Mondo Lizzie Borden

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Jill Dalton, award-winning actress, presents: Lizzie Borden Live: From the Page to the Stage

Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
Monday, October 26, 2009
6:30 PM

Lecture is free and sponsored by the Fall River Historical Society as part of their Lizzie A. Borden lecture series.

Jill Dalton’s Lizzie Borden Live combines historical facts with theatrical license as she portrays one of the most famous women from the annals of America’s Victorian past. This is a fascinating look at how the actress took a historic character and adapted her for the stage. Who knows? Lizzie may just make an appearance.

Jill Dalton, writer and performer, is an award winning New York actress with a long list of television and theatre credits. She was commissioned by the East Lynne Theatre Company in Cape May, New Jersey, to write Lizzie Borden Live, where it had a successful five-week run garnering praise and standing ovations from audiences and critics alike. Her performances in the cities of Providence and Fall River have been lauded with equal praise. Ms. Dalton won the 2007 Jacoby Award for her portrayal of Lizzie in Lizzie Borden Live.

The story is set at Maplecroft, thirteen years after the double murder,at the residence Lizzie bought with money inherited from her father. Ms. Dalton wants the audience to decide for themselves if Lizzie was guilty of killing her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892.“Dalton gives a compelling performance enacting the humanity, humor, irony and sadness of a woman who’s had time to reflect on horrific events” Susan Johnson, Red Rock News.

Dalton’s credits include: Law and Order, Law and Order: Criminal Intent; Rachel Getting Married; One Life to Live; As the World Turns; and Saturday Night Live. Ms. Dalton was also a stand-up comic for several years and won the Mary Jo Comedy Show Award for stand-up comedy in New York City. Visit the website for Lizzie Borden Live!

Short piece on Fox Providence on the opening of the Lizzie Borden exhibit, A Tale of Two Cities, held at Gallery X in New Bedford, MA. This appeared on TV October 15, 2009.

Last night I attended the fifth Lizzie Borden lecture, sponsored by the Fall River Historical Society, held at Bristol Community College.

It was a talk by Kim Dennis, Canadian clairvoyant/medium, who said that Lizzie Borden came to her during a session she had at her home in Calgary with a woman named Lizzie. After the woman left, a soul remained, and she identified herself as Lizzie Borden (the woman who Kim was doing the reading for had mentioned that she had been joshed about her name, and that the only Lizzie she knew of was Lizzie Borden).

Ms. Dennis said the spirit told her answers to questions and volunteered some info as well. Here is “Lizzie’s Story”:

Lizzie freely admitted that killed both her parents but she had reasons.

Lizzie had tried to kill Abby a few weeks before with poison but nothing came of it.

That morning she was eating oatmeal with Abby and found out that her father was planning to leave all his money to Abby’s family, and she had it with her.

Lizzie had issues of abandonment because of her mother’s death.

Lizzie had a lazy eye.

Lizzie had a brother named William and a sister named Alice.

Lizzie was a kleptomaniac and thought that if she could get away with murder she could get away with stealing too.

Lizzie was a sociopath who had no conscious. She had no feelings and exhibited none to the police. She was calm and collected. No emotion.

Lizzie was not sorry for what she did, but she only planned on killing Abby. She went out to the barn to clean up after killing Abby, and had plans to go to the library so someone else could discover the body, but Andrew came home early and she had to kill him or she would be accused of killing Abby.

Lizzie had two dresses, blue ones, that looked similar, and she burned one.

Lizzie had chloroformed a cat for mange but also chopped off its head, which was unnecessary—it showed her sociopathic tendencies.

Lizzie stayed in Fall River because she liked the notoriety. But she only went out at night.

Emma left in 1905 because she read something Lizzie wrote and realized that Lizzie had killed their parents, so they never spoke again.

There are cats that haunt the B&B. She has seen Andrew there too, but he walks around outside the house, circling the property.

Lizzie hid the hatchet in a drawstring purse and got rid of it at a later date, it will never be found.

when someone asked if a woman could hit someone with a hatchet so many times, she said yes, it was an emotional hate-filled event (this to me didn’t jibe with the sociopath description).

Lizzie is kept around because everyone is constantly calling her here. If people could just accept that she killed them both, she could move on.

Ms. Dennis and her traveling companion, a woman who introduced her, are writing a book about Lizzie (or it will be part of a book). The woman is a Canadian journalist.

Ms. Dennis confirmed all this information with the folks that work at the Lizzie Borden B&B.

