KITTY CLEMENTS IS ‘A WOMAN OF THE WORLD’

Fringe Theater celebrates Women’s History Month

Fringe Theater, in partnership with the Key West Woman’s Club, presents Rebecca Gilman’s one-woman play, “A Woman of the World,” at 7 p.m. through March 18 at the Key West Woman’s Club, 319 Duval St.

Gilman is an award-winning playwright and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg ATCA New Play Award, the Harper Lee Award, the Scott McPherson Award and the George Devine Award. Her play, “The Glory of Living,” was a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize.

“A Woman of the World” is based on the life of Mabel Loomis Todd, neighbor to poet Emily Dickinson, who probably would not have been as well known a figure were it not for the efforts of Todd, who was the first to edit and publish her poems. In all, she published three volumes and spent much of her life promoting Dickinson’s works with national tours and lectures.

It is here that the play picks up. We find Todd at a special lecture toward the end of her life.

Slowly the carefully crafted stories of a lifetime merge with the long hidden and unspoken truths.

Todd, it turns out, was not the woman she seemed. She was so very much more.

“A Woman of the World” is directed by Glenda Donovan, who has served on Fringe’s board of directors for the last four years. Fringe audiences will remember her as the director of “Golda’sBalcony,” the star of “Collected Stories,”and as Tallulah Bankhead in last year’s “Looped.”

Kitty Clements, the grande dame of Fringe Theater, stars as Mabel Loomis Todd.

Clements has been acting with Fringe Theater for more than 10 years. Her long list of Fringe acting credits include “Agnes of God,” “Blithe Spirit,” “Marion” and “Private Lives.”

She has been seen often in productions at The Studios of Key West, including “Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry?”

Fringe’s production crew for “A Woman of the World” includes light designer Kendall Cameron, sound designer Su Nubia, light board operator Aramis Ikatu, and production dream team Don Lynch, Charlie Bengel and Jim Beyl. This production is presented in conjunction with Women’s History Month.