my hero

Backstage: 'An Almost Holy Picture' playwright Heather McDonald
By Jane HorwitzWednesday, February 9, 2011; C02
Heather McDonald has long moved on from her prize-winning 1995 play for one actor, "An Almost Holy Picture." The character, Samuel Gentle, is a former Episcopal priest whose life and faith have been shaken and shaped by tragedy, and he recounts the story aloud to make sense of it. The play premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse and was produced here by Round House Theatre in 1996, starring the company's artistic director at the time, Jerry Whiddon. Kevin Bacon starred in a Broadway production in 2002.
"I get calls from theaters that do it around the country and even outside the country," McDonald says. "I'm always happy to talk about it, but I really don't want to have much influence on how they choose to do it. . . . My journey with that play feels complete."
Still, McDonald and her family plan to attend a local revival of the piece at Rep Stage in Columbia on Sunday. "An Almost Holy Picture" runs there through Feb. 20. This time, Rep Stage's artistic director, Michael Stebbins, plays the troubled man of faith.
In the play, Samuel recalls hearing the voice of God as a child, urging him to "follow." But the path his life took as an adult led to a horrific accident and a daughter born with a rare birth defect that causes hair to grow over her entire body.
"You wonder where is the hope. But the thing that I really appreciate so much about the piece is that . . . [Samuel] is waiting for - is convinced - that a fourth experience will happen in his life that will make things better for all involved," Stebbins says.
McDonald, he continues, "taps into faith. She taps into spirituality. She taps into the wonder of having the chance to live each day, even if it's painful.''
McDonald teaches playwriting and screenwriting at George Mason University and recently became co-artistic director of Theater of the First Amendme nt , a professional company in residence there. Her plays "Dream of a Common Language" (Helen Hayes Award for outstanding resident production) and "Faulkner's Bicycle" were produced there in the mid-1990s. Arena Stage did her early play "The Rivers and Ravines" in 1988.
As a single mom raising older teens, teaching and still writing, McDonald finds it harder to get full productions of her newer work nowadays. However, last month she did see a workshop at Arena Stage of an older piece, "When Grace Comes In," and Woolly Mammoth hosted a workshop of a new collaborative work, "Stay," which McDonald is creating with choreographer Susan Shields and others. "I'm so hungry to be in a rehearsal room," she says. "It's harder as you get older to make stuff happen."
McDonald admits to being "kind of cranky" about this. "There's so much available if you're young, emerging, new. . . . People say, well, why don't you apply for this or that grant? [But] it's for people under 35. I'm 50 now. . . . I have kids. I have bills. . . . And the shame is that once you have some craft and you've got something to say and you've got some experience in you . . . it dries up. I was produced way more in my 30s than I am now, and I think I'm a better writer."