We Are All Waves on the Same Ocean

by Daryl Lisa Fazio

Dr. Tamra Berry’s career as an Atlanta shrink is not going the way she planned. Neither is her marriage. Neither is her yard, where a giant tree recently came down during spring storms. And tonight, she’s trying to unwind from all that, not to mention from simply existing as a Black woman, when a quirky, bright young person shows up at her fence gate. But it’s not just any young person. It’s Josephine Carlisle...

Dr. Tamra Berry’s career as an Atlanta shrink is not going the way she planned. Neither is her marriage. Neither is her yard, where a giant tree recently came down during spring storms. And tonight, she’s trying to unwind from all that, not to mention from simply existing as a Black woman, when a quirky, bright young person shows up at her fence gate. But it’s not just any young person. It’s Josephine Carlisle. Jo, who was just a kid when they last met. Jo, who was drowning in acute mental illness when they last met. Jo, who now appears better but will sometimes answer a question with dance rather than words. They’re both searching for something. Redemption? Revelation? A way forward?

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We Are All Waves on the Same Ocean

Recommended by

  • Playwrights Foundation: We Are All Waves on the Same Ocean by Daryl Lisa Fazio
    “

    The community of national and local readers for the 45th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2022 enthusiastically recommends WE ARE ALL WAVES ON THE SAME OCEAN as a Semi-finalist at Playwrights Foundation. We were deeply moved by the poetry and visual world the writer created. We were compelled by this play’s promise in the matched nuance of the dialogue as the stage directions/dance landscape. We hope this play is widely read, finds dedicated collaborators, and moves swiftly towards production. #BAPF2022.

    The community of national and local readers for the 45th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2022 enthusiastically recommends WE ARE ALL WAVES ON THE SAME OCEAN as a Semi-finalist at Playwrights Foundation. We were deeply moved by the poetry and visual world the writer created. We were compelled by this play’s promise in the matched nuance of the dialogue as the stage directions/dance landscape. We hope this play is widely read, finds dedicated collaborators, and moves swiftly towards production. #BAPF2022.

    ”
  • Maximillian Gill: We Are All Waves on the Same Ocean by Daryl Lisa Fazio
    “

    Deeply felt and very moving. Fazio limits the play to two characters but keeps the tension constant as we learn the contours of their past and present relationship. When movement and dance break in the effect is intense and extraordinary. A compelling play that needs to be staged.

    Deeply felt and very moving. Fazio limits the play to two characters but keeps the tension constant as we learn the contours of their past and present relationship. When movement and dance break in the effect is intense and extraordinary. A compelling play that needs to be staged.

    ”
TAMRA BERRY, f, 41, Black — an empathetic psychiatrist from Atlanta who is burned out by a broken system; a confident, charismatic facade hides epic imposter syndrome; has a pretty solid sense of humor and a jammed-up body that holds her emotions and trauma deep inside; she code-switches adeptly, though the southern accent can have a mind of its own during intense feeling

JO CARLISLE, f, 27, white — a contemporary dancer with panic disorder and who grew up in poverty in rural Georgia; she soars when she can use body movement as language; otherwise, rather than her social skills, she tends to lean on her intelligence and tenacity in order to survive, just as she did throughout a jagged childhood; her rural southern accent is still with her, though she can mute it some

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