Midge’s Play Has European Premier

Dear readers, this is a blatant Midge pats herself on her back post. Besides patting myself on the back, front and butt, I have been tossing clothes around in my closet, buying bling jewelry and generally acting patzo because I am going to the European opening of one of my plays. FOR THE FIRST TIME! Gulp.

Twenty-five years after the events of September 11, 2001, changed the world forever, E-mail: 9/12 – written by me and those who answered my emails – will make its European premiere. It will be presented by Our Way Productions at Amsterdam’s Polanentheater, on September 11, 12 and 13, 2026. In Europe? Hop over!

E-mail: 9/12 is kind of memoir-esq. It offers a deeply personal act of remembrance. Rather than revisiting the politics or the tragedy of September 11 itself, the play focuses on the ordinary moments that followed: parents searching for their children, first responders returning home, friends checking in across continents and strangers finding comfort in shared humanity. I pray, audiences find it full of humor, honesty and heart. t

For younger audiences who know 9/11 primarily through history books, I hope the play provides something increasingly rare: the opportunity to experience the emotions of that moment through the voices of people who lived it.

For me, the story began with something very real – I sent out an email that included something I learned in the brownies – “make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold.” For me, sending an email to everyone I cared about was absolutely necessary. Witnessing the crumbling tower from the train sent me into an emotional tail spin. I couldn’t find Jack – he was working at Indian Point and fighter planes were buzzing the Hudson River. Fighter planes were zipping over our house in Flagtown. There wasn’t enough pot or scotch to take care of how I felt. So, I started writing.

The emails I got back were about checking on people, offering comfort, sharing memories and simply making sure someone else knew they weren’t alone. I saved those messages. They became the foundation for E-mail: 9/12, originally written for the tenth anniversary of the attacks. That sense of connection remains at the heart of my play.

The play has been produced in the United States and published by Next Stage Press. E-Mail: dodici settembre is the Italian translation.

Since dinosaurs roamed the earth, Our Way Productions founder and American theatre director, George Hansel, has been my pal and artistic parter. For the tenth commemoration of 9/11, George brought E-mail: 9/12 to the stage in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Now, at the 25-year mark, he was determined to bring the play to Amsterdam – where is lives with his handsome husband, producer, Evert-Ben.

A perk – a production meeting with George in a fancy Den Haag hotel. Hmm, my colors clash with the rug.

I heard George tell the actors, “E-mail: 9/12 approaches the history from a different direction, asking audiences to remember not only the devastation of September 11, but the compassion, courage and connection that emerged on September 12.” 

People from the Netherlands were interviewed and their remembrances intertwined in the script. Happy to interview George, he too is one of the new characters specifically connected to the Dutch production. For its European premiere, a play born from my American emails hopefully has acquired a distinctly international perspective.

EUROPEAN PREMIERE! And I am shouting it from wherever I can. Thanks for putting up with me and my stepping into braggadocio.

Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold. You my friends are all gold!

For ticket information or – since they are giving tickets to kids and folks who can’t afford them – buy a ticket as a donation, contact Our Way Productions, https://www.ourwayproductions.com/email-912.

Ci Vediamo,

Midge