Ashland
Directed by Caroline Shaffer
Lead Sponsors
Bill and Rae Saltzstein
Kate and Jim Wolf-Pizor
Partners
Barbara Ricketts and Dennis Tetz
Synopsis
After a young woman is unexpectedly diagnosed with a terminal illness and chooses to pursue Death with Dignity, she and her new partner must navigate the beginning and end of their relationship simultaneously. As the young woman’s health rapidly declines, her partner and her two siblings grapple with the absurdity and hilarity of death, what it means to be family, and what it takes to let go.
Playwright Perspective
This play is about death. And also about life. And about medical aid in dying. And about smoke, and fire, and summer in Southern Oregon. But it’s mainly about living, and how that somehow keeps happening even after someone dies. The story centers a strange little family: three siblings at the beginning of their adult lives, a tag-along lover uncertain of her place amongst them, and a woman assigned to help guide one of them into their next life. As a terminal illness begins to eat the youngest from the inside out, her lover and two siblings are forced to reckon with the awkward intimacy that comes with caregiving while attempting to get to know each other in the strained way that only potential in-laws can.
Setting
Summer in Ashland, Oregon
Who
| ROLE | ACTOR |
| Vim | Rachel Lindsey Routh |
| Wes | Jaz Hall |
| Emily | Kate Hurster* |
| Sebastian | Devin White* |
| Susan | Catherine Castellanos* |
| Stage Directions | Jade Morgan Krische |
*Appearing through an Agreement between ANPF and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Poster art by: Kara Q. Lewis (design) with photo by João Barbosa
Runtime: Runtime will be announced during the development week
Isabel Estelle (they/them/theirs) is a trans playwright and actor based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. An Ashland native, they received a B.A. in theater arts from the University of Minnesota and have worked with companies such as The Chameleon Theatre Circle, Picnic Basket Theatre, and Park Square Theatre. Isabel facilitates discussions and workshops with high school students to develop new plays that are designed for young adult theater artists, and which speak to the unique challenges teenagers are expected to face in today’s world. Isabel’s work primarily centers queer and womens’ stories and aims to explore the overlaps between humor, grief, and magic. Their goal as a playwright is to tell stories about human experience in a way that leans into live theater’s specific strengths as a medium, and embraces our thousands of years long connection with music, movement, and playing pretend.
Click here to read more about Isabel Estelle’s Ashland Playwright Profile
Caroline Shaffer* is thrilled to be participating in another season of the discovery and nurturing of new plays with ANPF. A passionate lover of all theatre and an armchair dramaturg, she has been involved with ANPF almost since its inception, directing or acting regularly since 1991. Caroline was a member of OSF’s acting company for 12 seasons and has also directed locally for Oregon Stage Works, Actor’s Theatre, and Southern Oregon University. She has acted in regional theatres across the country as well as Off-Broadway and at Brooklyn Academy of Music. She has the requisite commercial, film, TV, and voiceover credits, but the accomplishment she is most proud of is her job as mom to the enchanting, engaging, challenging, and endlessly understanding Ethan, Emily, Corin, and Finnegan. Without them theatre would have no meaning.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
