Michele LaRue resurrects vintage voices at NCRL performancesc

CHELAN - Professional actress Michéle LaRue is bringing her repertoire of stories from America’s Gilded Age to several North Central Regional Library branches and the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival stage this spring.
LaRue will perform four stories of her 30 Tales Well Told lineup in what is billed as a story hour for grownups. The four stories are:
Someone Must Wash the Dishes, an anti-suffrage satire written in 1912 by prominent pro-Suffragist and Unitarian minister Marie Jenney Howe, which satirizes arguments against women’s right to vote that were seen as accurate in their day — but ridiculous today.
Gettysburg: One Woman’s War, which views the American Civil War from a female perspective, introducing Mary Bowman on the day the battle of Gettysburg began. The program dramatizes three tales from novelist Elsie Singmaster’s classic Gettysburg: Stories of the Red Harvest and the Aftermath published in 1913.
The Apple Tree, a comic celebration of spring and poor housekeeping. In this story written in 1903 by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, the collision of two very different couples — one obsessively good at housekeeping and the other not so much — reveals the true value of a glorious spring day.
A Pair of Silk Stockings, the story of Little Mrs. Sommers, who is swept away by an impromptu holiday from home.
All four stories harken back to a time when literature was written for the ear, LaRue explained.
“Long before radio, family members and friends shared stories aloud — reading by kerosene lamp in farm houses, or by gaslight in Victorian parlors,” LaRue said. “Over the years, during my performances, I’ve seen contemporary adults light up like children hearing a new story. Despite TV and films, the internet and special effects, we still crave to simply listen to a tale well told.”
LaRue will perform at the following locations:
• April 26, 6 p.m., Twisp Public Library, The Apple Tree and A Pair of Silk Stockings.
• April 27, 3:30 p.m., Pateros Public Library, The Apple Tree and A Pair of Silk Stockings.
• April 28, 3:30 p.m., Tonasket Public Library, Gettysburg.
• April 29, 2:30 p.m., Omak Public Library, Someone Must Wash the Dishes.
• April 30, 6 p.m., Quincy Public Library, Someone Must Wash the Dishes.
• May 1, 7 p.m., Chelan Public Library, The Apple Tree and A Pair of Silk Stockings.
• May 2, 1 p.m., Apple Blossom Festival stage, Memorial Park, Wenatchee, The Apple Tree.
• May 3, 1 p.m., Cashmere Public Library, Someone Must Wash the Dishes.
• May 4, 10 a.m., Waterville Public Library, Someone Must Wash the Dishes.
• May 5, 11 a.m., Soap Lake Public Library, Someone Must Wash the Dishes.
For more information about LaRue, visit www.michelelarue.com. For more information about her library programs, contact Kim Neher at 663-1117, ext. 141