In September of 2022, I performed the role of May Buckingham in Scott C. Sickles’ romantic drama, Nonsense and Beauty, based on the true love story of famed English author E.M. Forster’s affair with Bob Buckingham, and Forster’s decades-long “muddle” and friendship with Bob, and his wife May.
Sadly, it was also Theatre22’s last production as a company, due to a loss of viable performance space in the city. For more on the closure, you can read Theatre22’s statement here, or the feature in the Seattle Times.
I have had the distinct privilege and pleasure of working with Theatre22 since 2014. In 2017, I was invited to be a member of the T22 family as Associate Producer and Resident Scenic Artist. Within the last 8 years, they have trusted me to perform, produce, direct, paint, dramaturg, dialect coach, facilitate, organize, create, learn, think critically, feel deeply, dream, and hope.
The immense amount of love, gratitude, respect, admiration I have for the incredible people that make up this company is impossible to truly communicate. Corey McDaniel, Julie Beckman, Alber Sucupira, Katie McKellar- my theater family - I would not be the artist and professional I am today without all of them. I'm having a hard time imagining what my artistic life will look and feel like in the future, but I know in my heart and deepest intuition that, though it will not be under the T22 moniker, we will collaborate together again, and we will still be family. Thank you for challenging me when I needed it, trusting me when I didn't trust myself, for loving me, and for giving me space and tools to grow as an artist and person. I'm so proud of the strides T22 has made in the last decade, and I'm grateful to have been a part of it.
“He felt that nonsense and beauty have close connections – closer connections than Art will allow – and that both would remain when his own heaviness and his own ugliness had perished.”
All photos courtesy of Truman Buffett Photography
Cast and crew of Nonsense and Beauty, with playwright Scott C. Sickles
Back Row (L,R): Alison Kozar, Kyle Thompson, Jennifer Ewing, Russell Matthews, Eric Mulholland, Ahren Buhmann, Hisam Goueli
Front Row (L, R): Alber Sucupira, Marty Mukhalian, Corey McDaniel, Scott C. Sickles, Megan Wright, Anahita Sepehri