DIRECTOR'S NOTE

Claudia Barrie

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"...and your very flesh shall be a great poem" 

- Walt Whitman

I was approached by Josh and Alyssa last year with a question I am often asked by young actors and budding producers. "We found this play. How do we put it on?" I was so struck by their dedication, focus and genuine passion that I asked them to read the play for me. I knew absolutely nothing about it, so was going in cold. Over zoom, I sat in my living room watching and listening to these two young actors read the words of playwright Lauren Gunderson and of course, the words of Walt Whitman. As I listened, memories of my own life started to swirl up inside of me; the years I have lived with an incurable, chronic and life-altering illness and the pain and stress my illness has put on my family and loved ones. I was reminded how difficult it can be to plan for the future, to give yourself permission to dream- to find hope amongst the darkness and then, at some point, to imagine a new reality. But also, and perhaps even more profoundly, what really moved me was the love in this play. The love of life. How we find joy in the little things, which then of course, become the big things. This is so beautifully expressed in Gunderson’s play. I listened as Alyssa spoke the words of Caroline, as she expressed her joy of music, art and animals, her compassion for others and her dreams. Caroline’s lust for life was so vivid it hurt my heart. Caroline is a young girl who, whilst faced with a terrifying reality, wants nothing more than to live. To seize the day, if you will. And then, one afternoon, a young man enters her life and helps her remember her strength. Over the course of 75 minutes, I fell in love with these two characters and everything they share together. I am honoured to have been trusted with this play and have adored working with these two young, emerging artists. It’s been a privilege to be reunited with some treasured creatives I have worked with before and to develop new working relationships and friendships. I am very grateful this project came along when it did. The last time I was gearing up to open a show at Belvoir, the world stopped for a horrific virus. It’s good to be back. Carpe Diem.

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ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Lauren Gunderson

​Lauren is one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015 topping the list thrice including 2022/23. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in Theatre Award, the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award; a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Weisberger Award, and John Gassner Award for Playwriting; and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her play The Catastrophist, about her husband virologist Nathan Wolfe, premiered digitally in January 2021. She co-authored the Miss Bennet plays with Margot Melcon, and The Half-Life of Marie Curie premiered off-Broadway and is now at Audible.com. Her work is published at Bloomsbury (Revolutionary Women: A Lauren Gunderson Anthology, anthropology, I and You), Playscripts (I and You; Exit Pursued By A Bear; The Taming and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists Play Service (The Revolutionists; The Book of Will; Silent Sky; Bauer, Natural Shocks, The Wickhams and Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon is available from Two Lions/Amazon. She is the book writer for musicals with Ari Afsar (Jeannette), Dave Stewart and Joss Stone (The Time Traveller’s Wife), Joriah Kwamé (Sinister), Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk (Justice and Earthrise), and Kira Stone (Built for This). She is a board member of The Playwrights Foundation. LaurenGunderson.com

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