Touch

written by: Toni Press-Coffman   directed by: Susie Gidseg

Directors Note

When I first saw Touch performed, I was midway through college in Oklahoma. I was moved by the story, and then moved on with my life. I didn't really know loss yet. Revisiting the play years later, after several losses in my family, and hearing the play read by my group of actors, I couldn't stop myself from getting chills. Toni Press-Coffman, the playwright, really gets it.

Touch is a play about loss, but also about hope. It melds past and present, memory and reality, seamlessly.When Kyle Kalke's wife Zoe leaves home one day, and never returns, his life is shattered. As a person whose life revolved solely around his wife, he shuts down, turns to his work, tries to find a meaning-- a cosmic reason even- for what has happened to Zoe. Tries to find a solution in the stars or in the mysteries of the universe. Kyle is lost in his mind, and all the other characters are spinning around him, trying to take hold, to find a way to make it through the darkness.

This is a show for anyone who has ever lost, or ever been close to someone who is grieving. It is a reminder that even when things seem so dark, so empty--Even when you are certain, without belief that you will never recover or become whole again-- there is a way. Through hope, and love.

I hope it moves you, as it has moved me.

Susie Gidseg
Director