Dave Steakley, Producing Artistic Director
Jamie Herlich, Managing Director

WRITTEN BY LUCAS HNATH 
DIRECTED BY RICHARD ROBICHAUX

OCTOBER 25 – NOVEMBER 26, 2023
THE KLEBERG at ZACH THEATRE

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

The play is approximately 90-minutes and is performed without an intermission.
Drinks and Snacks are welcome inside the theatre.

Director’s Notes—Richard Robichaux

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — Faulkner

Mediums, psychics, or that person in your family who hears ghosts are all trying to translate something they heard from some other world. In many ways, all communication is translation. We are all trying to translate what we see, hear, feel, touch, and taste to those around us.

All of us here at ZACH are also translators. We’ve been given a few letters of the alphabet which were expertly arranged by our playwright. We then translate that from page to stage so that it becomes a ‘living’ thing — not just a script, but a play. But, you see, we first have to hear those voices coming from inside the script and then share what we’ve heard with you, much like…well, a medium. 

Hilda in our play hears things. Things she can’t explain. She says, “You just have to listen. No, really listen,” and you, too, will hear the voices. Isn’t it true that when we finally stop the hustling and bustling, the voices begin to speak up? And once
we quiet the noise a bit, we actually start to hear things. That kind of scares us. Maybe that’s why we’ve made our world so loud. It helps drown out all those ‘ghostly doings’.

Our play asks if the voices inside our heads are, in fact, voices from outside — from some other place, some thin place just beyond our reach. Just as you willingly journey to Wakanda, Gotham, Narnia, or Hogwarts, I hope you will enter into this world with us, where what you see and hear and feel will surprise you. Where questions will outnumber answers. With our unconventional staging, exacting light and sound, and expert actors, we hope to transport you to an unexpected new place in the Kleberg, to a thin place. Now all you have to do is listen. Really listen.

C.G. Jung, from one of his first papers:
“The world about us is full of ghostly doings. Every moment of our lives is trying to tell us something, but we do not care to listen to this spirit voice. When we are alone and still, we are afraid that something will be whispered in our ears, and so we hate the stillness and anesthetize ourselves…”

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. *Me 

*Actors’ Equity Association, founded in 1913, represents more than 49,000 Actors and Stage Managers in the Understudy Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. actorsequity.org

Photos and videos
The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production and the taking of photographs, with or without flash, or by camera phone, is strictly prohibited. Please turn off all electronic devices — such as cell phones, pagers, etc.—and refrain from texting and/or tweeting during the performance.

Taking photos in the theatre Audience members may take photos in the theatre lobby before and after the show and during intermission. If you post photos on social media or elsewhere please credit the production's designers.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

SCENIC

COSTUMES

LIGHTING AND VIDEO

AUDIO

PROPERTIES

STAGE OPERATIONS