Some candid photos from the camera of Barbara Morrissey (Emma Borden), at the Borden House, Oak Grove Cemetery and Maplecroft on August 4, 2009.

Visit us often at our new address http://pearessentialproductions.org/ the old address will still bring you here. This slide show courtesy of Lorraine & Ted Gregoire.

Joe Madza’ s just too nice a guy to be playing old Uncle John, Lizzie Borden’s so-called peculiar relative.  John, who stayed in the guest room where Abby Borden would be murdered the next day has always been a somewhat sinister personality. Many think John knew about the murders, helped to plan and assist the assailant, or maybe even had a hand in it himself!  His alibis were nearly too perfect.  The only thing not clear was a motive.

Joe ‘s interest in the case began with a vengeance after viewing the 1975 Elizabeth Montgomery television film when he was a college freshman. “I was both admiring and appalled at the same time that a woman could do such a thing.”  Many applaud Lizzie’s grit in getting what she wanted and then soothe their conscience by saying the elderly Bordens were not nice and probably deserved what they got!  “We have to somehow justify approving of murder,” Joe says sheepishly.

The Victorian and Egyptian eras have a great resonance for Joe- and he wonders if reincarnation is so far-fetched.  “I felt right at home the first time I stepped into the Borden House- I had come home again.” 

When asked whose eyes he would have liked to have been looking through on the day of the murders, he responded immediately,

“Addie Churchill’s!  She was the very first on the scene, and she saw something important that day- something she would not tell.  It must have been an eyeful because she never told what it was”.

As to the killer, Joe has no doubt it was Lizzie- all the way, and solo-although others in the house and neighbors on the street knew more than they were willing to tell about the situation in the family and what they saw and heard that day.  Joe also agrees with the theory that Abby was the intended victim and Andrew was just unfortunate in coming home at the wrong time before Lizzie could concoct a reasonable alibi for the time of Abby’s murder. 

 ”His was a killing of self-preservation for Lizzie- because who would have known better who could have killed Mrs. Borden and why?”

Joe has researched his character inside and out for his portrayal Tuesday.

“I don’t like Morse- I don’t think he was a very lovable man or a nice one,” Joe admits candidly. “He did not seem surprised at Abby’s death, and his behavior watching and taking it all in while eating pears under the trees in the back yard seems unnatural behavior”.

 But the chance to don a fake gray beard and look “peculiar” and sinister under the pear trees was a role too good to miss!  When Joe is not time traveling to 1892, he is an eighth grade teacher in Warren, Ohio teaching science and gifted students.  I’d bet he’s a favorite with the kids!

Over the years, Borden house employees Kathleen Cramer-Troost, Samantha Carey, Amanda, and former general office manager Michele have taken a stab at playing the Borden maid.  Looks like Kristen already knows how to serve up something tastier than mutton!

Cast 2009   More on our cast coming soon!

Miss Alice Russell

One of the few actual Fall Riverites in the cast, for Colleen,”Lolly”, Lizzie Borden is a family affair!  Cousin Andrew, ( Undertaker Winward) was a lively addition to the cast in 2007 and 2008, and son Logan is also an employee at #92.  Colleen brings plenty of acting experience to any role she plays and has, in addition to a beautifully melodic speaking voice, an effortless ability to become the character.  Alice Russell, Lizzie and Emma’s neighbor over many years, was in a unique position to observe the doings in the house after the murders as she stayed with the family for some days.  It was Alice who testified to seeing Lizzie burn a dress in the kitchen stove on the day after the Bordens’ funeral, and Alice’s testimony which was a deciding factor in indicting Lizzie.  Alice Russell is often voted the witness with whom most people would love to have had a private interview!  Her testimony about Lizzie’s visit on the night before the murders hinting of poison and her father having an enemy makes riveting reading.

