Day 28: The Sandpiper

Ten years ago this December, my friend Mara McEwin  and I produced my verse play The Sandpiper which we both also performed in at the Thalia theater in New York City.  Inspired by the bird plays of Chekhov (The Sea Gull), Ibsen (The Wild Duck) and Strindberg (The Pelican), it is a play about three generations of Irish artists and the challenges of choosing an artistic life.

I met Mara my first week in New York City when we both auditioned for a children's play at The Grove Street Playhouse in the West Village.  Hilariously, we both got the role.  She played the princess.  I was the chicken and the marvelous photographer Mercedes McAndrew was cast as the horse.  For all three of us, it was the first New York City play we ever performed in. Today is Mara's birthday and so I am posting this monologue from The Sandpiper to remind her of one of the many wild, wooly, and wonderful nights we experienced together in NYC.  

This scene takes place between Johnny, a young actor and Neal, an experienced New York director.