PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
WELCOME BACK!
Busy times coming up. So far, through 2026, I’m booked in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Vermont.
There’s always room for more. If you’d like me to bring a Tale to your neighborhood or organization, contact me at 201-863-6436 or ruedelarue@aol.com
Titles are described below, at the end of the Calendar listings.
🛍️
Thursday, August 20, 4:00 p.m. Classic American Tales (CAT) Kate Chopin’s “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” O. Henry’s “The Lickpenny Lover” + Belle Brittan in Cape May, 1857
Dormer House, 800 Columbia, Cape May, NJ 08204 609-884-5898; https://www.classicamericantales.org/ $12 admission includes lemonade and homemade treats; Dormer House guests and children ages 12 and under are free.
💃🏻
Saturday, August 22, 1:00 p.m. Historic Cold Spring Village Women Breaking Loose + Belle Brittan in Cape May, 1857
735 Seashore Road, Cape May, NJ 08204 609-898-2300 https://hcsv.org/ FREE with admission to the Village
💃🏻
Thursday, September 10, 1:30 p.m. Brightview Senior Living Women Breaking Loose
57 Grandeville Ct, South Kingstown, RI 02879 Private booking; contact me for attendance information: 201-863-6436 or ruedelarue@aol.com
🧵🪡
Friday, September 11, 1:00 p.m. Norfolk Senior Center The Bedquilt
28 Medway Branch, Norfolk, MA 02056 402-371-8299 https://www.norfolkseniorcenter.org/ FREE
🧵🪡
Tuesday, September 15, 3:30 p.m. The Seasons The Bedquilt
5 St Elizabeth Way, East Greenwich, RI 02818 Private booking; contact me for attendance information: 201-863-6436 or ruedelarue@aol.com
🐄
Thursday, September 17, 1:00 p.m. Wingate Residences on Blackstone Blvd. The Revolt of “Mother”
353 Blackstone Boulevard Providence, RI 02906 Private booking; contact me for attendance information: 201-863-6436 or ruedelarue@aol.com
🐄
Saturday, September 19, 4:00 p.m. Island Free Library The Revolt of “Mother”
9 Dodge Street, Block Island, RI 02807
401-466-3233
https://islandfreelibrary.org/ FREE
🧵🪡
Thursday, October 1, 1:00 p.m. Quilt Connection The Bedquilt
Performance Venue: Trinity Lutheran Church, 5106 N. La Crosse Avenue, Chicago, IL 60630 Private booking; contact me for attendance information: 201-863-6436 or ruedelarue@aol.com
🦇🎃
Saturday, October 3, 3:30 p.m. DeKalb Public Library Halloween Hauntings
309 Oak Street, DeKalb, IL 60115 815-756-9568 https://dkpl.org/ FREE
🦇🎃
Saturday, October 17, 1:00 p.m. Historic Cold Spring Village Halloween Hauntings
735 Seashore Road, Cape May, NJ 08204 609-898-2300 https://hcsv.org/ FREE with admission to the Village
🌲
Thursday, December 3, 6:00 p.m. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum Seasonal Surprises
1171 Main Street, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819 802-748-8291 https://www.stjathenaeum.org/ FREE
🎁
Friday, December 4, 6:00 p.m. A Christmas Stocking Dover Free Library
22 Holland Road, East Dover, VT 05341 802-348-7488 https://doverfree.org FREE
🧵🪡
Saturday, December 5, 1:00 p.m. The Bedquilt Martha Canfield Memorial Free Library
528 East Arlington Road, Arlington, VT 05250 802-375-6153 https://marthacanfieldlibrary.org/ FREE
🎁
Tuesday, December 15, 2:00 p.m. A Christmas Stocking Joseph T. Simpson Public Library Learning & Book Sale Center
45 West Allen Street, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 717-766-0171 https://www.cumberlandcountylibraries.org/SIM FREE
🎭
ABOUT the SHOWS:
🛍️ “A Pair of Silk Stockings” and “The Lickpenny Lover”: A single mother falls into a holiday and a wealthy suitor falls for Maisie.
💃🏻 Women Breaking Loose: A century ago, two stories tackled dilemmas women still face daily: Who comes first—my family or me? Where do I belong—at home or at work?” Comprising Kate Chopin’s poignant “A Pair of Silk Stockings”& Edna Ferber’s comic “Representing T. A. Buck.”
🧵 The Bedquilt, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher: “She never knew how her great idea came to her . . . so beautifully difficult a pattern could be only for the angels in heaven to quilt.”
🐄 The Revolt of “Mother,” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: Forty years and four children ago, Adoniram Penn promised to build his new wife a proper house on their New England farm. Now he’s building a barn where the new house should be. It’s the last straw for Mother, and Father’s in for a surprise.
🦇 Halloween Hauntings: strange sightings on the prairie in Elia W. Peattie’s “The House that was Not”; sudden death, family secrets, and things that go bump in the night in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s “The Shadows on the Wall.”
🎁 A Christmas Stocking: three universal stories of love, loss, joy, and sharing—by (you guessed it) Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Elia W. Peattie, and O. Henry + a surprise from Louisa May Alcott.
🌲 Seasonal Surprises: O. Henry’s “A Chaparral Christmas Gift” transports us to Wild West California; Stephen Leacock’s “Hoodoo McFiggin’s Christmas” to a big-city boarding house; and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s “The Balsam Fir” to hardscrabble Eastern Massachusetts.