You can read the story in today’s Herald News here.

Every day, it seems, we hear of even more events that revolve around Lizzie Borden. Something is definitely in the air!

Here is a recap of what’s ahead for the month of October. Check back soon for all the events for November!

October 14, Wednesday, Lynn Public Library, Lynn, MA, 7-8:30 pm.
The Delvena Theatre Company will once again present their play “The Trial of Lizzie Borden,” where the audience serves as the jury.
The Lynn Public Library is located at 5 North Common Street | Lynn, Massachusetts 01902 | Phone: 781-595-0567.
For further information.

October 16, Friday, Fairhaven Town Hall, Fairhaven, MA, 7 pm.
Donations accepted and light refreshments will be served.
Jules Ryckebusch will present a lecture titled “Lizzie Borden: Myths and Legends”
Info on the Town Hall.
Story about the lecture.

October 19, Monday, Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA, 6:30 pm.
Free. Building C, Room 111.
Part of the Fall River Historical Society’s Lizzie A. Borden Lecture Series
Kim Dennis, psychic medium, lecture titled “Lizzie Borden – Her Side of the Story”

If Lizzie Borden could tell her story, what would it be? Canadian clairvoyant and medium Kim Dennis believes she was contacted by Lizzie who is ready to reveal the truth behind the Borden murders. Find out how Kim first became aquainted with Lizzie in her living room, and how she paired up with a journalist to document and accurately verify her “insider” information with a trip to Fall River in 2008 and a stay at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast. The revelation will astound you and the details may put to rest the theories and finally bring peace to the 117 year old mystery.
For further information.

October 22, Thursday, Fall River Superior Court, Fall River, MA, 7 pm.
Free.
Lizzie Borden Redux, a mock retrial of the Lizzie Borden trial of 1893.
To obtain free tickets, mail a self-addressed stamped envelope to “Lizzie, Redux Request”, care of Clerk Magistrate Marc J. Santos, Bristol County Clerk of Courts, 441 N. Main St., Fall River, MA 02720. There will be two tickets issued per request. Tickets will be honored until 20 minutes before the performance, after which there will be a general admission until capacity is reached.
For further information.

October 23, Friday, Providence, RI, 7 pm.
Providence Ghost Tour, featuring some “haunts” of the Borden sisters.
Check out the web site here.

October 26, Monday, Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA, 6:30 pm.
Free. Building C, Room 111
Jill Dalton, award-winning actress, lecture titled “Lizzie Borden Live: From the Page to the Stage”

Jill Dalton’s Lizzie Borden Live combines historical facts with theatrical license as she portrays one of the most famous women from the annals of America’s Victorian past. This is a fascinating look at how the actress took a historic character and adapted her for the stage. Who knows? Lizzie may just make an appearance.
For further information.

October 31, Saturday, Eagle Performing Arts Center, Fall River, MA. 8 pm.
Tickets $25. At www.lizziebordenlive.com Click on ‘Schedule’ page or call (508) 989-9207.

$5 off for students, seniors and current union members (available at the door only)
If you like come dressed as your favorite character from the story or any costume you wish. Prizes for best costume
Grand prize: One night stay at the Lizzie Borden B&B (If you dare!)
Second prize: One-year subscription to The Hatchet
Third prize: Two tickets for the Providence Ghost Tour
For further information.

Inventive thoughts from Nan Hawthorne’s Booking the Middle Ages:

Who was Jack the Ripper?

No, not the Prince of Wales. In fact, not even a man. Lizzie Borden, in Europe for her Grand Tour, killed the prostitutes when they rebuffed her lesbian advances with scornful accusations of “Unnatural!” She killed her parents because they found out.

Yet another tantalizing tidbit from the Fall River Historical Society’s new book, soon to be published, titled Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.

This one is a stunner! Soon, very soon, we will be able to view, read, and consume a letter or letters from Lizzie’s incarceration in Taunton in 1893! Oh, what intimate thoughts and fears might be contained within those pages?

I can’t wait.

Read all about it here.

Stefani Koorey, Ph.D., Borden scholar, will be presenting a free lecture, titled

“Myth Busting Lizzie Borden: Facts on the Life of an Enigmatic Woman”

Presented by the Fall River Historical Society as part of their Lizzie A. Borden Lecture Series.

Lizzie Borden still fascinates. She intrigues us mostly because, even after 117 years, we know very little about her private life. After her acquittal for the murder of her father and stepmother, she remained in Fall River, Massachusetts, and spoke to no one publicly about the case ever again. And yet, there have been more than 30 so-called nonfiction accounts of her to appear in print. What exactly do we know about Lizzie A. Borden? And how has her particular story become more urban legend than authentic narrative?

