Straight Stitching

Cast: 5f. (Audience. Grade 7 – adult)
One act. Songs by Arlene Mantle

The play was inspired by the painful, funny and incredibly gutsy stories of immigrant women who work in the garment industry. Mei Lee, a young woman from Hong Kong faces problems with communication, sabotage from other workers and indifference from the Supervisor until making friends and alliances with workers from Portugal, Jamaica and the Phillipines, she stands up for her rights and takes a big step toward belonging in her new country.

Originally commissioned by Mayworks Festival of Labour and the Arts and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the play was first presented by a cast of garment workers and professional actresses at the Mayworks Festival in 1987.

A rewritten script with a smaller cast was produced by Straight Stitching Productions in 1989 touring schools, adult education colleges, community centres and union conferences in the Toronto area. Director: Lib Spry.

Straight Stitching is published in New Canadian Drama Vol. 5, Borealis Press, 1991.

***Straight Stitching was nominated for a DORA Award for outstanding theatre for young audiences in 1989 and Shirley Barrie won a Chalmer’s Award for the script.

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