One woman multimedia show about the lady who built Boston's famous
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
One-hour production
- Suitable for small stages, libraries, museums, schools, functions, and conventions.
- Multimedia show includes rear-projected film
- Musical transitions and sound effects
- Includes sound effects, staging, props, and costume changes.
- Media equipment provided with sound and film techs.
- Travel charges apply for booking outside Massachusetts
The year is 1903, and Mrs. Isabella Stewart Gardner is holding a party on the first evening of the New Year to celebrate the opening of her house, Fenway Court. To tell the story of the remarkable woman who built Boston's most endearing art-filled Italian palazzo, the play moves back and forth in time.
Emerging from the loss of her little son, Jackie, Mrs. Gardner establishes herself as a social maverick and then becomes muse to many artists of her day. You meet the people who knew Mrs. Jack: Jack Gardner, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Madame Nellie Melba, Francis Marion Crawford, Okakura-Kakuzo, Bernard Berenson, and John Singer Sargent. For fun, there is the addition of the imaginary Mrs. George Wetherbee.
At the conclusion of Mrs. Jack's grand gala, she wishes you adieu and explains that she built her house because as it says over her front door, "C'est mon plasier." It was my pleasure.
The real story behind Mrs. Gardener is that she was a remarkable artist in her own right. The building of Fenway Court proved that. Mrs. Jack at Fenway Court gives the audience a chance to meet the extraordinary and elusive lady that was Mrs. Isabella Stewart Gardner.