 Colleen as Alice in The House of  Women- House of Mourning 2007

In Her Own Words- An interview with Colleen Johnson, August 19, 2008

1. I was born and raised in Fall River and am living back in the city after an absence of about five years.

2. I started acting and singing when I was about 11 years old.  I’ve had the good fortune to play both Anastasia Romanov and Lizzie Borden in plays about their lives.   The Lizzie role was for a student directed production of Sharon Pollock’s Blood Relations  produced for the Centennial Conference at BCC.  Mine was the dual role of Lizzie/Bridget. 
During my “mis-spent” youth, I was part of an all originals band called first Explorer, and then Internal Affairs.  During my stint with them we were lucky enough to open shows for both The Marshal Tucker Band, and Charlie Sexton. 

I’ve worked at King Richard’s Faire for the last 17 years, and will be back there again this season. 

3. My current regular job is guiding tours at the house.  I’m looking for a second job, but no luck so far! 

4. Personal interests include: Singing, making beaded jewlery, baking pastries and working with chocolate, a bit of sewing, and tramping around cemeteries, because it’s fun.

5. Ahhhh, who committed the murders, indeed!  I’m fairly unpopular I think, in that I believe there were actually two murderers, and that neither one of them was Lizzie!  I believe John Morse committed Mrs. Borden’s murder.  Who did the second one?  When I figure that out, I’ll write my book!

6. Other facts about me:  Hmmmm…My hair is pink, my nose is pierced, and I wear combat boots as every day shoes. The rest is subject to change without notice!  

Last year we were without an Andrew Borden, and at the last minute dramatic changes had to be made to the usual script which features Andrew.  How we could have used a Mr. Winward at the House of Mourning then!  The premise became that visitors to the house were arriving for calling hours on August 5th, late in the afternoon to pay their final respects to Andrew and Abby. The coffins had not yet arrived from Mr. Winward’s but the house was swathed in black crepe, mirrors covered in deepest black, the clock stopped on the mantel at 11 a.m., Andrew’s time of death.

The ladies, dressed in somber black, waited to receive the mourners.

(L to R) JoAnne Giovino, Shelley Dziedzic, Colleen Johnson,

Samantha Carey, Barbara Morrissey

Although the Bordens were not really laid out on the diningroom table, in the absence of coffins, the story was given out that the bodies had just been prepared for the laying out, and only the feet protruded from beneath the shrouds.  The feet on the right were ably portrayed by this year’s Mr. Winward, Andrew Correia. Mr. Correia, himself a mortician, then had a inkling of what it was to be on the other side of the sheet!

Guests were ushered into the parlor, in such a subdued spirit that one would have sworn a real wake was in progress. A few of them even arrived dressed in head to toe mourning so as to be ready to play along with the cast. The role of Bridget was played by day tour guide, Samantha Carey.  Miss Lizzie, portrayed for positively the last time by Shelley Dziedzic, greeted guests in her upstairs room as she bustled about laying out her mourning attire.  Mrs. Dziedzic, who clearly had not seen Lizzie’s age of 32 in over two decades informed the guests that the “ordeal” had added over 20 years to her face overnight.  Alice Russell (Colleen Johnson) hovered solicitously around Lizzie’s room, telling the visitors about Lizzie’s Wednesday night visit to her house and Mr. Borden’s “enemy”.  Quite by surprise, an unexpected visitor arrived in Lizzie’s room declaring he was Mr. Hathaway from the Metacomet mill.  He was dressed to the nines in full Victorian regalia and tendered his condolences, reassuring Emma and Lizzie that “the girls” would be kindly “looked after” by the Board of Trustees.  You just never know what will happen on August 4th.

Emma Borden (Barbara Borden Morrissey) baked funeral cakes on the old black stove in the kitchen along with her neighbor, Mrs. Addie Churchill, played by JoAnne Giovino. The pair had plenty to say about Lizzie and their theories.  Guests were asked if they wished to see the cellar where the hatchets and axes were found and thus ended their calling hour with lemonade and cookies after signing the condolence book and receiving a Victorian funeral card as a remembrance.  This year we decided it was a pretty good thing to have the fellows!  But for a one-time, 9 performances only script, -it was a novelty act. After all- the show must go on!

