The Beaullieu sisters are back with a new multi-media production based on their shared memories of home in 1950s Louisiana. Chapter Two is the second show in their Memoirs of the Sistahood series of collaborative works with choreography by Becky Beaullieu Valls ofHouston, sculpture by Babette Beaullieu of New Orleans, and film by Deborah Schildt ofAnchorage.

Chapter One (2007), introduced us to the six Beaullieu “sistas” (Beth, Becky, Babette, Bonnie, Bitsy, Barbara…and brother Buster) with their rich matriarchal ancestry and archetypes;Chapter Two focuses on the house. Through choreography, film, and sculptures worn by the dancers layers of images, and ideas flush out the sister’s memories of  the chaos of growing up in a large Catholic family, with its shared spaces, and private places.  The performance touches on the social-economic aspects of our contextual ideas of home both past and present, and comments on the “stuff” we possess and what we truly value. Humor is woven with gut reality as a 1950s housewife dances with a box of Cornflakes and gives the audience pointers on how to be a “good wife”. The performance promises to give the audience food for thought (or to choke on) as it examines our needs for possessions and what makes a house a “home”.

Chapter One premiered at Diverse Works Houston through a Performance Artist Residency Grant in 2007 and was performed this past April 2009 at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, through a National Performance Network Residency. Centered on the dynamics of six sisters, Chapter One captures the evolution of sisterhood with all of its poignancy and humor. Scenes from Chapter One will be shown before the performance of Chapter Two each night.

Becky received tenure at University of Houston and is now an Associate Professor.