Before we go any further, visit Luna Stage and buy your tickets NOW for this show. You’re back? Great! Now hear why you needed to move so quickly!
Trichotillomania rolls trippingly off the tongue. It sounds like the vocal exercises actors do prior to performances, right? Turns out, not so much! It is in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used by the American Psychiatric Association and in the DSM 5, it is listed among Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. It is someone who methodically pulls out their hair one strand at a time.
The brave and dauntless Becca Schneider gives us a stream of consciousness voyage through her life from her teens to the present day. This trip is a s’hero’s quest as Becca works with us to untangle the daily struggle to understand the origin and management of a not uncommon experience.
Ms Schneider is so honest with us from the jump that it feels like we’re friends from moments in to the show. This presentation includes power points, visual aids and a deft interpreter of the human condition in one Becca-shaped package. Having bared her soul to me, and the 49 other patrons in the venue, I owe her a debt that I can only pay forward with love and kindness. Most of us have something we are working on at the rock-bottom human level and Becca provides strength, self-knowledge and will to move forward one knotty strand at a time to solve the Gordian knot differently than Alexander did.
Directed by Jenn Haltman and Casey Pfeifer who are co-creators with Ms. Schneider who is playwright and performer, this dynamic trio shines a painfully honest light on a difficult challenge. Love, puns, humor and a rich understanding of the teen still lurking in each of us makes the authenticity more penetrating. When someone digs this deeply and shares, that is the true meaning of sacrifice.
RUN to get your tickets. The space is small and this is a gift you give yourself. This run is VERY limited - only now until December 10, so get your tickets now at https://www.lunastage.org/trich.