It’s hard to believe that August 4th was Ted and Lorraine Gregoire’s first plunge into the dramatic arts.  The pair, now married for 36 years, was as calm and confident as Tracy and Hepburn!  Both of them were born in Webster, MA. but now live in Dudley, MA. Ted works in the Security Dept at Commerce Insurance in Webster, MA. His dapper and distinguished bearing lent a real believability to the role of Dr. William Dolan, city medical examiner.  There’s something about a moustache!

Dr. Dolan arrives in the Borden parlor

 Lorraine works at Gentex Optics in Dudley and is part of the polarized division that makes polycarbonate lenses for prescription sunglasses. Miss Manning was an ideal part for Lorraine, whose natural friendly “approachability” and skill at ad libbing on the spot gave visitors the feeling it was really 1892!

Getting ready for the first tour- always a large crowd 

As far as their personal interests, Ted works many hours, so to relax likes to work around the house.  Lorraine loves the old black & white movies from the ’30′s & 40′s and books, especially mysteries which of course led to the Borden case. ”It’s never boring because there is always some new fact about someone involved that makes it interesting.”

Dr. Dolan looks down upon the body of Abby Borden, “This was no heart attack!” 

     Ted thinks Uncle John did it.   Lorraine thinks it was a collaboration between Emma, Lizzie and Uncle John, with Bridget getting caught up in the middle, and just wanting to get out and away without having to say any more than she had to. Ted and Lorraine are both Second Street Irregulars and members of the Noble Order of Mutton Eaters.  Stay tuned for more great things from this pair!

Miss Manning, a.k.a. Lorraine Gregoire in real life, posed as The Fall River Herald’s Ace Girl Reporter out under the “pear trees” of #92′s parking lot on August 4th.

Dressed in a green plaid summer cotton frock with jaunty black straw hat, Miss Manning had her steno pad in hand to interview guests and visitors as they exited the Borden cellar.  As history records, John Cunningham,  the chap who was ambling down Second Street after exiting Wade’s market, overheard Mrs. Churchill exclaiming to a friend in front of Hall’s Livery about the shocking assault on Andrew Borden.  Cunningham, being an enterprising and helpful sort of guy, beat feet to Gorman’s Paper and Paint Store down the end of Second Street and rang up several newspapers and eventually got around to calling the police too! 

Mr. Manning, from the Herald, was soon dashing up to #92 in his carriage as one of the first on scene.  We had a “Miss Manning” this year, who filled a much-needed role of transitioning guests from the gift shop to the house, setting that 1892 tone immediately, and continuing it at the exit.  Visitors were amused, and naturally very chatty about what they had seen inside. Miss Manning’s easy, friendly warmth and vintage charm disarmed the crowds- for who in this day and age doesn’t enjoy escaping into the Past- even for a little while?  And of course- EVERYBODY wanted to give their opinions on whodunnit! 

Read all about Miss Manning’s Big Day in the Pages section to the right.

Lizzie Borden- LeeAnn Wilbur

Abby Borden  -Shelley Dziedzic

Andrew Borden – Jeff Massan

Bridget Sullivan- Kathleen Troost-Cramer

Emma Borden- Barbara Borden Morrissey

Mrs. Churchill- JoAnne Giovino

Mrs. Bowen- Susan Hauck

Mr. James E. Winward, Undertaker- Andrew Correia

Miss Manning from the Fall River Herald- Lorraine Gregoire

Dr. Dolan- Ted Gregoire

Detective Seaver- Ben Rose

Little Abbie Whitehead- Kathryn Woods

Alice Russell- Colleen Johnson  

Ellen Borden- Hairdressing