Just before Carried by the Current opened in March at the PUD Theatre in Everett, I got back from my walk and went up to the chicken coop to get eggs. There were only three, since it was still early March, but I slipped them in my jacket pocket and headed back down to the house. Before I got there, however, I remembered I had to take out some chairs out of the back of my car, and put in some boxes for shipping. That done, I walked past the wheelbarrow full of firewood and decided maybe I should take it into the house while I was still in my walking togs. I eventually got to the place where I could take off my jacket inside the house and that’s when I remembered the eggs. I reached inside my jacket pocket and—you’ve got it—found one had broken. I chuckled, thinking maybe one of my chickens was wishing us “break an egg” for the run of the play. I shared this with the actors and before every show we’d say, “break an egg.”
Now, I can’t say this was the reason, but we did have a wonderful run of Carried by the Current. You, our audience, grew and grew, and we received heartwarming feedback. About the acting, the play, the storyline, the production. Then, curiously, the day I took the posters down from the pottery shop I run with my husband, one of my hens appeared on the mat outside the door. She’d never done anything like that before, and the writerly part of me couldn’t help but imagine she was thinking, “Is it over already?”
Which fed right into the way we were all feeling about the play. We’d had such a good time bringing it to the stage, we wanted it to keep going. But we all have lives and jobs and commitments and the PUD itself had other bookings, so there had to be an end point. But we discussed it and decided—maybe we should do it again. Carried by the Current, I mean. Especially since we ran out of time to investigate all the advertising possibilities last time. And especially since we now have you to help us spread the word.
You did such a great job helping us gather an audience last time: we’re hoping you’ll do the same again for a 2025 production. We’ve reserved the theatre for performances March 19—23 and 27—29, 2025, and will share times and ticket availability soon.
In the meantime, I finished writing Sanctified, the novel based around the same story as in the play. Except larger, since there’s all sorts of room in a novel to give more details of the town and the time period and create more characters with fictional backstories. The novel just came back to me from final edits so since some of you asked to be notified when it came out, I’ll email as soon as I get printed copies for sale.
And then, this is the big news, we were all so impressed by the work of the two young actors who played Berneta and Ellie James in Carried by the Current—Zoe Knight and Barrett Brockman—we decided to put on another one of my plays, From Me To You, to showcase their talents. And give other young actors a chance on the stage. A kind of “educational outreach” type production.
From Me To You takes place in the 1970s, when two teens—Sally and Patrick—begin writing letters across the Atlantic to each other. She lives in a small seaside resort town in Essex, England, and he lives in an even smaller town in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Sally likes to read Shakespeare and daydream. Patrick prefers to play his guitar, hike and fish and hunt. They have almost nothing in common yet in the three years that they write to each other, they share their dreams, laugh, bicker, fall in love, grow jealous, drift apart and reunite, without ever meeting face-to-face. The play is laced with pop music from the ’70s, and it’s a show for the whole family about finding friendship and love across a great divide.
We’re going to perform From Me To You at the Concrete Theatre Friday, December 20 at 7:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday, December 21 and 22 at 2:00 pm. Tickets are available here and via the QR code on the poster. We’re starting small, since this is an educational opportunity for the five cast members, but we’re hoping you’ll come and see the production and let us know what you think. Tickets are $15 for general admission and free for under 18 and students. There is no way to put the free seats on our ticket sales sites so if you’d like to bring someone with you who is entitled to a free ticket, please email nicola@womensworkproductions.com to get tickets held for them.
We’re very excited for this production and apparently so are my chickens. Because since March, I’ve tucked numerous eggs in my pockets, balanced them in my hands and/or cupped them in t-shirts to get them down to the house without one breakage. Until now. When Women’s Work Productions is back in rehearsals for another original play. Two days ago I came down from the chicken coop with two eggs in my pocket, leaned over to pick something up and heard one crack. Yep, yolky mess take two. Of course, it could be said that this happens because I get going so fast when we’re in production mode. But I prefer to think that it’s my hens, telling us to . . .
BREAK AN EGG!