SEQUIM — Four women are letting fly this Saturday in an “it takes a village” spirit.
A double feature of short plays will take the stage at Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave., to benefit First Teacher and the Parenting Matters Foundation, a nonprofit that provides resources for families in Clallam County.
Curtain time is 7 p.m. Saturday, and tickets are $20 at the door and at Pacific Mist Books, 121 W. Washington St.
Marie O’Neill, a life coach and actor who lives in Dungeness, will step first onto OTA’s new main stage as the title role in “A Conversation with Hattie McDaniel,” a one-act play written by local author Rebecca Redshaw.
Opposite O’Neill is Jessica Claiborne as Kathy, a younger woman with whom McDaniel shares tea — and then brings out a stronger beverage — along with exchanging some similar life experience and hard-won insight.
Another Redshaw play, “Four Women,” stars stage veteran Marianne Trowbridge portraying a quartet of colorful characters age 55 to 101.
The real women behind Saturday’s production also have stories to tell.
They’re passionate about their art, and about Parenting Matters.
Parenting matters
“‘Parenting Matters’ says it all. Let me tell you,” said O’Neill. Today’s children “are going be running this country when I’m old and gray. And they had better have had a solid foundation.”
O’Neill, 48, doesn’t have kids in school in Sequim. But she believes in advocating for the community’s youth.
“We’re all connected. We’re all responsible for each other,” she said. “I certainly had a lot of help growing up.”
She sees young people as a priceless part of the nation’s infrastructure: “If our kids are not educated . . . our infrastructure is not going to be strong.”
“A Conversation with Hattie McDaniel” was created to both entertain and educate, noted Redshaw, who lives in Port Angeles.
McDaniel’s most famous role was as Scarlett O’Hara’s maid, Mammy, in the 1939 epic “Gone With the Wind,” and when she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress, she was the first African American to win an Oscar.
But the black leaders of the time, O’Neill said, considered McDaniel a sellout, one who kowtowed to stereotypes.
O’Neill, who grew up in Memphis, Tenn., when racism was “thriving,” doesn’t see her that way.
“She was a trailblazer . . . a very strong woman. She played all of her roles with dignity,” O’Neill said.
‘Hold your head up high’
McDaniel set an example, she believes, that “you do what you need to do, and you hold your head up high.”
The 13th child of a former slave and a Union soldier, McDaniel was born in 1895, rose to national fame in her 40s with “Gone with the Wind,” made scores more films — and spoke up against the use of racial epithets in the screenplays.
“When you think about the time she grew up in,” O’Neill said, “the only movie roles [for black actresses] were of maids,” or similarly subservient characters. So McDaniel could earn a decent wage as an actor or be a maid and make about $7 a week.
“I felt very proud to portray her,” O’Neill said. “We each fight for equality in our own way.”
“Rebecca [Redshaw] is a great writer . . . who did a lot of research,” she added. “A Conversation” provides the back story of a woman just about everyone remembers as Mammy, yet “they don’t know Hattie McDaniel.”
During the March 19 performance of the play at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, “you could hear the ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know . . .’ in the audience.”
Cynthia Martin, founder and director of Parenting Matters, remarked on how Olympic Theatre Arts, Redshaw and the actors cooperated to put Saturday’s fundraiser together.
“We’re really fortunate to have that many dedicated people,” Martin said.
On Saturday night at OTA, First Teacher will have a giving tree set up so supporters can make pledges of money or volunteer time, she added.
Parenting Matters and First Teacher offer free story hours and other activities for babies, toddlers, parents and grandparents in their playroom and library inside the Sequim Community School at 220 W. Alder St., and Martin edits a monthly educational newsletter for parents in Clallam County.
Budget cuts
But Parenting Matters is coping with funding cuts this year and uncertainty about next year’s budget because of the financial struggles in the Sequim and Port Angeles school districts.
“Everything is up in the air,” Martin said.
So she’s continually applying for grants — and now is welcoming Chase Hill, an AmeriCorps volunteer who will staff the First Teacher room in Sequim two days a week this summer and organize literacy activities around the county.
Having Hill this year is a bonus, Martin said, since in past years the First Teacher room wasn’t staffed for most of the summer.
First Teacher coordinator Patsene Dashiell will finish out the school year, added Martin, but she’s also taken on a new position as interim public relations coordinator for the Sequim School District.
Dashiell is succeeding, at least for now, PR coordinator Annette Hanson, who retired April 30 after 34 years with the school district.
For information about Parenting Matters and to subscribe to the newsletter — in full color via e-mail or in two-color by regular mail — phone 360-681-2250 or e-mail pmf@olypen.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.