Playwright and storyteller Nan Colton will bring American impressionist Mary Cassatt to life on stage at the Catherine Hickman Theater in Gulfport for a Sunday matinee, March 3, at 4 pm.

MARY STEVENSON CASSATT was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.

Nan Colton is a professional playwright, director, storyteller, actress and Literary and Performance Teaching Artist. She has performed and lectured professionally on stages throughout South Africa, Great Britain and the United States.

This is Colton's ninth performance to benefit the Gulfport Senior Center Foundation. She has previously portrayed other important women artists and writers including Margaret Bourke-White, Virginia Woolf, Georgia O'Keefe, Agatha Christie and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In addition, she has brought influential women to the Gulfport stage including Eleanor Roosevelt and Mina Miller Edison along with her original character Mrs. Tidbit.

Artist statement: “In all my work I strive to make the expression of my work relevant, entertaining and pertinent for the audience. I diligently research the historic and personal climate that molded the person I am portraying.”