Last week, Jenn and I went to Manhattan to see the world premiere of “The Resurrectionist,” a play produced by our daughter Kelsey and her two co-founders of Rally Point Productions, Cat and Taylor. We got to see two of the show’s three performances at The Tank, an off-off-Broadway theatre in the Garment District, and I just can’t get over how inspiring and amazing the experience was.
Kelsey’s story as a creator is her own to tell, but I can share this overview: She’s been doing theatre since high school; she earned her theatre degree at Eastern Michigan University; and then she got into a two-year conservatory program at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York, graduating in June 2023. It’s always been fun watching her perform, and it’s been remarkable seeing her grow and create and put art into the world. (More on this in a bit.)
But this was something different and powerful in ways I wasn’t expecting, because I had the tiniest of peeks into the process of bringing P.S.Drake‘s story to the stage, from earning a spot on the venue’s schedule to renting rehearsal spaces to poster design to hiring a director and crew and cast to fundraising and co-piloting a rental van through Manhattan for load-in (#heartpalpitations) to everything else that I didn’t even think of as stuff that needed doing.
All that and Kelsey, Cat, and Taylor also had key roles onstage.
And look, I’m biased, but they just crushed it: The play was funny and heartfelt and the audience laughed hard at all the right spots, and the production in the 50-ish seat theatre felt, well, professional. Which it absolutely was, of course, duh. (There are a lot of excellent pictures here on Rally Point’s Facebook page.)
After the closing performance, we chatted with the playwright for a few minutes, and then Kelsey – and then they all went out for a well-earned celebration.
So besides being incredibly proud of Kelsey, I also found myself really energized and inspired to get back into writing and creating more, and to release more words out into the world, whether they’re just posts like this, or ideas I have for roleplaying games, or any of a few other strange little notions I’ve had knocking around in my head for too long. It feels really good to sit here and write for enjoyment, and I should do it more often.
Thanks, Kelsey. Again.
John Booth Writes 