The Artist I've Been, The Mother I’m Becoming
A nonprofit fundraiser supporting
Island Shakespeare Festival"Come on, lift up your head. You, poor crying girl, you still have a soul!” - Anima
$1,050
raised by 10 people
$2,500 goal
4 days left
I'm fundraising for Island Shakespeare Festival—my artistic home and the heart of some of my most meaningful work.
This summer marks my return to the stage after many years, and my first time performing as a mother. I’ll be acting in Anima, a lyrical, heart-driven play about healing, identity, and the feminine experience. The themes couldn’t feel more personal.
Baby Arden! My friend Sarah took this pic.
Motherhood has been an act of profound devotion—of giving myself over completely to the love and care of someone wholly dependent on me. In this new chapter, I’m getting to know a self for whom “self” must often come second. It’s a beautiful surrender—but one that leaves me wondering: who am I now, as an artist?
Marissa Wilhelm, Ahna Dunn Wilder, me, and Laura Smith feeling so intense in costume for a performance Les Mis in 2004
I find myself longing for a process that brings me home to that inner voice. A return to the stage that reorients my sense of self—not in isolation, but in deep relationship. With my family. My scene partners. My collaborators. My community.
In Anima, I play Olga, a woman who has survived the unimaginable and discovers—perhaps for the first time—that she still has a soul. That she still belongs to herself.
This story feels deeply, painfully, beautifully human. And to tell it with ISF—a place rooted in empathy and care—is both a personal reckoning and a communal act of healing.
As Desdemona, my last time onstage at ISF in 2018! Othello was directed by the unparalleled Terri McMahon. Photo by Michael Stadler.
ISF’s Pay-What-You-Will model removes ticket barriers and invites everyone into the circle. We're also working to reimagine the classical canon—Anima was written by Amelia Roselli, an Italian contemporary of Ibsen's and Chekhov's. It's our third production in partnership with Expand the Canon.
If you believe in the power of art to open hearts and invite belonging, I hope you’ll consider making a gift to support this season. $10, $25, $500—every donation helps bring these stories to life.
Your generosity makes it possible for artists like me to show up changed and still be welcomed. And for audiences to be reminded: we are not alone, and we are more than what the world has done to us.