Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own (1992) is a movie favourite for many, and certainly one for playwright Maureen Ulrich. Her one-act, one-woman show Diamond Girls portrays the 12-year saga of Philip K. Wrigley’s celebrated All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, as seen through the eyes of three Saskatchewan players.
Mary “Bonnie” Baker, Arleene Johnson Noga (from Ogema), and Daisy Junor all boarded the Soo Line for Chicago to play with the South Bend Blue Sox or Muskegon Lassies. Diamond Girls will be performed in Weyburn at the Tommy Douglas Performing Arts Centre on Sunday, Oct. 29, starting 3 p.m.
Amanda Trapp, 24, of Regina plays all three women, as well as their families, Wrigley, some teammates and reporters, a chaperone, a manager, and a charm school instructor, a total of 21 characters altogether. The show is 60 minutes long, and is directed by Kenn McLeod.
The doors open for the play at 2:30 p.m., and tickets for all seats is $20 a person.
One of the League’s most publicized players, Mary Baker played nine years, making the All-Star team in ’43 and ’46 and becoming its first and only female manager. In the summer of 2015, Ulrich saw a Leader Post article about the commemoration for Baker at Regina’s Central Park and got the notion to turn the topic into a play. Within a few months, the project became part of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame’s 2016 50th anniversary celebration. It travelled to four Canadian provinces, four fringes (Regina, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton), and was performed 39 times.
Elan Morgan, Regina Fringe Reviewer, said, "I found myself rooting for these women in the first professional women's baseball league. I was caught up in their brave adventures as these small-town prairie girls made it big despite the pressures of marriage, children, and women's accepted place in the world. They dreamt big, played big, and made a legitimate name for women in sports. Go, Diamond Girls!"
Ulrich has written a number of plays and also published a Young Adult girls’ hockey trilogy with Coteau Books. “I’m not an athlete,” Ulrich said, “but I’ve spent the last 35 years at baseball diamonds and hockey rinks. I wrote press releases for my husband’s ball team while they won six provincial titles. Diamond Girls has brought me back to a place in my writing that feels a lot like home.”
"A time capsule that holds history, heart and laughter . . . Diamond Girls is not only one of the best plays of the (Potash Corp Saskatoon Fringe) festival, it is engaging for all mindsets, history buffs, sports aficionado and theatre lovers," observed Ezekiel McAdams, Planet S Magazine.
Diamond Girls is suitable for all audiences, for softball or baseball fans young and old and for those looking for a theatrical experience. For more information, visit Menagerie Productions on Facebook and Twitter.
