"It is with enormous pride that I join the company of authors whose work has been staged by Literature to Life…"
– Sue Monk Kidd
By Sue Monk Kidd
Adaptation and Direction: Wynn Handman & BIlly Lyons
Performed by Lily Balsen
In this New York Times bestseller set during the Civil Rights Movement, a young girl's search for the truth about her mother leads her to three beekeeping sisters and the discovery of the real meaning of family. Audiences of all ages will connect with this historical and transcendent story about life and the power and divinity of the female spirit
The Story
Set in South Carolina during 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of a fourteen-year-old white girl, Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three racists in town, they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily finds refuge in their mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna.
In Performance
This Literature to Life Award winner, features sixty minutes of verbatim performance from the best-selling contemporary novel. A favorite on the national educational circuit, The Secret Life of Bees has played in communities from Loveland, Colorado to Newnan, Georgia. The actress embodies the young protagonist, Lily, and brings us on her very personal journey for self. Audience members will feel as if the story is being told to them alone and yet somehow it remains a community experience.
Suggested Ages: 12 and up