GOOD PILGRIM’S FIRST READING OF PREGNANT PAUSE

The video above is from our rehearsals.

This past weekend, June 11, Good Pilgrim had our first reading of our first play, Pregnant Pause. The reading was beautiful. Amie was spectacular, as I knew she would be, and Maureen’s staging was so smart. It was smart and fast and illuminated the story clearly– you kinda forgot that it was a reading and Amie was reading out of a binder because they were so clever, told the story, so on their game. I was a proud anxious happy writer all the way in the back.

My favorite part was the way the audience reacted. First of all, we had about 35 people there! What a gift. And we’d taken pains to invite the whole spectrum of opinions (this is a play primarily about a woman’s story with abortion, so, opinions aren’t hard to find). They responded to Essie’s story with such grace. Nobody judged her. People felt different ways but nobody judged her. They asked a lot of questions about Essie and her experience, and the other people involved, and how to best tell the story. And when the talkback was over at ten and everyone was free to go, they stayed around and made friends and kept talking. I’d heard before I moved here that the New York theatre scene was this big mean beast but that’s not what I saw on Saturday. I saw a nice little community growing in tenderness and respect.

“It’s very clearly about abortion, so I’d say a woman struggling with her choice over abortion. It’s also a play about being a woman – whether you have children in your future or not, the thought occurs to you. Her choices as a woman are fascinating.”

“This play made me think about the environment we create for women for are having children.”

“I appreciated that Essie got a lot of fulfillment from her career, and the distinction between the guy you’re sexually/romantically fulfilled by versus ‘the good partner’ – someone who is ready to have a family, which is different for different people.”

“I felt like both sides [of the abortion issue] were accurately represented in the play.”

“What about the life of the child – this is a question the play doesn’t seem to address. It stops at discussing the lives of the parents, but what about the child? What will his/her life be like is seriously disabled? You never know what you’d do in that situation.”

“I liked that it was just Essie.”

“The simplicity of the piece was great.”