When I first read The Aliens around spring-time 2017, Annie Baker's words seemed to enchant me, they left me awe-struck at their beauty, my mouth agape wondering, "you can do that with theatre?" 

I had recently dropped out of the University of Houston and was working five days a week as a cashier at a Shell gas-station about five minutes from my mother's house. I'd always read the newspapers and bring a book to fill the mind-numbing morning tedium, and Annie Baker's "The Vermont Plays" collection was that day's escape. A couple months later, I sought re-admission to the Playwriting & Dramaturgy program; now, I credit "The Vermont Plays" as inspiration for a personal theatre-renaissance.

​

More recently, earlier this semester (spring 2019), Michael, Nathan, and Tony were all cast to gallivant about the halls of the Hotel Coq d'Or together. As the associate dramaturg assigned to A Flea in Her Ear, I had the opportunity to observe their hard work in Gus' rehearsals first-hand.

​

I thought about many different plays and playwrights as options for this process, but to me there seemed to be something irrefutably perfect about the combination of this exact play, these individual actors, and the familiar audience we're sharing this experience with.

​

Thank you, Justin, for our many discussions and your invaluable guidance.

​

Thanks, Michael, Nathan, and Tony for giving yourselves entirely to this process. We're going to miss you, Brewer!