The People Who Showed Up: Family, Friends, and the Power of Being Seen

There is a particular kind of joy that comes from looking out past the stage lights and seeing the people who raised you sitting in the audience. The people who believed in you before you had a single credit to your name. The people who prayed over you, packed your bags when you moved South, and trusted that this life you chose would bear fruit.

My mother and my auntie came to see me in Small Craft Warnings. It was the first time they had seen me perform on stage since college.

Let that sit with you for a moment. A full decade of this work. Hundreds of rehearsals. Countless performances. And they finally got to see the woman I have become in the room where it happens. Not the girl who was just starting out. The woman. The artist. The one who earned her seat at this table.

There is no review, no accolade, no callback that compares to the look on your mama's face when she sees you doing the thing you told her you were born to do. That is its own standing ovation.

The Love in That Room

Beyond my family, the friends and community who showed up during this run filled me in ways I am still processing. Fellow artists. Colleagues. People I have known for years and people I am just building with now. Each one of them chose to spend their evening witnessing this work, and that is not a small thing.

Theater is communal. It does not exist without the people in the seats. And when those seats are filled with people who love you? The performance is different. There is an energy exchange that cannot be manufactured. It is sacred.

I do not have photos with everyone who came out to support me during this run, and that is one of my only regrets. But please know that if you were in that audience on any night between March 7 and March 29, I felt you there. Your presence mattered.

To everyone who came out to support me during the run of Small Craft Warnings at Lower Depths Theater: thank you. You reminded me that this work is not done in isolation. It is done in community. And I am so deeply grateful to be part of this one.

#BeBoldBrave