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 I loved it! A must-see for my sisters, mom, and friends!  |
| —E-mail from a mom |
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| The show captures the heartwarming — and at times wrenching — pathos of this thing we call motherhood. We had a wonderful time! |
| —Note from a mom |
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| The show is about the ups and downs of motherhood; what binds mothers together, not what sets them apart ... edgy, funny, and true. |
| —Showcase Magazine |
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Charlotte Dietz
Photo by Michael Manning
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Lisa Rafferty with Mike and Nancy of the popular morning show on WZID-FM in Manchester, NH |
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Stefanie Cloutier & Lisa Rafferty with WZID promotion director Jim Roach at the WZID "Old-Fashioned Christmas Show," December 2003
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Playwrights Sheila Eppolito, Stefanie Cloutier,
and Lisa Rafferty |
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| Conceived in 2000, The MOMologues is the brainchild of Scituate director and writer Lisa Rafferty, who searched in vain for a play that offered an honest, comic look at motherhood. When she couldn't find one, Lisa teamed up with fellow moms Stefanie Cloutier and Sheila Eppolito to write a comedy based on the stories and experiences they shared. |
| The result: a one-act play that followed four women through the first stages of motherhood — trying to get pregnant, pregnancy, labor and delivery, and adjusting to life with a newborn. In October 2000, the play was presented to packed houses at Eliot Hall in Jamaica Plain, MA. The audience — mostly moms — loved it, and howled with appreciation. |
| Realizing there was much material yet to be explored, Lisa and her collaborators turned their one-act show into a full-length play. The second act focuses on adjusting to motherhood, having more children, picky eaters, the tooth fairy, peeing in playgrounds, gender differences, discipline issues, and all the rest of the real-life comedy that is being a mother. |
| The full-length version of The MOMologues premiered in Boston on May 3, 2002 at the ICA Theatre. Lisa Rafferty directed; the original performers were Stefanie Cloutier, Charlotte Dietz, Ellen Stone, and Maria Wardwell. The show was an immediate sold-out success, prompting the producers to add four additional performances to the run. |
| In November 2002, The MOMologues was performed at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth to benefit the New Hampshire chapter of the Million Mom March. In April 2003, The MOMologues returned to Boston's ICA Theatre for 20 performances with additional actresses — Cinda Donovan, Jane Eyler, and Johanna Perri — who "job-shared" the roles with three of the original cast members. After the second Boston run, the show traveled to Manchester, NH to play the famed Palace Theater. |
| In 2004, the show played for five weeks in Boston's Theatre District at the Stuart Street Playhouse/2nd Stage, and on the road in Norwell and Arlington, MA, with a return to Manchester, NH. |
| In October of last year, the Dutch version of the show — Mama! — made its European premiere and traveled 30 cities throughout the Netherlands. The show will be returning for a bigger tour throughout the Netherlands beginning in February 2006.
| | This past spring, MOMologues 2: Off to School played to throngs of delighted moms — and dads — at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA and the Plaace Theatre in Manchester, NH. In September 2005, MOM2 played an encore engagement at the Regent Theatre, and MOM1 received a benefit staged reading in New York City! |
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| At the post-show reception for MOMologues NYC: Janet Aldrich, Liz Keifer, Lisa Rafferty, Martha Byrne, Jennifer Jiles, and Sheila Eppolito |
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