“What are you afraid of?,” a ladybug (Trevin Gay) asks Finder (Phoebe Werner), the hero at the heart of Erica Berman’s Finder and the North Star.
“Feeling small forever,” Finder replies.
But as Ladybug has already made clear, “I am living proof that a big dream can live in a small beetle” – or in a child-like Finder, trying to summon the courage to wish and dream.
Ladybug’s inspiring message – as experienced through the eyes of a child journeying toward the self she wants to become – is at the core of what Children’s Theater of Madison is all about, which makes CTM the ideal home for the world premiere of Berman’s play. Directed by C. Michael Wright, Finder and the North Star runs at MyArt’s Starlight Theater from this Saturday through March 5 as CTM’s entry in the 2023 World Premiere Wisconsin festival.
Much like the big dreams taking shape in Finder and Ladybug’s small bodies, Berman’s gloriously large and ambitious play had humble origins.
“My husband and I make wishes on eyelashes,” Berman explained during a Zoom interview just days before the show’s opening. “I wondered, ‘where do those wishes go? What would they look like? How many different ways are there of wishing?’”
As Berman’s play suggests, there are more ways than there are stars in the sky. Finder’s journey toward the realization of her wish exposes her to wishing traditions from around the world, while also invoking figures from mythology and fairy tales.
Such generous and expansive storytelling shifts Finder’s focus outward, while also liberating her into an understanding that there are many paths toward truth – and that others taking heroic journeys have also confronted roadblocks while overcoming their own fear. As Ladybug pointedly notes, one can be brave and still be afraid.
“I’m attracted to writing stories showcasing the journey of the self, in situations involving characters called upon to be brave,” Berman said. “That speaks to me. We all have moments when we can take a chance or not. Listen to our inner voice or not. Listen to the voices that will take us down or not.”
Taking the Journey Together
While Berman began writing Finder in early 2018, its message lands differently now on the other side of the pandemic. Feedback from younger audience members following recent professional readings and workshop productions helped Berman give more space to the various characters Finder meets along the way.
“Our journey forward, now, feels less about one person searching for something inside and more about paying attention to what’s external,” Berman reflected. “You must go outside yourself to find yourself.”
Hence for all that Finder’s adventures suggest Alice in Wonderland, they remind me more of Dorothy’s journey in The Wizard of Oz (Berman acknowledges the influence of both). Like Finder, “Dorothy collects people as she goes along,” Berman said.
The character of North Star (Siobhan Jackson) – a cross between Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio and the angel Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life – is with Finder from the beginning of her journey.
Like Clarence, North Star is still learning and therefore makes mistakes. Also like Clarence, North Star is nevertheless filled with wisdom. Finder is a play that channels some deep philosophical truths – Berman acknowledges her debt to Joseph Campbell and his landmark The Hero with a Thousand Faces – through disarmingly simple aphorisms.
The spirit of collaboration characterizing North Star’s friendship with Finder is also baked into Berman’s script, which leans hard on an ensemble and its movement-driven storytelling. Kailey Azure Green is both in the Finder cast and the show’s choreographer.
Such movement-driven work suggests the nature of wishes themselves as they are presented in this play: Fluid. Continually evolving. Challenging us to live in the moment. Best achieved in tandem with others. And especially rich and textured when we rely on those others to overcome our fear that we’ll fall and fail.
Berman’s Own North Stars
Recounting her five-year journey with this play, Berman exuded gratitude for two of her own longtime collaborators: C. Michael Wright and CTM Artistic Director Roseann Sheridan.
“When Roseann asked me how I’d feel if Michael directed Finder, I cried,” Berman said. “I knew he would be the perfect person to elevate the script and shine light in dark spaces.”
“Michael was the first professional Artistic Director to say ‘yes’ to me and produce one of my shows professionally,” Berman pointed out, with reference to the well-received staging of her play No Wake at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre during Wright’s final season there as Artistic Director. (The number of Wisconsin theater artists getting their first big break because of Wright is legion, but I digress).
Berman is equally grateful for Sheridan’s support.
“Finder is about bravery, and it’s brave for any Artistic Director to program new work,” Berman said, ticking off other examples of when Sheridan had done so at CTM. “Like Finder, Roseann is taking a chance,” Berman continued.
It’s not lost on Berman that for World Premiere Wisconsin to be happening right now, in the wake of a pandemic that is shuttering theaters nationwide, is itself a profile in courage. “For this Festival to be going on right now is a really beautiful thing, one to celebrate,” Berman said.
Berman was also in the mood to celebrate audience members coming out and supporting new work.
“We’re asking audience members to be brave in buying tickets for new work,” Berman said. “We need to take a chance on ourselves, by trusting each other” – and thereby finding a way toward a future in which bold new plays like this one can illuminate all of us.
