From 2010-2012 author Cheryl Strayed (Wild: From Lost to Found) took over the Dear Sugar anonymous online advice column. She leaned on her own life experiences in her responses and while she wasn’t paid for doing it, she incorporated the material into the book Tiny Beautiful Things published in 2012.
In 2016, Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) adapted Tiny Beautiful Things for the stage, using many of the letters and her responses in a non-fiction book. The play premiered off -Broadway at The Public Theater in New York City and starred Vardalos as Sugar.
Ash Love is directing that 90-minute, one act play, now at Stages theater. Besides her work as a director, she is also an intimacy choreographer and a mental health coordinator. All of which seem appropriate for this particular play.
“The subject matter does tap into a lot of mental health crises, episodes, issues.,” she says. “We have characters who are writing in to Sugar in some of their most desperate and uncomfortable moments in their lives seeking help. Sugar addresses them not only directly with her advice but she’s also sharing really intimate parts of her life and her experiences. “
A cast can be affected by all these things as well, Love says, and in anticipation of that, Stages has brought on a separate mental health coordinator for the production.
“This play is about Cheryl Strayed being approached to become the new Sugar. It is through her journey of telling stories about her own life that she creates a real community of healing online.
“She’s not just doling out instructions. She’s really sharing some of the most secretive parts of her life experiences to help align and connect with those who are writing in. So she’s providing illumination and connection and a sense of trying to create that sense of real connection and a need to reach out to others.
“She did do this in real life. She wrote in to the Dear Sugar column that did exist on line giving it praise and the writer at the time asked ‘Would you like to take it over? It’s completely free. It’s anonymous and itt’s not paid. Would you be willing to do this?’ And she does.
“In real life, these letters spanned the course of multiple years but the convention for the stage adaptation everything happens in one night, in one location in her home.”
The cast is four actors for the play set in 2012: Callina Anderson is Sugar, while the others – Gabriel Regojo, Sarah Sachi and Ricardo Enrique – play multiple letter writers.
Asked why this play is so important to her, Love responds:
“I’m so drawn to stories that ask us to examine viscerally what does it mean to be human,” Love says. “I love that Sugar is such a complex character. She doesn’t give clean or perfect advice. She owned that she’s really not qualified to do this but she’s there. She ‘s trying. It’s about the reach that matters most.
“Especially right now with everything that’s happening in the world, that idea of leading with a reach, no matter what is happening in your life or in others’ lives, we have to continue trying to reach each other. Not only for our individual sake but collectively as a species.”
Performances are scheduled for April 2-19 at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at Stages at The Gordy, 800 Rosine. For more information, call 713-527-0123 or visit stageshouston.com. $74-$95.