Sunday, August 10th, 2025 - 7 pm
Synopsis
A lonely queer artist, untethered from history and searching for purpose, connects with the lingering spirit of a forgotten sapphic writer, still corded to the world, seeking one last chance to protect the stories she once dared to tell. Bound by a longing for connection, moon magick, and a shared companion, the two women navigate the space between past and present—anchoring in each other, they discover the parts of themselves needed to step into their next transformation.
Scenes
The show runs 75 minutes with no intermission
PROLOGUE
Scene 1 - Oakie's Apartment - February 2025
WAXING GIBBOUS MOON
Scene 2 - Oakie's Apartment - Later the same night
FULL MOON
Scene 3 - Oakie's Apartment - The next night
Scene 4 - Oakie's Apartment - The time between late night & early morning
WANING GIBBOUS MOON
Scene 5 - Oakie's Apartment - A few minutes before moonrise
Scene 6 - Oakie's Apartment - Moments later
EPILOGUE
Scene 7 - Oakie's Apartment - Several days later
Anti-LGBQTIA+ actions taken in 2025
February
US Park Service Erases the Word 'Transgender' From Website Commemorating Stonewall Riot
Utah bill to ban LGBTQ+ flags from schools — and in all government buildings
Pentagon plans to begin removing trans service members from the military next month
Trump administration gives schools a deadline to end DEI programs or risk losing federal money
Government agencies scrub LGBTQ web pages and remove info about trans and intersex people
NCAA bans transgender women from sports a day after Trump executive order
Trump signs executive order intended to bar transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports
March & beyond
A Medley of Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills That Are About to Become Law in Texas, including support of Conversion Therapy
College Campuses Are Closing Their Women’s and LGBTQ+ Centers
Trump administration pulls the plug on suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth
After Axing the Word “Transgender,” Stonewall Monument Website Quietly Cuts “Bisexual” Too
In Disheartening Reversal, Virginia Is Once Again Allowing Forms of Conversion Therapy
Trump administration axes more than $125M, cancels hundreds of grants in LGBTQ health funding, upending research field
Bans on transgender people’s use of bathrooms and facilities
As of July 11, 2025 the ACLU is tracking 598 Anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S.
Stay informed at these websites
Meet the Cast
Marina Kerekes
OAKIE
Marina is honored to have been a part of this production and to have witnessed firsthand the magic that is Laura's writing process. It has been so rewarding to walk in Oakie's shoes and tell this hopeful and increasingly urgent story in direct opposition to the silencing of Queer voices happening in the world outside this theater. Marina has enjoyed playing women finding their voice throughout her acting career, most recently as Margaret Dashwood in Laura Thoma's play "Miss Margaret's Barton Cottage Christmas Surprise," Claudia Draper in Tom Topor's play "Nuts," and Emily in Fiamma Piacentini's film "Goodnight, Gracie." She will next appear as Anna Carole in Gary Fierro's film "Mightyclaw" and as Madame Xena in Brandon Golden and Samuele Bergamini's film "New York Mouse." Her cat, Darcy, is a goddess who tolerates most mortals but cannot suppress her eye roll at being forced to cohabitate with Lizzie, a "bichoodle."
Cassidy Phelps
MAX*INE
Cassidy is very excited to be a part of this amazing cast. They graduated from CCSU in 2023 with a BA in Theatre where they were involved in a number of productions. Favorite roles at CCSU include This Random World (Claire), The Wolves (#2), To Kill A Mockingbird (Scout), Lend Me A Tenor (Maggie), and Sense and Sensibility (Fanny Dashwood/Lucy Steele/Gossip). They’ve also been in a number of productions and short films since graduating, including Miss Margaret’s Barton Cottage Christmas Surprise, Drama Works Theatre (Lavinia), Much Ado About Nothing, Valley Shakespeare Festival and The One Who with Art Farm.
Bridget Fidler
VIC
Bridget is delighted to perform in Letter to my Soul! Acting since her teens, Bridget has played a variety of roles from the Black Cat in Pinocchio (Arena Players) to Golda Meir in Golda (Charter Oak Cultural Center) with her most recent performance in the History of Now Part II (Theater for the New City). Bridget has directed productions of House of Blue Leaves and The Virginia Monologues (Charter Oak Cultural Center). With deep gratitude to her family especially her mom, Gloria, who started it all and her grandfather, William Israel, who saw something from the very beginning.
Meet the Creatives
Laura Thoma
Playwright
Laura Thoma is an award-winning playwright and theatremaker originally from Tidewater, Virginia, who first fell in love with the art of storytelling through classical ballet. After the first half of her career as a dancer and choreographer ended abruptly due to injury, she found herself drawn to the page and is thrilled to have found her way back to her sacred space of theatre through writing.
Laura is the 2024 recipient of the GreenStage Artists' Award Grant in Drama, and her commissioned work Letter to My Soul will premiere at this year's festival in August. Laura is an alum of the Kennedy Center Playwrights Intensive, the National Playwrights' Symposium, Pawling Theatre Exchange Playwrights Residency, The Desert Playwrights Retreat, and THE OUTRAGE: A Queer Writers' Residency. She is a graduate of the Dramatist Guild Institute of Dramatic Writing and cofounder of Shoreline Playwrights, a partnership that develops new work.
Laura has developed her work with a variety of theaters and organizations, including The Bechdel Group, Legacy Theatre, Cape May Stage, Theatre Odyssey, Chestnut Street Playhouse, Marist College, Drama Works Theatre Company, GreenStage Guilford Live Arts, and the North American Cultural Laboratory.
When she's not writing, Laura can be found driving backroads and exploring old two-lane highways with her bookish wife, Chris, and their dog, Buddy Fitzwilliam.
Carin Jennie Estey
Stage Manager
Carin is a Theatre Artist based out of Southeastern Connecticut. In addition to working as a stage manager, Carin also works as an intimacy director/consent forward arts educator, director, stage manager, playwright, producer, performer, and teaching artist. Favorite productions include Without God As My Lover (Intimacy Director)
the CT workshop and subsequent New York premiere of gerstl took the easy at the New Ohio (Intimacy Director, Production Manager, Associate Producer) The original residency for Artreach, Inc.’s The Waiting Room (Production Stage Manager, intimacy consultant) and the subsequent 2023 workshop at The Eugene O’Neill, and Stir Crazy: Comedy from the Pandemic (Co-writer/co-director). Carin is the Event Coordinator for Artreach, Inc. | carin-jennie-estey.com
PROUD 2024 Artist Grant Award Winner!
About the grant
Every other year, GreenStage commissions new work by Connecticut performing artists for premiere at the next GreenStage Live Arts festival. In four cycles since 2018, GreenStage has given out $42,500 in grants and premiered 14 original, new works in dance, drama, and music, including three pieces to be presented at the 2025 Festival.
GreenStage established the awards to support the creativity of professional Connecticut artists and provide a vehicle for premiering new work at the GreenStage Festival–while in the process helping to create more fertile ground for innovative performers to make Connecticut their artistic home.
