playbill vip

Choosing the One Act play each year is always a challenge. It’s our first mainstage show of the year and it’s our competition piece. There is always a tension between what I think will do well in competition (do we ever really know?!) and what kind of story I want to tell. And sometimes I find a play so beautiful and powerful that I hope it will do both!

The historical period of the Dust Bowl is not one I am overly familiar with.  As I did more research, I was struck by the overwhelming devastation and survival of people faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, the chaos of not knowing when the next storm would be, the helplessness of being both economically unstable and personally in danger. As often happens, while reading the story of the Loftin family (based on the playwright’s actual family), a particular line spoke to me: “All you need is hope and strength. Hope that things will get better, and the strength to hold on until it does.” That felt so familiar to me in the current moment of chaos, helplessness, and instability we are all facing as COVID-19 continues to challenge us. Hope and Strength. We can do that.

An additional challenge of this show was depicting a person in 1935 who is struggling with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia. It was so important to all of us to handle that with empathy and understanding. I am endlessly grateful to my dearest friend of more than 30 years, Dr. Anne Cangello, Psy.D., Clinical Director, Manville School and Instructor in Psychology, Harvard Medical School, for her guidance, wisdom, humor, and unconditional support and friendship. 

None of what I do would be possible without the unending love, encouragement, and support of my amazing husband, Ian Lindsay, and the most wonderful four boys in the world, Adrian, Connor, Xander, and Duncan. Once again, a huge thank you to Bill Phelps and his outstanding team of students bringing our Live Stream performance to all those who can’t join us in person! Thank you to the Cast and Crew for their hard work and commitment to telling this powerful story of hope and resilience. Finally, I am blown away by the generosity and dedication of the Theatre Guild and all of our Volunteers! The amount you give in time and talent is beyond measure.  

Wishing you all Hope and Strength!