May 2008 Archives

MAY SALON

GILLIAN'S (W)HOLE by Tracie Gardner
Sunday, May 18th at 6:30pm
State Theatre, 719 Congress Ave.

Gillian's (W)hole
During a stay in a hospital emergency room after accidentally almost killing herself, beleaguered single mother Gillian Banks is startled to learn that her hope has fallen out of her- quite literally, in the form of a woman named Ara. Despite doubts about her own sanity, Gillian grudgingly accepts Ara's strange presence, and the two are dropped back into Gillian's anguish-laden life. Guilt, despair, and outrage over gender stereotypes and an inadequate justice system flood in on a tide of embittered humor as Ara slides ever closer to extinction in the grip of Gillian's vicious nightmares. Gillian's only hope for her "hope" breathes in the dead, their influence tethered along a curious lifeline strung from the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Tracie Gardner, a transplant from Detroit by way of San Jose, has completed her first full-length project with the play, Gillian's (W)hole. She holds a degree in English from a small, private university in the Midwest, did significant post-bacc coursework in science, and has taught science and math as a middle school teacher in Texas now for three years, the last two here in Austin. Next year she will specialize in working with high-functioning autistic-spectrum students. She is fortunate to have three fabulous children who amuse her regularly.