Intimate Apparel Play Guide - Actors Theatre of Louisville

WRITING PORTFOLIO
Note for teachers: All Writing Portfolio prompts have been designed to correspond with
Kentucky Department of Education Core Content for Writing Assessment.
1. LITERARY WRITING
Is there an article of clothing you cannot live without?
Write a monologue concerning an article of clothing important to you. Describe the clothing in
great detail. What does it feel and look like? Does it have a certain smell? What has this clothing
item seen? What stories can it tell? Capture your audience by making them care about this piece
of clothing just as much as you do!
2. TRANSACTIVE WRITING
Pick a theatre production element that interests you before you attend Intimate Apparel (set, props,
lights, sound, or costumes).
After the production write a review focusing on the element you chose. Begin by describing the
overall environment of the production. Now consider how/when your production element was used.
Did the choices made enhance or hinder the environment of the overall production? Be sure to
describe specific examples to enhance your argument.
3. PERSONAL WRITING
How do you see yourself? How would you like others to see you?
Pretend a high school student from another country wants to be your pen pal. Write your first letter
describing yourself to this person. Consider your personal attributes and make sure to include what
is important to you.
Intimate
Apparel
Fund for the Arts
Members Agency
Study Guide
Getting the most out of the Study Guide for
Intimate Apparel
Our Study Guides are designed with you and your classroom in mind, with information
and activities that can be implemented in your curriculum. Feel free to
copy the study guide for other teachers and for students. You may wish to cover
some content before your workshops and the performance; some content is more
appropriate for discussion afterwards. Of course, some activities and questions will
be more useful for your class, and some less. Feel free to implement any article,
activity, writing portfolio exercise or post-show discussion question as you see fit.
Before the Performance:
Using the articles in the study guide, students will be more engaged in the
performance. Our articles relate information about things to look for in the show
and information on the play and the playwright, Lynn Nottage. In addition, there
are articles on the Great Migration of blacks from the South to the North, life in
New York in 1905 and the corset’s role in women’s history. All of this information,
combined with our in-classroom workshops, will keep the students attentive
and make the performance an active learning experience.
After the Performance:
With the play as a reference point, our questions, activities, and writing portfolio
exercises can be incorporated into your classroom discussions and can enable students
to develop their higher-level thinking skills. Our study guide for Intimate
Apparel addresses specific Core Content, for example
AH-H 3.2.34 - Analyze and discuss how an individual’s culture experiences
affect writing, creating and performing in theatre.
AH-H 3.3.312 - Modern and Contemporary Drama-(Information on the
Playwright)
AH-H 3.1.34 - Identify skills and training necessary for a variety of careers
related to drama. (Careers in Theatre Article)
SS-H 4.3.2 - Human migration (Migration article)
SS-H 5.2.4 - Human migration (Migration article)
Actors Theatre of Louiville ■ 316 West Main Street ■ Louisville, Kentucky 40202-4218 ■ USA
Box Office 502-584-1205 ■ Group Sales 502-585-1210 ■ Business Office 502-584-1265
ActorsTheatre.org
If you have questions or suggestions for improvements in our study guides,
contact Education Director Danielle M. Watts at DMinnis@ActorsTheatre.org
or 502-584-1265.
Study Guide compiled by Jess Jung and
Jamie Bragg unless otherwise noted.

Play
Synopsis
In 1905 Manhattan, Esther Mills sews beautiful corsets for a living. Her
art and talent have earned her economic independence rare for an
unmarried woman of color and allows her access to diverse social
worlds. In segmented Victorian New York, a black prostitute, a white
millionaire matron and an Orthodox Jewish merchant would never
meet, but through her work Esther befriends all three. Prostitute
Mayme and Esther both enjoy financial independence, but Mayme’s
race, class, and profession prevent her from becoming a concert pianist.
Society matron Mrs. Van Buren will lose her privileged life if she leaves
her loveless marriage. Fabric merchant Mr. Marks must choose between
his faith and his romantic attraction to Esther.
Panama Canal
Approximately 800,000 ships have
passed through the Panama Canal since
its completion in 1914. Fifty-one miles in
length, the canal’s path pushes through
Central America’s Isthmus of Panama,
connecting the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans. Its construction was a long,
dangerous process plagued by fatal
landslides and disease. However, the
canal’s completion is celebrated as one
the most successful engineering feats in
history. A ship sailing from the East to
the West coast of the United States will
save over 13,000 miles!
