The play found me: the director, Colette Freedman, teaches with me in the screenwriting MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles, and she invited me to join her veteran cast members on “a hunch.” I’m so glad she did! The last time I did a creative project to stretch myself was shooting a one-person short film with my iPhone three years ago, “Lost,” and this was similar-something I’d always wanted to do but had never found a reason. I hope the play increased his empathy, broadened his understanding of the world’s traps, and gave him inspiration to perhaps pursue theater like his older sister, even if it’s just for fun. My son, who is a natural actor but shuns classes, saw his mother perform with professionals and heard monologue after monologue about the very real people who have faced homelessness to help him understand how choices and/or bad luck can have a devastating impact on our lives. And, like the character I play-a woman who never knew love as a child and only found it as a Michael Jackson impersonator-I got to walk in someone else’s shoes.Įven better, my husband and 14-year-old son were there to see the play. My entire being was luxuriating in the newness of the experience, the thrill of walking on a tightrope in front of a live audience. It was hard to remember the last time I felt so adrenaline-pumped-even after selling a book or a screenplay.

That little theater became a world.Īnd when I got home, I could barely sleep. I didn’t think about the ghoul in the White House or the other ghouls in Congress who keep him there. I didn’t take selfies with my fellow cast members. For the entire time I was at the theater for Saturday’s early rehearsal and performance, I forgot my phone existed.

Tananarive due the lake