A century ago, these stories were read aloud for family entertainment. Today they come alive in performance.

Michèle LaRue tells a tale of sudden death, family secrets, and things that go bump in the night as she presents Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s “The Shadows on the Wall” (1903). Next she speaks of strange sightings on the prairie in Elia W. Peattie’s “The House That Was Not” (1898).

Freeman (1852 – 1930), a popular and prolific short-story writer, was born and lived most of her life in Massachusetts, continuing her work after marrying and moving to Metuchen, New Jersey. She wrote insightfully and with sympathetic humor about her fellow small-town New Englanders—and she penned many ghost stories.

Peattie (1862 – 1935) grew up in her native Michigan. With her husband, a fellow journalist, she made her home, first in Chicago, then in Omaha. She was the Chicago Tribune’s first woman reporter and wrote fiction, as well as observant editorials and reviews, for major papers in both cities.

Michèle is a professional actress who has toured nationally for 24 years with dramatizations of stories by America’s Gilded Age authors. Her one-woman performances are sure to leave you wanting more.

“You transported us totally to another time, another place, and filled our lives with new friends.” - Livingston Public Library, NJ

This show is intended for ages 12 and up. No registration is required.

For more information, please contact Samantha at samanthah@dkpl.org or at (815) 756-9568 ext. 1701.