A Model for Matisse

While recovering from cancer surgery, French artist Henri Matisse hired a night nurse who shaped the course of his remaining years. Monique, the young woman who got the job, was an amateur artist who befriended the old man and sat for several paintings. Their friendship remained close even after she took her vows as a Dominican nun. Monique, now Sister Jacques-Marie, asked Matisse if he would design the new chapel for the small French city of Vence, a challenge that the now 77-year-old artist spent four years pursuing. The story of Matisse and Sister Jacques-Marie's friendship and the creation of Matisse's masterpiece was told in Barbara F. Freed's documentary A Model for Matisse, which so inspired local actor and writer Joe Hanrahan that he adapted it for the stage with Freed's help. The play A Model for Matisse makes its world premiere at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday (September 13 to 21) at the .Zack (3224 Locust Street; www.midnightcompany.com). There are additional performances at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, September 15, and tickets are $20.