Writer: Jenn Amelia Martin
Director: Stephanie Stowers

Set in a stream-of-consciousness inside the enclosures of Mama’s house, IF WORDS COULD TALK explores the dysfunctional relationship between a mother and her deceased daughter paying a visit with distance through closed-door memories. The play follows a sequence of stages: i. Awakening, ii. Denial, iii. Rage, iv. Bargaining, and v. Acceptance. Mama embarks on cycles of grief that collides with the reimagination of her daughter’s lived past– as Ali grieves for her long-deceased father, Mama grieves for her daughter in a return to the dead and (un)buried.

IF WORDS COULD TALK explores themes of communicative collision marking a dreamed life of cohesion, raising the myth of beginning, middle & end in the face of old wounds. Here lies the proof: the circularity of a mother’s love transcends names, faces, and places. If only words could speak for themselves– only then, perhaps grief would bend fiction to break the truth.

 

Cast TBD

AUTHOR/PLAYWRIGHT: Jenn Amelia Martin (she/her) is a 19-year-old Chinese-Italian-American artist based in New York. As a rising sophomore at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she studies Drama (BFA) at Playwrights Horizons Studio (PHTS). With a focus on writing and performance, her work explores themes of navigating mixed culture, communication lost and found, the dual empowerment and disempowerment of words, and the concept of “home.” As a nationally published poet, she is known for blending her artistic disciplines to cultivate theater that embraces multiplicity rather than one-dimensional expression.

DIRECTOR: Stephanie Stowers (she/her) is a Haitian-American, New York City-based director and actress. Stowers strives in her artistic career to provide a platform for diverse art to be appreciated and more accessible. She has acted in many short films and directed productions at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, including If Words Could Talk. Stowers is pursuing a BFA in Drama with a double minor in Producing and Business in Entertainment, Media, and Technology at New York University. Stowers is delighted to be making her directorial debut with If Words Could Talk, which will be presented at Theater For the New City’s Dream Up Festival!