About
The story of First Hand Woman begins after a woman’s bad breakup. Five actresses step in to embody the five stages of her grief – Denial, Bargaining, Anger, Depression, and Acceptance – and together, they take the audience on a rollercoaster of emotion. There’s song, laughter and movement as the story unfolds. It’s funny, it’s touching, and it slowly reveals the truth: that the relationship has deeply held secrets and this is a woman who has lost parts of herself. What starts out as witty and relatable becomes raw and redemptive – and by the end, this woman reclaims her strength and her story.
First Hand Woman has already had a beautiful journey. It’s been a hit at three major theatre festivals – the Montreal Fringe Festival, Toronto’s Next Stage Festival, and FringeNYC, where The New York Times listed it as one to watch.
The cast has featured incredible talent, including Canadian Screen Award winner Patrice Goodman (The Umbrella Academy) and Juno award nominee SATE.
Now, after a long hiatus, this story is calling me back. I’m reimagining First Hand Woman with even more music, movement, and humour – while keeping the emotional transformation that made audiences fall in love with it.
History
The genesis of this play started way back in the year 2000. My dear uncle David passed away and in trying to process his death I became extremely curious about the stages of loss. I started researching and reading up on the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who pioneered the concept. I was obsessed. I started taking copious notes, and unbeknownst to me, I was actually laying the groundwork for what would become my first draft a few years later.
Somewhere around 2003 I remember sitting in a darkened theatre in Toronto at a performance of The Vagina Monologues. I was captivated. And as the lights came up at the end, and the song Good Mother started playing, I was filled with this rush of positive feelings. It washed through me like a wave. And it was then that I decided to create a play of my own that could empower audiences to experience that same wash of positive emotions and catharsis.
In 2004, I was processing the fallout of a bad breakup, and the idea of embodying the stages of loss in a play came to me. Originally it was going to be a one-woman show, but the personalities became too boisterous and active, and so I assigned a different character to each stage. I felt like I was really onto something. The night that I finished writing the very first draft, I shaved my head bald! I felt like I was at the beginning of something unique and needed to mark it somehow.
A couple days later, me and four other actors sat in my old living room and read through that first draft. It was scary and exhilarating to hear the words fly off the page! To hear that the idea had merit. That I had something worth fighting for, and most importantly, that it was something that moved people. I remember thinking: if this can move them, surely it can move others.
And somehow I knew in my heart, that this would be a work that would be in my life for a very very long time. Not just a one-off production.
We debuted in Montreal in 2008 and won the award for best script. We sold out our shows in Toronto at The Next Stage festival. And I was thrilled that this play saw its U.S. debut back in 2013 at FringeNYC in New York City to rave reviews and a shoutout from The New York Times! For that run I worked with dramaturge Brian Quirt to help bring out more of what was working in the script.
I am truly looking forward to this story’s next adventure.
Audiences
In our previous productions, we left behind a tremendous impact that resonated with people long after the lights went up.
During one of our runs, strangers were stopping traffic to hug our actors and thank them for the hope and inspiration our play gave them. One audience member decided to pursue a new job after seeing the play, stating that she realized that she was not following her passion. Another audience member came up to hug me and stated that she was inspired to finally going to write her own story.
It warms my heart recalling how the play impacted our audiences.
Dream up,
Sarah Michelle Brown
Playwright, Producer