At thirty-five Esther has no suitors, but yearns for physical and emotional
intimacy. Her landlady, Mrs. Dickson, urges Esther to marry
respectably, but the seamstress corresponds with George Armstrong, a
Barbadian laborer who is helping build the Panama Canal. Esther, illiterate,
asks her clients to write in her stead, and as the correspondence
grows more passionate, George proposes to Esther and moves to New
York to marry her. But each has misled the other, and both are disappointed
by the person they’ve married. Race and immigrant bias prevent
George from finding work, and he struggles with his role of provider.
Desperate, he asks Esther for her entire savings. He gambles away the
money and abandons her. Esther moves back to the boarding house and
begins to rebuild her dreams.
Cast of Characters:
Esther Mills 35, African American seamstress
Mrs. Dickson 50, African American proprietor
of boarding house for unmarried women
Mrs. Van Buren 30s, white wealthy socialite
Mr. Marks 30s, Romanian Jewish immigrant,
textile merchant
Post-Show
Discussion Questions
The idea that there is something wrong with a woman if she
is not married resonates throughout Intimate Apparel.
Consider Ester, Mrs. Van Buren, and Mayme. How do each
of these women either accept or reject this idea? Is this opinion
still relevant in today’s society?
At the end of the play Ester is left alone smiling at her sewing
machine. Why is this image important? What do you think
Ester’s future holds?
Mayme 30s, African American prostitute and
dance hall performer
George 30s, black laborer from Barbados
Top: Spirella factory floor, 1910.
Opened in 1909, the workforce
consisted entirely of women.
Above: Wedding corset, 1905.

CAREERS IN THEATRE
Margret Fenske, Costume Shop Manager
Margret Fenske, Actors Theatre’s Costume Shop Manager,
surfaced from a sea of petticoats and overcoats to share
memories of her many years of costuming, and particularly
of her nine years at Actors.
Margret found a passion for costuming at an early age. At
seven years old, she entered a series of contests to design
clothes for characters in a favorite comic strip, and she
won several times. Her mother, a gifted seamstress,
encouraged Margret to play with fabric left over from
sewing projects.
Margret still loves playing with fabric. Though she spends
much of her day ordering supplies and recording purchases,
she particularly enjoys costume construction. Margret
is a draper, the person who brings to life the designer’s
ideas. The designer decides what colors, textures, and
shapes will clearly communicate the director’s interpretation
of the play. The designer then draws the costume and
gives that drawing, called a rendering, to the draper. The
draper studies this rendering and recreates the design
three-dimensionally by arranging cloth around a mannequin,
gathering and pinning the material into the
desired shape. This shape, known as the mock-up, is the
draft for the final costume. The draper marks each pleat
and dart with a laundry pen or tape, and then unpins the
fabric, removing it from the mannequin and laying it flat
on the table. Guided by the marks on the fabric the draper
cuts the pattern for the actual costume. Draping is challenging;
the mock-up must not only visually recreate the
rendering, it must be a functioning garment that allows
the actor full physical expression.
Costumers prefer the term “building” to “sewing.”
Margret says the substitution cuts to the heart of her
work: “There’s a lot more artistry in bringing something
to life from the ground up than going out to the mall,
buying a dress, and changing the hem or sleeves. The eyes
light up when it’s a build; there’s more input, more things
people get to do to make it special.” Margret relishes especially
challenging builds; among her favorite historical
fashions are the “intricate carved sleeves” of the 1830’s;
“the patterns are just wild,” Margret says, and she loves
“the challenge of figuring out how they did what they did
. . . doing the research and finding out how it was done in
the first place.”
This season’s production of Intimate Apparel brings the
sewing machine from costume shop to stage. Like
Margret, for protagonist Esther Mills sewing is both the
source of her income and her art. Playwright Lynn
Nottage makes tailoring and corsetry central metaphors,
and describes Esther’s beloved fabrics in sensual detail.
Margret is delighted to be working on a production that
so thoughtfully explores her craft, and the stitchers and
designers have been talking about Intimate Apparel “since
the beginning of the year.” The shop is busy browsing specialty
catalogs and Internet sites for delightful relics like
spoon busks (curved pieces of wood or whalebone slotted
into the bodice to keep the back straight). Margret is
always excited when the fabric and trim orders arrive. “It’s
like Christmas! But all the stuff has to be inventoried . . .
so it’s a little while before we get to play.”
#15 from The Migration Series
Another cause was lynching. It was found that where there had
been a lynching, the people who were reluctant to leave at first
left immediately after this.
’
New York City, 1908

A New York Evolution
A little elbow grease can transform a person from rags to riches. This
“American Dream” gained traction at the turn of the 20 th century when
industrial innovations generated thousands of new jobs. People from
around the world left their homes to take part in massive new commercial
and retail industries in the United States. Their first stop: New York
City.
