BETHLEHEM, PA – Touchstone Theatre, the region’s only ensemble-based theatre, presents Language of Dolls – an original production created and performed by critically acclaimed New York City theater artists Lizzie Olesker, Peggy Pettitt, and Louise Smith.
This collaborative theatre piece questions how identity is formed using dolls as a way into deeper understandings of each other and American history.
Language of Dolls performs March 5-8 in Touchstone’s 75-seat theatre on the SouthSide of Bethlehem.
Language of Dolls follows three older women friends who come to a cabin in the woods to re-connect. Over the course of one night, these three older women eat, laugh, argue, dance, dream, and share their unexpected stories.
Together, they question how their racial and social identities were formed, and how their personal histories have been shaped and influenced. This culminates in the discovery of each of their inner “soul” dolls, revealing a part of themselves they may have forgotten or perhaps never known. Through their connected encounter with one another, they find the restorative power of friendship and its true ability to transform.
Language of Dolls explores how we come to know ourselves as social beings through education, family culture, and play. It acknowledges the subtle and overt ways that we are taught about life expectations and opportunities, as well as how to think of ourselves in relation to the larger world.
“After forty-plus years of knowing one another, we intentionally began a dialogue about our identities as one Black woman and two white women,” say the co-creators. “In 2022, we saw the exhibit Black Dolls at The New York Historical and it profoundly affected the direction of our work. The dolls on display haunted and spoke to us in their silent presence. Their hidden histories inspired us to create our own “soul dolls” from found materials, discovering how each one possesses their own language of poetic possibility.”
Following each performance, audience members may participate in a guided discussion related to the issues and questions that the piece raises for them personally and in community. What messages around race have we received from the time we were born and carried throughout our lives? How do harmful, racialized images and daily experiences become internalized projections? How does our interconnectivity as friends, artists, healers, and storytellers help us resist rigid categorizations? How do we stay at the table through difficult conversations?
Additionally, the creators of Language of Dolls will be hosting a Storycircle Workshop on Saturday, March 7 at 2pm, also at Touchstone Theatre. This workshop will provide a safe space for participants to share their own personal stories and engage further with the material presented within the performance. Using a methodology first employed by John O’Neal of the Free Southern Theater, participants will be invited to share personal stories across different experiences and to create theatrical moments that emerge from real life narratives.
Touchstone's season is sponsored by Astound Broadband. UnBound Year-Round Gold Sponsors are Air Products and Donald B. & Dorothy L. Stabler Foundation. Print sponsorship is provided by Working Dog Press and media sponsorship is provided by Lehigh Valley with Love and WDIY. Touchstone is also generously supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, as well as many local businesses, foundations, and individuals.
Language of Dolls runs from March 5-8, 2026. Shows begin at 8pm on Thursday through Saturday, and at 2pm on Sunday. Tickets are $35, with $25 tickets for students/seniors. Thursday night tickets are Pay What You Will. Group rates are available upon request. The Language of Dolls: Storycircle Workshop takes place on March 7, 2026 at 2pm. This event is FREE to all, but limited to 16 participants. Tickets for both are available at 610.867.1689 or online at touchstone.org.
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ABOUT TOUCHSTONE:
Founded in 1981, Touchstone Theatre produces and presents original productions and works to foster collaboration on a local and national level—through educational and youth empowerment programs, and by using theatre as a community-building tool. Visit us at www.touchstone.org.