ALLIANCE THEATRE

ENCOREATLANTA.COM

PUBLISHER Brantley Manderson brantley@encoreatlanta.com

— CREATIVE — EDITOR-IN -CHIEF Robert Viagas robert@encoreatlanta.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Tamara Hooks tamara@encoreatlanta.com

DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Allie Johnson allie@encoreatlanta.com

PROGRAM PRODUCER Ashley Elliott ashley.elliott@alliancetheatre.org

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Where authentic Christian mission and academic excellence aren’t mutually exclusive

MORE!

What if…

What if I had decided to have children? What if I had chosen a different career path? What if I had taken 400N instead of I-85 this morning and avoided that accident that made me miss my meeting?

The first line in Stephen Brown’s 2022 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition winner, The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd, is “How many of you went to bed last night thinking about one thing you wish you had done differently that day?”

It’s unavoidable. No matter our age, no matter how much we are prone to overthink (or not), human beings are programmed to analyze their present life situation by way of studying (and often, regretting) the decisions and actions that got us there. Whether our regret is as innocuous as accidentally popping a cashmere sweater in the dryer or as significant as not nurturing a marriage, we are wired to spend an inordinate amount of time pondering the “what if’s” from the past, instead of the “what can be’s” in the future.

(Spoiler alert…)

Our magical heroine Jasmine invents a time machine and embarks on a journey to change the past. If you are a theatre person (and I know you are, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that), you believe time travel is possible. We sit in a darkened room and are transported to an imagined place and time, willingly suspending our disbelief and allowing the fiction before us to become real — just for a brief moment. We know what we are watching isn’t real, but we allow the transport into this theatrical universe to crack open our hearts, to open our minds. In communion with our fellow audience members in this holy space, we allow this imagined circumstance to move energy from what we thought we knew to what might actually be possible.

I believe the old adage “the more things change, the more they stay the same” is false. Every time Jasmine (often stubbornly) tries to change her past, she is shifting the molecules and stripping away what she thinks she knows to be true, creating a vessel that is ready for the lesson. The lesson that we can’t control others’ free will; that sometimes regret and mistakes aren’t problems to be solved, but instead (in the words of our brilliant playwright), are the building blocks of who we are.

My hope is that the same will happen to you tonight. That you will leave this theatrical time travel, with a little less regret, a little more acceptance of others and yourself, and a lot more dedication to the “what can be.” That is the magic of theatre.

And then maybe it will be just fine that you decided not to have children, because you will see with new eyes the gift of your three gorgeous stepchildren. And your traffic-filled commute to work will be meant to be because it allowed you a different elevator ride with perhaps a co-worker who needed a smile or a word of encouragement.

So put on your space helmet, buckle in, and let go of regret. We are so glad you are here.

Amanda Watkins Associate Producer