Many “old” New Yorkers were frightened of these vast changes. School
became the target institution in which to enforce traditional American
ideals. By 1909 70% of NYC’s schoolchildren had been born abroad.
The public school system was determined to Americanize immigrant
children through steady doses of American history, manners, and
hygiene. New York School Superintendent William H. Maxwell:
The mass market originated in 1901 when Charles Schwab and J.P.
Morgan combined their small steel companies to create the US Steel
Corporation. Steel companies that had previously competed individually
for business now united creating an oligopoly dominating the steel
market. As a proven catalyst for economic growth, consolidation became
a prudent and popular business venture. When the electrical current
replaced steam belts in factories, mechanical production increased exponentially.
As the market grew, the assembly line was born, and thousands
of new jobs were waiting to be filled by eager immigrants.
“[The New York Public School System] is the melting pot which converts the
children of immigrants…into sturdy, independent American citizens.”
Fresh industry also altered the shape of New York. Instead of buying
goods at small private markets, New Yorkers swarmed newly fabricated
department stores. Additionally, steel frame construction and the elevator
(invented in 1853 by Elisha Graves) paved the way for the skyscraper.
The former New York skyline, peaked with the spires of Gothic style
Cathedrals, was now dominated by tall corporate edifices.
Between 1900 and 1915 fifteen million immigrants flooded into the city.
They were from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia,
Hungary, Turkey, and more. Richard Williams of the Wall Street Journal
wrote:
“The Flood gates are open. The dam is washed away. The sewer is unchoked.
Europe is vomiting.”
By 1900 Manhattan’s heaving city blocks were the most populated in the
world. Most immigrants lived on the Lower East Side. Twenty or more
bodies crammed into one-bedroom apartments. Children slept four to a
bed while many adults were forced to sleep in shifts. However congested,
many immigrants found comfort in their tight-knit communities.
Pockets of foreign lands bustled within a new atmosphere:
“Though I was in America, I lived in practically the same environment
which we brought from home. Of course, there was a difference in our joys,
in our sorrows, in our hardships … but on the whole we were still in our village.”
— Rose Chen, Jewish Immigrant
New York evolved. Millions of people and hundreds of cultures meshed
together. New faces bubbled together. As the previous image of America
faded and a new question surfaced: what is American?
The first plan for the New York subway system was composed in 1900.
7,700 immigrants, primarily of Irish and Italian decent, dug through
their city’s soil to construct twenty plus miles of underground train tunnels.
On October 27, 1904 the subway became the latest, greatest innovation
in public transportation. Within the next four years one million
New Yorkers were riding the subway per day.
The combustion of new inventions, markets, and faces produced at the
turn of the 20 th century was the forefront of the modern city. Power
shifted, businesses boomed, thoughts combined, and new innovations in
technology rocked the face of the United States. In short, the New York
City familiar today was born.
Terms
Harlem Renaissance
A great flourish of African American art,
writing, and music that developed in
Harlem, New York during the 1920’s.
Also known as the “New Negro
Movement.”
Activity
Visit the following website to view the
“Migration Series”
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/odonnell/w1010/
edit/migration/migration.html
Choose your favorite painting. Now pretend
you can step into the artwork. Use
your five senses to journal this experience.
What do you see, hear, smell, taste, and
feel? Where are you? Are their other characters
in the scene? Who are they? Finally,
take a moment to reflect on the images you
encountered. What would it have been
like to be a part of the Great Migration?
#1 from The Migration Series
During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes.

JACOB LAWRENCE
Between 1890 and 1900 the black population of New York City tripled,
between 1910 and 1920 the population increased another 66%, and
between 1920 and 1930 it grew another whopping 115%. At the turn
of the century, African Americans of the South left their jobs, homes,
and sometimes families to find better opportunities in the North. Their
journey has been dubbed the Great Migration and is a landmark in
American history. Painter Jacob Lawrence captures the hope, struggle,
and determination of this remarkable journey through his “Migration
Series.”
After the Civil War, the South became a dangerous place for its black residents.
Although slavery had been abolished, discrimination continued
to be a harsh fact of life. After WWI, the South was given control of its
legal system. This control was greatly abused. Jim Crow Laws (established
in 1880) segregated public spaces, including public transportation,
bathrooms, and drinking fountains. More blacks were tortured
and/or lynched during these years than any other time in history. In the
North, industrial production soared and workers were needed to fill the
assembly lines. Factory owners pointed towards the South for cheap
labor. Many blacks saw the North as a grand land in which to create a
better life. The great migration began. New hope swelled within communities
and soon entire families left their homes to create another in
the North. It wasn’t long, however, before harsh realities of this new environment
set in…
When I was home de
Sunshine seemed like gold.
