.
How to go
What: “Motherhood Out Loud” presented by Middletown Lyric Theatre
When: 8 p.m. today and Saturday, 8 p.m. April 29 and 2 p.m. April 30
Where: Middletown Lyric Theatre, 1530 Central Ave., Middletown
Tickets:: $20 reserved seating; tickets available at the door
More info: middletownlyric.org, (513) 425-7140
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