Metropolitan Playhouse
Virtual Playhouse
Presents
A Screened Reading
of

BERTHA, THE SEWING MACHINE GIRL
(PART ONE)

Written by CHARLES FOSTER
Directed by ALEX ROE

Featuring
BECCA BALLENGER, CRAIG ANTHONY BANNISTER, JOHN BLAYLOCK, DIEGO CARVAJAL, MARGARET CATOV, LINUS GELBER, TYLER KENT, PETER LOUREIRO, BEETHOVAN ODEN, MADELYNN POULSON, DAVID LOGAN RANKIN, JAY ROMERO, HANNAH SHARAFIAN, & TOM STAGGS

Graphic Art by MEDUSA STUDIO

Talkback follows with KIM MILLER, Associate Professor of Theater Arts, The University of the Cumberlands

www.metropolitanplayhose.org/virtualplayhouse
Metropolitan Playhouse at YouTube.com

April 17, 2021 8 p.m.
Part One plays through April 22, 2021
(Part Two, April 24, 2021)

This play is a melodrama and proud of it! Bertha is a virtuous, hard-working girl, sewing in a factory for ten or 12 hours a day. If she is even one minute late, her nasty boss docks her pay. His witch of an assistant, Miss Pinch, agrees with him wholeheartedly. Those useless, lazy sewing girls. Beneath her contempt.

Lizette is a “friend” of Bertha’s at work. In reality, she is a snake-in-the-grass backstabber. She hates Bertha for “stealing” her boyfriend and wishes Bertha were dead.

You call that a melodrama? Oh stop! Bertha is stalked by the boss’s slimy brother, Joe. One David Carter threatens Bertha’s father with a dark secret from the past. The police officer is as crooked as they come. All the forces of evil are aligned against honest, God-fearing Bertha. Through the skullduggery of her enemies, she is jailed for stealing money from the factory office. She prays for the Lord to help her.

Not enough angst? Add an alcoholic jailbird and a Union Square vagabond. Who are they, and how can they possibly help Bertha? Stay tuned.

Brought to the Bowery Theater in 1871, this maudlin tale was a smash hit. Melodrama was the “in” thing, drawing massive working-class audiences to plays they could understand and sympathize with. Bad people were bad and good people were good. Nothing in-between. The rich victimize the poor, the lazy resent the prosperous, the powerful crush the powerless. Go ahead and “boo” the villain. A good time was had by all.

METROPOLITAN PLAYHOUSE has gone outside their box with this production. Two parts, multiple acts, and at least 14 actors. The graphics work perfectly, even when several actors are on stage at the same time. A real stretch of online capabilities for a playhouse that usually features one-act plays with few characters. Very well done and enjoyable. Can’t wait for Part Two.

-Karen D’Onofrio-