Play About Shakers, As It Is In Heaven, Comes to Gershwin Hall, December 5–15

Eldress Hannah (Valerie Clayman Pye) leads the Shaker women in a devotional dance to the song "Come Life, Shaker Life."

    Members of the United Society of Believers have always held a strange fascination for Americans. Since arriving in New York in 1774, the followers of Mother Ann Lee, believing her to be the second coming of the female Christ, set up utopian communities from Maine to Kentucky founded on hard work, chastity, and an often ecstatic religious observance that gave them the nickname "shaking Quakers."

    Families were separated—the women lived in one area, the men in another, and the children in another house. Their doctrine of “hands to work, hearts to God" ensured that everything they made was of the finest quality, and the Shakers lived in beautifully made houses and buildings, ate extremely well year-round, and made exquisite furniture (besides inventing elegant tools like wood clothespins, flat brooms, and, somewhat less elegantly, the first washing machines). They were obsessively clean and lived under a set of extremely strict rules, including more than a hundred separate instructions about how to eat at a table.

Fanny (Becky Bennett), a new arrival to the sect, goes into ecstasy while receiving messages from the founder of the Shakers, Mother Ann Lee.

    Because the founder of the religion, Ann Lee, was illiterate and died in 1784, the Shakers were a community that passed down their doctrines and beliefs orally, through the male and female elders of the church. But as the communities grew, the elders who ran the now-thriving farms and businesses were challenged by younger believers who began to receive messages directly from Mother Ann Lee herself, defying their authority. This period, called “Mother Ann's Work," started in the 1830s and spread like wildfire to dozens of Shaker communities. The spiritual communications added new inspiration and vitality to the religion and led members to create the divinely inspired art and music that have captivated generations.

    As It Is in Heaven takes place at a time when this revolution was in full swing. In 1838 Hannah, the eldress, (played by Valerie Clayman Pye) rules and watches over a group of eight women who represent the female population of one of the families of the Shaker community of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. Fanny (Becky Bennett), one of the newer younger female members, starts to dance and sing “promiscuously," speak in tongues, and claims to see visions of the angels, Mother Ann, and George Washington! This completely disturbs the daily lives and security of these nine women. The surrounding community is appalled and threatens to eject this religious sect from their community. Hannah must act. Why would Mother Ann and the spirits come to this ignorant child and not the eldress? Hannah's very position is threatened, but by what—a young manipulative girl or the heavens themselves? The controversy threatens the very life of the entire community. The Lord's Prayer asks that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What is God's will? Who gets to decide?

The cast rehearses one of the complex Shaker dances that were a major part of what was called their "promiscuous" religious worship.

The play is written by Arlene Hutton, the pen name of actor/director Beth Lincks. Born in Louisiana and raised in Florida, Lincks was inspired to write the play after visiting the Pleasant Hills Shaker village in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, a beautifully restored community that the Shakers occupied for more than a century, before abandoning it in 1927 due to the inability of the sect to attract new believers. The play premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in 2001 and had a truncated run off-Broadway last year in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

    The production is directed by M.F.A. directing student Meribeth Kisner-Griffin. From 1968 to 1994 she worked in the field of dance, performing in numerous professional dance companies, in summer-stock theater, and on Broadway. A choreographer and Master Teacher, in 1989 Kisner founded her own school, the Conservatory of American Dance, serving professional dancers from all over the country. She also founded and was artistic director of Chi-Town Jazz Dance, a professional dance company showcasing American dance. She has directed and co-created dozens of musicals and musical reviews and is also a published short story author. She lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her husband of twenty-two years. "I have always loved Shaker furniture but really had not investigated the sect itself until I started work on this play," says Kisner. "It has been very interesting. I also have found so many 'closet' Shakerites who love the music and artwork, and who go to visit all of the Shaker communities. So many people feel some kind of a connection to these people. Who knew? They do make great furniture though—don't they?"

 

Director Meribeth Kisner-Griffin leading a rehearsal.

     The all-female cast of As It Is in Heaven includes Anita Ahiadormey, Becky Bennett, Valerie Clayman Pye, Calder Corey, Sarah Flanagan, Lori Ann Kee, Tracey Moore, Emily Strang, and Liza Bryn Williams. Performances will be held at the Gershwin Theater at Brooklyn College on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m., December 5 to 15. Ticket prices are $12 general admission, $10 for senior citizens, and $5 for Brooklyn College students (with validated ID). For more information on additional Brooklyn College theatrical performances, call the box office, (718) 951-4500, or visit the Theater Department Web page.

.