Penelope Reed Reprises The Belle of Amherst at Hedgerow Throughout June

Hedgerow Theatre invites audiences to have tea with Emily Dickinson as Penelope Reed reprises her critically acclaimed portrayal of the great American poet in a limited engagement of The Belle of Amherst. Performances are scheduled at 4 p.m. on Saturdays in June.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Reed, Hedgerow's Producing Artistic Director, doing the role. "I played Emily first in the summer of 1981 in Milwaukee in an amazing setting, the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum," Reed recalled. She has since done the play in Princeton at McCarter Theatre, at Hedgerow and taken it on tour. No matter the venue or the year, each of these productions has been successful and popular with audiences, while also receiving high praise from critics, who have said that Reed creates a "credible, engaging character" so that Dickinson "comes vividly to life."

"I love performing this part," Reed said. "It's almost a spiritual journey for me when I play Emily because she's more evolved than I am and it takes me to a higher place. Spending that many hours becoming a person in any role affects you, but thinking in her energy lifts me to an elevated level of thought."

Playwright William Luce wrote the one-woman play for Julie Harris, who won a Tony Award for her portrayal. "That production," Reed explained, "was full of spectacle, with lots of lights and sound effects. I sometimes felt that Ms. Harris' fine performance was upstaged by the technical aspects." Reed's take is that it's "important to just see the woman and hear the wonderful language." The reclusive Dickinson didn't leave her Amherst, Massachusetts, home for the last decades of her life, but frequently had friends in for tea, and Reed feels that "the intimate environment at Hedgerow provides a setting as cozy as her living room."

The Belle of Amherst is playing in repertory with Hedgerow's 10th annual Ray Cooney farce, Two Into One. Tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $10 for students with valid ID and children under 18. Also available is a special Flex-Six discount package of six mix-and-match tickets to any show for $130 for adults or $110 for seniors. For reservations, call 610-565-4211, or visit  www.hedgerowtheatre.org. Hedgerow Theatre, America's First Repertory Theatre, is located at 64 Rose Valley Road, in Rose Valley (near Media).