
Walls
Inspired by alumni Paul Holland and written with assistance from students in Advanced Playwriting (2017–2018)
Walls follows newly engaged Abigail and Carver as a DNA test sparks an all-night conversation. They believed they had explored what it meant to be an interracial couple—but tonight, their histories resurface with unexpected force. The past invades their present moment, history seeping through walls and time, shaping their vows and the future they hope to build. Though the scenes of the past remain invisible to Abigail and Carver, their impact is undeniable—challenging Abigail and Carver to confront where they came from and what story they will choose to tell together.
Advanced Playwriting 2018 Contributors: Sierra Carlson, Katie Ciszek, Cullen Herter, Maria Leckey, Michael Mathis, Kelly McNesby, Matt Merline, Diego Salinas, Hannah Smetek, Sydni Thier and Zainab Barry
BACKGROUND: In the fall of 2016, the late Dean George Sparks contacted me about meeting Paul Holland, a JMU alumni who had an idea for a play. Being the playwriting professor at JMU, it seemed an obvious introduction. We first met in the Dean’s office over Zoom and thus begin a journey that became the play, WALLS. From that first conversation, I was struck by Paul’s passion and clear vision of a play called Walls. He saw it. A DNA test had led him down a path of unearthing his family history and he shared story after story with me. In doing research for his own history, he was awakened to how his family story was part of the American melting pot narrative. The melting pot sounds like an ideal way to describe what it means to be American. As a playwright, I was skeptical of the complications of what it means to come together. I became interested in the mess, the work, the effort to blend history and culture. What is the process of melting and how much courage does it take to break down the walls that are between us? Paul and I continued our collaboration through the process and the play premiered at JMU 2020….weeks before COVID shut down public performance and everyone was on ZOOM. Read more about the process here https://www.jmu.edu/news/2020/01/31-walls-an-american-story.shtml



