We Players' 22nd Season Features THE KEEPER

This April, We Players will announce its newest production - The Keeper - to be performed at Alameda Point in May and June, 2022. This one woman show about a female lighthouse keeper features Artistic Director Ava Roy as the keeper and is a collaboration between Roy and We Players' Associate Producer Britt Lauer. Inspired by historical figures and including passages and quotes from literature, the script is an original piece written by Roy and Lauer.

Somewhere in the abyss of sea and sky lives a lighthouse in limbo where Caretta Caretta tends and keeps. At a time when so many of us are much more closely acquainted with loneliness and isolation than we'd like to be, The Keeper tells the story of a woman who chooses a solitary existence with a singular purpose- to keep the light. A one-woman performance inspired by many true stories of female lighthouse keepers, the piece explores the comfort we can find in custom and the softness and ease in seclusion. Joy and absurdity abound in this transformative tale about the power of practice and patience. As the audience follows Caretta through her days caring for the light and its house, witnessing and learning the rules of this absurd place, they discover that the only remedy for seeping existential doubt is a magical solution.

We Players' goal has always been to encourage audiences to explore and make sense of the world around them, creating work that meets the moment. To acknowledge the way in which the pandemic has shrunk our world, forcing us inside our homes and our own heads, they're examining an abstracted landscape, an intimate geography. Rather than shying away from the constraints and restrictions of the moment, they're diving in - to explore how these boundaries can be used to further the practice of paying attention and being present. Anyone who's attended a We Players' performance has been instructed to look behind them, above, below and into the distance, cultivating expertise in noticing the natural world around and incorporating those wonders into the experience of the story. Large scale shows that spoke the language of spectacle seemed fitting for a loud world, replete with distraction. Timeless tales of human folly and hubris were important at a time so quick to congratulation, as we tended collectively to let misplaced pride guide our priorities. Now to meet this moment, two years into a pandemic that has humbled us deeply by the daily display of our inability to make sage and selfless decisions, the place we need to explore is the space inside. The Keeper dives inside a heart and a mind to find our capacity for compassion, to cultivate a love of our deeply human condition. Caretta Caretta, fully and only herself, is our existential guide to remembering the magic in the mundane with her message that "to be" means to begin again everyday.

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