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A group of Greenwich women will reunite 20 years after its first performance and take the stage again at the Greenwich Arts Council on Sunday for a dramatic reading of women's poetry called, "Sisters Across the Centuries: A Collage of Women's Voices."
"It's going to be interesting because we were much younger when we did them the first time," said Mary Ann Hoberman, one of the performers. "It's a little different doing it now."
More than two decades ago, the women gathered 50 poems by more than 35 female poets, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Denise Levertov and Sylvia Plath, and organized them into a show first performed at the Greenwich Arts Council.
"We just sat down and read poems to each other. It was very organic; one poem would seem to speak to another or there would be an echo in its language or theme," said Hoberman.
The program is divided into four parts, transitioning from stages of a women's life, from childhood, to marriage and childrearing, to careers, and then to sickness and death.
The Poetry Foundation named Hoberman, a longtime children's author, as its children's poet laureate in 2008. At a poetry discussion Hoberman leads once a month for At Home in Greenwich, she said one of the members brought up the original show and suggested the women perform it again.
The original cast consisted of Hoberman, Jane Milliken, Florence Phillips and Madelyn O'Neil, along with Gunilla Norris. All but O'Neil and Norris, who no longer live in Greenwich, will re-create their roles, joined by past arts council president Morna Ryan.
The performance at 3 p.m. Sunday is in conjunction with At Home in Greenwich in the Greenwich Arts Council meeting room at 299 Greenwich Ave. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Admission is free.
For more information, call Phyllis Herman at 203-661-0949 or by email.
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