From June 26-29, City Theatre’s Summer Shorts will perform short plays by Miami’s best emerging playwrights at the Sandrell Rivers Theater. In this series the playwrights share a little with the Jitney about their work.
Perfect, profound, pure, complete—all of these are synonyms for the word unconditional.
Unconditional. Not many things in life are truly unconditional; in fact, I have found that many things are conditional: problematic, contingent upon, doubtful, so much so that unconditional love can sometimes feel like something found only in fictional stories.
That notion was completely challenged once I became a mother. My husband and I fell in love so completely that we brought two people into this world. My heart has been stretched in ways I never anticipated, especially after receiving my oldest daughter’s autism diagnosis. As we move in and out of doctor’s appointments, work with a team of therapists, and continually meet new challenges, my guiding light is the unconditional love I have for my daughter. While my oldest daughter can’t say how much she loves us, we so deeply love her.
What I hadn’t expected was to see that same love pouring from my youngest into her older sister. Siblings of children with disabilities are a blessing to their families and a gift to the world. They teach the world how to love unconditionally.
The idea for my play, I. You., was born out of grief. My grandmother passed away recently. I still feel her love for me and my daughters, even though she is no longer with us. That kind of unconditional love transcends death. Out of that grief, I. You. emerged—a loosely autobiographical story with a sprinkling of magical realism. A love note to my family.
I. You. is a deeply moving play that explores love in the face of grief and uncertainty. After the death of her beloved Abuela Yiya, a mother finds herself struggling as she navigates her eldest daughter Sophia’s autism diagnosis. At the heart of the story is the extraordinary bond between sisters: Victoria, the younger daughter, becomes a bridge to her nonverbal sister, speaking a language only love can translate. I. You. is a story of unconditional love and the sacred language only family can speak.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to participate in CityTheatre’s Summer Shorts. I hope you’ll be part of the audience to witness some amazing new work from my cohort.