When I was home de
Sunshine seemed like gold.
Since I cam North de
While damn world’s turned cold.
— “Po’ Boy Blues”, Langston Hughes, 1932
Many Northerners felt threatened by their new neighbors. Black communities
or neighborhoods formed within northern cities. Although safe
within their communities, hatred still lurked outside. Being caught outside
of one’s neighborhood at the wrong time of day could lead to fatal
consequences. Protection by the police was a fleeting hope as many
police officers were just as violent as their civilian compatriots.
Factory work was also brutal. Long hours and unsanitary facilities often
made work more dangerous than rewarding. Nevertheless, those who
were employed were lucky. Industrial production produced a swell of
European immigrants looking for the same opportunities. Many black
workers were displaced.
Times were changing and as Northern cities found themselves in a state
of flux, African Americans found themselves becoming further and further
marginalized. Black culture was turned upside down. Black communities
became airtight pouches filled with both the old and new
visions of the African American. Southern mixed with Northern, rural
with urban expelling dynamic new innovations in the arts.
Born in 1917, Jacob Lawrence was younger than artists of the Harlem
Renaissance. He was, however, greatly influenced by their contributions
to Black American culture. He has been labeled an “expressive cubist”
using strong, abstract form, delineated through strict lines and bold colors.
His signature “Migration Series” captures the journey of the African
American from the North to the South. Lawrence began work on the
series untraditionally: not in his art studio, but in the library. There he
researched the history of the Great Migration and composed a story told
through a series of captions. Each caption was then used as inspiration
to create the painting it accompanied. When the series was completed a
year later, sixty paintings were displayed, depicting a story of great struggle
and change.
The story begins and ends in a train station. Fatigue is apparent among
a dreary, crowded atmosphere. “The Railroad stations were at times so over
packed with people leaving that special guards had to be called to keep order,”
but, “…the migrants kept coming.” Lawrence uses a ladder and other
means of vertical movement throughout the work. For example, one
painting in the series is a dark, empty staircase. The flight is narrow,
brown, bleak; it gives the viewer a sense of claustrophobia. However, a
door at the top of the stairwell provides hope to another passage. In
black tradition, a “ladder” represented progression. Here, Lawrence uses
these images to link the past with the future — the North with the
South. He courageously depicts the harsh realities of each environment,
and by doing so, expresses the strength of the migrating generation. An
event once overlooked in American history was exposed. It provoked a
discussion of culture, class, and heritage — a discussion still relevant
today.
Viewing Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series” is not simply viewing a
compilation of artworks. Instead, it is viewing a piece of American history…
“Crossroads, bus stations, and train stations — moments of transition — it
certainly was a moment of transition in the history of America and for the
race … And I want to say this too: I don’t think the blacks in making a
movement just contributed to their own development. It contributed to
American development.”
— Jacob Lawrence
Terms
Oligopoly
A market dominated by a small number of businesses.
Consolidation
To become united into one whole.
Melting Pot
Term used to describe the process of different cultures blending
together. It was first coined by Israel Zangwill’s play The Melting
Pot (1908).
Ideal
A model of excellence.
Steel Frame Construction
Gave buildings a steel skeleton. This skeleton transferred the support
of the building from the walls to the inner frame, making it possible
to build multiple levels. Steel frame construction was first seen
in Chicago and New York in the 1880s.
Edifice
A large building.
Activity
Find one unique quality regarding your heritage to share with your
class. It could be a family recipe, historical event, family tradition,
or ceremony…whatever interests you. Have pride in your family history!
New York City, 1908

LYNN
NOTTAGE
Whether set in 1905 Manhattan, the court
of Louis XIV, or post-colonial Mozambique,
Lynn Nottage’s plays explore societal
forces acting on communities: race and
gender bias in Intimate Apparel, terrorism
in The Por’ Knockers, post-colonial unrest in
Mud, River, Stone and domestic violence
in Poof! Her deeply sympathetic characters
often come from broken communities and,
in an effort to rebuild, they reach out to others
unlike themselves, finding intimacy and
support in relationships that cross ethnic
and ideological barriers. Nottage holds
degrees in writing from Brown and Yale
Universities, but she contends that her journey
as a playwright began at her mother’s
kitchen table. Her childhood home in
Brooklyn was filled with articulate, socially
engaged women from many walks of
life—nurses, teachers, activists and artists.
These women joined her mother and
grandmother around the kitchen table, and
she would listen to the stories they shared.
She still lives in her Brooklyn childhood
home, where she is raising her own family.
