Category Archives: Lynn Nottage

Accoutrement

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Accoutrement

Noun

Definition – An accessory item of clothing or equipment , usually used in plural

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” No, No if this is what you made for that singer. It is what I want , alright Im coming out. Oh God , I look ridiculous, and I’m behaving absolutely foolishly, but I am not sure what else to do. Look at me I have spent a fortune of feathers and every manner of accoutrement. They have mentioned absolutely splendid things about me in the columns”

Mrs. Van Buren was second guessing her decision on what to wear. This outfit seemed to be important to her. I feel that she thought her behavior was affected by the way that she was dressed. So that Mrs. Van Buren felt more comfortable in her Lingerie, she dressed it up with feathers and other accessories. Though this was not the outfit that she preferred, Mrs. Van Buren knew that this would get her the attention that she wanted.

Now and Then

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I actually enjoyed reading Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage. This play makes me think that life and relationships are not much different now than they were in the early1900’s. Esther who was a seamstress for Upper and Lower Manhattans women who lived in the night life puts me in the mind of the independent women in today’s society . Esther needed a stepping stone on the way to pursuing her long term goal to open a beauty Salon, but was sidetracked In the interim. Nottage to me depicts an old time picture from a new story told time and time again. it seems to me that men were sexist in those days as we see some men to be nowadays. One thing that will remain the same is a woman’s sensitive  side and ability to love . Based on some of the conversations In the play, women then did not know their worth. Esther was told that her face didn’t matter but that men were only interested in her body. It is interesting to me that despite the struggles of African Americans at that time, dreams are real. It was very easy for Esther to deny herself the opportunity of accomplishing her dreams , due to her being blinded by love.  Intimate apparel differs from the world today in several ways. Although illiteracy still exist it is more rampant n 1905 which this play was based in. Education and resources are more available in today’s society. Women in today’s society are respected more for their independence although we are still fighting the battle for equality.

This play had several different issues which made it a little difficult to channel in in one of them. There were issues of self esteem, racial issues, class issues, and issues of the struggling African American woman. I would say that reading it as a play made it a little more difficult for me to understand at first because it was outside of the normal story which is narrated.

Esther’s Dream

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The play “Intimate Apparel”, by Lynn Nottage takes us back to 1905, where  Esther, a 35 year old African American is a talented seamstress, whose clients range from pampered Fifth Avenue society wife Mrs. Van Buren, who hates her life, to a prostitute named Mayme who could have been a successful pianist but instead she sells herself.  All Esther wants is a good man to marry. She finds herself unattractive.  On one side there is man who she married meeting through letters and on the other side there is this charming, sensitive man but his religion and traditions turns Esther’s love into nothing but a dream.

Through this play script Lynn Nottage touches on issues of race, women’s sense of worth, and the struggle against compromising one’s dreams.  Plays explore life through storytelling and acting. It becomes entertaining when performing and visual act comes together. Reading a play script is different than reading a narrated story. A play script consists almost entirely of dialogue. This helped me to engage and to be alert by going into a certain character’s world. I found myself become a part of the whole experience like watching a movie.

Also, through this play Lynn Nottage helped me explore questions like How do we love? How do we find happiness by also looking at themes like religion and traditions.  Each character is boxed into certain excepted norm of what their role is in the society and their struggle to be heard.  For example Mr. Marks who owns the store where Ester buys fabrics. He is an observant Jew who respects old world traditions, but his affection for his favorite customer is obvious.  “It isn’t often that something so fine and delicate enters the store,” he says, referring to a particular fabric but perhaps meaning Esther herself. Their love, obviously, can never be.

I felt like Lynn Nottage uncovered and interpreted her past and present through characters by this play. It helped us to enter the world of the play writer. Although set in 1905, Esther and her world speak to our everyday struggles like traditions, religion, race, self worth and one’s dreams.

The Genre of Plays

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In the play Intimate Apparel, Lynn Nottage explores the issue of race and the sense of woman’s worth. The reader explores these themes in a different way then normal. There are no narrators when you read plays. A play reads as one would see it on stage.

Lynn Nottage opens the play with
“Wedding corset. White satin with pink roses
Lower Manhattan, 1905
A bedroom. It is simple, unadorned with the exception of beautifully embroidered curtains and a colorful crazy quilt.
A clumsy ragtime melody bleeds in from the parlor. In the distance the sound of laughter and general merriment.
Esther, a rather plain African American woman (35) sits at a sewing machine table diligently trimming a camisole with lace. She is all focus and determination.”

This provides the reader with the description of the opening scene of the act. It tells us that the setting is in 1905, in Lower Manhattan. The characters are in a bedroom. with beautiful curtains and a colorful quilt. We are then introduced to Esther. Who is a plan African American woman of 35. Who is sewing at a sewing table.

“MRS. DICKSON
(O. S.) Don’t be fresh, Lionel. I know your Mama since before the war.
Mrs. Dickson (50), a handsome impeccably groomed African-American woman, enters laughing.”

This is the first quote from the dialogue. We find that the character speaking is Mrs Dickson and she is 50 and a African American as well. This differs from your traditional narrator because the narrator would be describing all this to the reader as she is a character his or her self. Here in the play it just feels like there is no narrator.

 

Responding to Intimate Apparel for 3/4

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For next week, we’re reading Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel. Although it was written in 2001, it takes place in 1905, a time much more similar to the worlds depicted in our other readings so far this semester.

One topic you might consider in your post for Tuesday is in what ways does Nottage’s play depict a similar world for women? In what ways is it different, and how do you account for those differences–that is, why is another author’s imagined world different than the imagined world in Intimate Apparel?

Another topic you might consider has to do with genre: what effect does it have on your reading that this is a play? You might think about how it affects your reading, but also how it conveys information that a narrator usually conveys. How do you know what you know differently than when you’re reading a narrated story? In what ways does that affect your interaction with the text and your understanding of it?

If there is another topic you would like to consider, please do, but remember for any post, please adhere to our blogging guidelines.

Remember, also, that later in the week we will be commenting on these posts. If you would like to ask a question or present an issue in your post for commenters to address, please do.