Review Fix chats with Review Fix chats with playwright and performer Susan Merson, who discusses her upcoming production of “Between Pretty Places.†Breaking down the inspiration for the performance, as well as her goals for the future, Bradford lets us know exactly why we should check it out.
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this production?
Susan Merson: I spent time with a friend on a ranch in Central California and there was a small girl there that wandered the fields, with her dolly and would often curl up at the bottom of a huge California oak and sing to the doll for hours on end. Never a smile or much contact. I later learned that she had been the one to discover her mother swinging from that tree. The young mom was a crystal meth addict and alas—hung herself. Somehow I wanted to see if we could create a scenario somewhere where the young child.. KAYLA in our production, is cared for and loved.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Merson: I tend to ruminate unconsciously and then projects come out in a whoosh of their own accord. Just need to get out of the way and allow the images to find the rhythm and words that give them life.

Review Fix: What makes you different from other playwrights?
Merson: These days, I am not sure how many of us are using language as a theatrical tool. I believe that the theatre is not film or tv and so I want to tell stories that have language, resonance and life larger than the page or the stage. I am also a woman, no longer a child or emerging. I am emerged and I have a voice born of my experience and life which has been rich and varied. My voice is not often heard in the theatre these days though I know people are yearning to be transported and to understand their own experience.
Review Fix: What makes this production special?
Merson: It has been a long collaboration that grew from a spooky and real landscape and has sustained and grown over several years now. We play with different worlds… a musical world of ghosts and longing and a very real world of hard-working people trying to make sense of the things that happen if you live long enough. The music is extraordinarily evocative and brave and there is no 11 o’clock number… yet the story emerges as much through the music and lyrics of Shellen Lubin and the additional music by Matthew Gandolfo as it does from my original play and its lyric language.
Review Fix: How is your cast unique?
Merson: These actors are committed to telling a real story of two worlds for not a lot of money. They have their own work at stake – this is not just a job, but a way for all of us to get bigger than the stage we are on.
Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?
Merson: HA!! How difficult it is to collaborate, remain true to your own vision and yet incorporate the visions of your partners. Keeping the hats of producer and playwright and collaborating separate is always a good challenge.
Review Fix: What are your goals for this production?
Merson: This will be our third production, each one progressing from simple workshop , to larger event and now to a full showcase run in a real theatre where we can settle in and allow the space to be part of the experience. I know that the magic of the worlds we are presenting will speak to a larger group of folks and I look forward to them entering the world and supporting it to its next incarnation.
Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?
Merson: Anyone who is willing to allow music and story to take them somewhere new and exciting. It is a simple story of a family trying to find balance after a loss, and to figure out how they love each other and what is possible. So… that means, anyone with those values… family, hope, ghosts and healing.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Merson: I will continue to work and develop the artists community at the 13th Street Rep and hopefully in 2016 a new musical based on my play BEYOND THE SEA, will debut at the REP. Oh, and there are a few smaller plays and short stories longing to be read aloud that will be around as well.
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