The Power of a Four-Letter Word

I sat in the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s lobby on a gorgeous October afternoon after witnessing Charlayne Woodard’s performance of her one-woman play, The Night Watcher, and said to myself, “Yes! That is why we tell our stories. That’s the story I want to tell.”

Trouble is, sitting here in front of my computer, I’m at a complete loss as to how to define “that.” It made so much sense in the moment. I knew exactly what I was talking about. But it’s absolutely useless now.

Pesky little four-letter word.

In The Night Watcher, Charlayne Woodard shares the stories of her relationships with her godchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends’ kids, to whom she is “Auntie Charlayne.”

“Shares” is a little too tame, though—it’s not like she stood behind a podium and read from her prepared notes. She’s an actor, in a one-woman play. She shot around the stage portraying herself, her husband, all the kids, her parents, and her friends with aid of a single, armless red chair and a bazillion facial expressions, voices, and body movements.

And here’s another amazing thing: I bet that none of the people who saw her do this over the course of the four week run of the play thought she was the least bit crazy. In fact, I thought she was brilliant, but if I’d met her in the grocery acting like that…

Anyway, it’s absolutely, transparently obvious to anyone who saw the play that Ms. Woodard loves the kids she spotlights in The Night Watcher. She might argue with them, get completely exasperated with them, embarrass them to no end, and have to leave them at times, but she never turns her back on them. And they know this.

They call her in the middle of the night. They tell her their secrets. She hurts and cries with them and helps when she can. She encourages and supports them, like only an auntie can.

In short, she hopes for them, and therein lies the power and vitality, the depth and magnitude with which The Night Watcher impacted me.

Another little four-letter word: hope.

This one, not so pesky at all.

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And speaking of hope, get on out there and vote today, won'tcha please?