And family stories continue to compel
her: the original inspiration for Intimate
Apparel is the life of Nottage’s greatgrandmother,
Ethel Boyce, a seamstress in
turn-of-the-century New York who, like
Esther, married a Barbadian immigrant she
met through correspondence.
Nottage writes plays, because unlike novelists
or poets, in theatre collaboration is
essential. The playwright’s words “get interpreted
by a director, by actors, by designers
and finally by an audience.” In this
way her words are spoken through “the
voice of many artists.” Her childhood love
of conversation informs her writing and
style of working now, and inspires her
favorite description of her career: a playwright
“skillfully introduces a topic at a
dinner party. It’s fascinating to listen to how
people respond to an idea, how they build
upon it, deconstruct it, twist and turn it until
it becomes their own.”
Corset
It’s easy to see why Lynn Nottage made
corsetry a central metaphor for Intimate
Apparel. Throughout history, corsets have
reflected cultural perceptions of body and identity.
By reshaping the body the corset forms an
alternative sense of self that the wearer presents
to the world.
The corset’s construction and function have
varied widely over time. The first, worn by
Renaissance aristocrats, provided a firm base
for elaborate court fashions. Victorian corsets
also supported clothing, but unlike their
Renaissance counterparts, 19 th century corsets
radically reshaped the body. Stiffened fabric
was tailored to cinch the waist and give the illusion
of larger breasts and buttocks. Further
shaping the stiff fabric were stays, inserts of
bone or metal fitted into vertical slots that followed
the curves of the corset. No woman
could corset herself unassisted; her mother,
husband, or maid laced the garment tight
around the torso, molding the woman’s body
into the desired hourglass shape. This figure,
with the breasts and hips of a mother and the
waist of a child, was the feminine ideal. Such a
woman was both maternal and delicate; she
nurtured children and was in turn protected by
her husband.
But as Intimate Apparel explores, corsets were
not simplistic tools of the patriarchy. Many
women embraced the corset as a means of
exploring identities outside of the narrow roles
they were forced to play in real life. Like Mrs.
Van Buren, many respectable society matrons
wore revealing lingerie to feel “naughty,” to
express forbidden sexual fantasies; Mrs. Van
Buren enjoys that her corset makes her look
like “a tart from the Tenderloin.” For other
women, fashion satisfied fantasies of an
empowered and graceful life. Prostitute Mayme
wears her corset to look like a Fifth Avenue
heiress; to her, a corset represents wealth, prestige,
and respectability. Esther’s corsets enable
Mayme to live in such a fantasy, and Esther
dreams of a salon in which working class
women will feel like ladies.
However, while many used the corset as an
escape from a limited societal role, others
found corsets emblematic of the role itself.
Because lower- and middle-class women could
now afford cosmetic enhancements, these
women were now held to standards of fashion
that once applied only to the aristocracy. Their
upper-class counterparts had servants to assist
or completely manage household duties, leaving
the aristocratic woman free to pursue fashion
and other leisure activities. Lower- and
middle-class women were expected to put on
the identity of leisured ladies while still maintaining
efficient households. Beauty became a
wifely duty comparable to cooking and cleaning.
In popular ladies’ magazines, matron
columnists warned that a dowdy or prudish
wife drives her husband to infidelity, and thus
urged married readers to use lingerie as marriage
aids. Though Mrs. Van Buren derives personal
satisfaction from her lingerie, she also
wears it to win emotional and physical intimacy
with her increasingly distant husband.
Esther does not wear lipstick and a revealing
corset to fulfill her own sexual desires. Instead,
she creates a false identity that she hopes will
win George’s love.
Though women still shape their bodies to conform
to societal standards of beauty, Pilates and
support hose have replaced lacing and stays. Yet
the corset is still a potent symbol of sexual discovery
and social repression; famously,
Madonna has chosen to wear corsets to comments
on these themes. Given the advances in
fashion technology, the garments worn by the
women in Intimate Apparel may seem archaic,
but the corset’s role in shaping a woman’s identity
remains strong.
Jeunne fille au corset rose by Eugène Vidal
Further Reading:
Inventing the American Woman: A
perspective on Women’s History
1865 to the Present
Glenda Riley
The Corset
Valerie Steele
The Black New Yorkers: 400
Years of African American History
The Schomberg
Illustrated Chronology
A Tyranny of Change: America in
the Progressive Era: 1890-1920
John Whiteclay Chambers II
A Very Different Age: Americans
of the Progressive Era
By Steven J. Diner
Journey to Freedom: The African-
American Great Migration
By Maurice Isserman
Jacob Lawrence: The Migration
Series
Introductory Essay
by Henry Louis Gates