PLAYWRIGHT STATEMENT
Growing up changes your perspective. If you’re lucky,
you live long enough to see both sides of the coins you flipped long ago.
What if I told you I was avoiding writing this story for so so long because
it felt out of place, messy, and too out-of-date?
I found myself asking myself, “Self, have we outgrown these things?”
Well, now you know that, enough avoiding––
I wrote this story about my two best friends
Who I have the honor of sharing with
these stories and arguments and inside jokes that still we laugh at
outside of decades of time passed. Because even though we grew up
and things changed, some things stayed the same.
My friends and this story both (and most of us)/ took many turns––
different forms as we grew and figured it out.
As much as this is a play about growing in all directions of the word,
it is not without–– and perhaps due most to–– the connections we make
that expand our horizons. That’s the magic of friendship.
So simply put, this is a story about friendship.
It took friendship to get here and it takes friendship to get through all of it (life).
It feels like life is punctuated by cyclical timing––
Unintentionally inventing repetition reflected in
patterns, correlations, and causalities of our own histories.
Because life does move forward but we keep glitching…
If temporary is permanent how the fuck do you make peace with it?
I’m working on it… As I look at the differences about today (compared to yesterday.)
I flip coins left behind from my friends whose temporaries were taken –– too permanently.
I miss them and their magic and hope this story does justice in their memory.
All this to say, it’s nice to acknowledge magic in people
each living out their own temporary timelines. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.
Thank you–– ETC for trusting these words to uphold your powerful mission
My loving fiancé for reading this story in all of its iterations every time I moved a comma,
And my mama who still eats eggs with Nam Pla over the sink.
All of my friends who got us here–– I love you forever.
Especially you two–– Nadlington and Furlone,
You live in my heart rent-free
eternally.
-Siena Marilyn Ledger (they/them)
WORDS FROM THE DIRECTOR
When I first read Say 'NO' to One Paseo by Siena Marilyn Ledger, I was immediately struck by the vulnerability it evoked in me. So many moments in the play felt as if they had been taken directly from my own life. The settings, the experiences, the conversations—all of it felt remarkably familiar. Growing up, discovering my queerness, all alongside friends doing the exact same thing, all of us feeling completely attached and yet completely alone—reading this play felt like breathing in my own memories. Yet, despite this personal resonance, B[ritt] and Ree[na] stand alone as deeply complicated, specific, and unique characters with their own story. Their story is one of love enduring and flourishing despite and because of change, of destruction, construction, and evolution.
When I was first exploring the script, I felt the play asking the question,
How do temporary things matter to us?
B and Ree have taught me that the temporary can be permanent if it truly matters enough. That, the way we remember the people and places that leave our lives shapes exactly how we love the people and places that come into our lives.
I am profoundly grateful to ETC for allowing me to be part of this production and for the opportunity to work with such incredibly talented and passionate artists. I also deeply appreciate the safe space ETC has created, where queer joy can be explored openly and authentically. That kind of space has been extremely empowering in this time. The 2024 election has only intensified the wave of hate and disinformation faced by the trans and broader LGBTQ+ communities. It is the best time to celebrate being queer, to put queer joy and love front and center while protecting and standing up for our trans and LGBTQ family. Thank you for coming and supporting queer theatre! Please enjoy Say 'NO' to One Paseo by Siena Marilyn Ledger!
-Lucy Murphy (she/her)