Stefani Koorey, Ph.D. is a Borden expert and the publisher and editor of The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian America, in its 6th year of publication. She has been featured in the Discovery Channel’s recent documentary “Lizzie Borden Had an Axe,” and lectures far and wide on the subject. Her most recent discoveries of the portraits of Andrew Borden and his first wife Sarah, as well as the image of Emma Borden as a young woman and Lizzie Borden when she was a child, have helped to renew interest in this fascinating unsolved mystery.

WHEN: Monday, September 14, 2009, at 6:30 PM.

WHERE: Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
Siegel Health Technologies Building
Room c111

For further information, visit the Fall River Historical Society

View Larger Map

At first, the Superior Court of Bristol County’s 150th Anniversary had announced that they were presenting a Lizzie Borden Trial “Reenactment.” That sounded interesting and well worth seeing all three times it was advertised.

Now, the posters are calling them a “Mock Retrial” with the audience serving as the jury. Even better!

Lizzie, Redux
A Mock Retrial of Lizzie Borden

New Bedford Superior Court
441 County Street, New Bedford, MA

Thursday, September 24, 2009
at 7PM.

There is no charge for tickets but seating is limited. For tickets, mail a self-addressed stamped letter to
Lizzie, Redux Request
c/o Clerk Magistrate Marc J. Santos
Bristol County Clerk of the Courts
441 County Street
New Bedford, MA 02740

Two tickets per request. Tickets will be honored until 20 minutes before the presentation, after which there will be a general admission until capacity is reached.

The Fall River Historical Society has announced that they are sponsoring seven lectures on Lizzie Borden, to begin September 14 and running every Monday (except Columbus Day) through November 4th.

Read all about it here!

The schedule is as follows:
Sept. 14: Stefani Koorey, Ph.D., Borden Scholar
Myth-Busting Lizzie A Borden: Facts on the Life of an Enigmatic Woman

Sept. 21: Bonnie Mendes, Director of the Somerset Public Library
Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A Borden and Her Fall River
Readings from the Fall River Historical Society’s upcoming publication

Sept. 28: Annette Holba, Ph.D., author
Lizzie Borden as “Conscious Pariah”: A Discussion About Private Life

Oct. 5: Cara Robertson, legal scholar
What the Jury Heard: Evidence in the Trial of Lizzie Borden

Oct. 19: Kim Dennis, psychic medium
Lizzie Borden: Her Side of the Story

Oct. 26: Jill Dalton, award-winning actress
Lizzie Borden Live: From Page to Stage

Nov. 4: Ricardo Rebello, filmmaker
The Myth and Media of Lizzie Borden

All lectures are being held at Bristol Community College, Siegel Health Technologies Building, Room c111.
Lectures begin at 6:30 p.m.

All lectures are Free!

For details on each lecture, please visit the Fall River Historical Society’s site on the series.

Donel Fattibene’s new book, I Did It!, currently for sale only at the Fall River Historical Society (online and in person), has a big write up in the Herald News on Monday, August 23, 2009.

You can read all about it here.

The show is, sadly, over. And the production crew is taking away the set, to be stored, briefly, until the next performance of Lizzie Borden Live in Providence, RI, at the end of October.

The event was a very nice success, with one interesting moment occurring when the fire alarm went off half-way through Saturday night’s performance. The alarm lasted but 60 seconds, and Jill Dalton, the consummate actress that she is, incorporated the interruption into the play . . . and while the Eagle’s owner, Jerry Donovan, was outside convincing the fire and police teams that had come to the rescue that all was well inside, the audience continued to be startled and amazed by this brilliant play.

Congratulations to everyone who made Lizzie Borden Live another great Fall River evening of entertainment.

Tonight’s performance of Lizzie Borden Live in Fall River, MA, at the Eagle Performing Arts Center, was a grand success.

The audience sat in complete silence as they devoured every syllable of this remarkable play. They cheered as the play ended, many there tonight repeat attendees from the last run of the show in Fall River in June.

Lizzie Borden Live is being performed only one more time this season in Fall River. Saturday night at 8 p.m, August 22, 2009.

Tickets can be purchased at the door and through LizzieBordenLive.com.

See you at the theatre!

At the Abbey Grille, the former Central Congregational Church, Lizzie Borden’s former church, in Fall River, Massachusetts.