“Did I write that?” Great actors can make me forget.

We’re entering Week 3 of rehearsals for What We Get to Keep up here at The Hill Arts in Portland. And I find myself gasping in awe of what Lisa Barnes and Lisa Stathoplos can do.

It’s so odd to sit there watching scenes from my own play unfold and feel jolted upright, shaken, afraid, shocked and torn apart by the relationship I see coming apart before me. But, honestly, that’s how talented these actors are and how sensitive this director is.

So I feel privileged.

It’s also a little shocking to me, I’m sure, because this will be the first in-person production of my work since the pandemic. And as much as I did online in the Zoom Hear Me Out Black Box over the past few years, something powerful and unique happens when breathing the same air as two characters engaged in a life-altering encounter.

You feel the electricity in the room change. Sometimes it washes over you as a chill. Other times it’s pure white heat. But it’s physical. And unmistakeable.

Can’t wait to feel what shifts with 99 bodies in the seats.

Please join us. We open September 7 and tickets are selling fast, I’m told.