By the Banks

One hot June evening. Two semi-estranged sisters. An urn full of ashes. A circle of salt. Rory and Norah reunite on the banks of the Wabash River to fulfill their father’s last wishes. As night falls, memories surface, old scars rip open, and new truths surge out, conjuring Nature itself to intervene. Rory and Norah must grapple with the impact of choices made long ago if they wish to survive. What happens when reaching for freedom means leaving someone behind?

 

Content Advisory: This play contains themes of grief, illness, eating disorders, addiction and recovery, abuse, family conflict, spirituality, LGBTQ+ identity, and historical trauma, as well as strong language and emotionally intense material. Recommended for Ages 15+.

Playwright
christina michelle watkins

christina michelle watkins (she/her) is a BlackQueer neuroexpansive writer, performer, tarot reader, and licensed clinical therapist. She was raised in Georgia, bounced to the Midwest for young adulthood, and has called California home for over a decade. Stories and relationships— listening to them, creating them, reconstructing them, performing them, connecting them— are a consistent thread in her life and work. She’s currently exploring the nonlinear nature of time, trauma/healing, mysticism, and how one survives the end of one world while creating the next. Artistic highlights include: kumrad’s won’t, (Overall Excellence in Playwriting Award, New York International Fringe Festival 2013); The New Harmony Project (selected writer, 2022; Community Care Facilitator 2023-present); By the Banks (Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2026; Finalist, Fault Line’s Irons in the Fire 2025).  Her favorite colors are honey yellow and oxblood red. Popsicles are her dessert of choice. Find her at christinamichellewatkins.com or on NPX.

TICKETS FRI, SEPT 18, 7:00PM
(In Person Reading at The Rueff at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater) SUN, SEPT 27, 3:00PM
(In Person Reading at The Rueff at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater) MON, OCT 19–SUN, OCT 25
(On Demand)

DIRECTOR: SINJIN JONES

DRAMATURG: AUSTIN RIFFELMACHER

CONTENT EXPERT: TBA

LEAD PRODUCERS: LINDA BREWER

Meet the Creative Team

Director
SINJIN JONES

Sinjin Jones (he/him) is a storytelling artist originally from Denver, Colorado, now living in Santa Clara. He was co-founder of Perplexity Pictures, a story-driven film production company, Artistic Director and Board Vice President of A Theatre Group in Silverton, Colorado, and Founder of Otherworld Collective, a multimedia artists collective.  In California, he served as Executive Artistic Director of The Pear Theatre in Mountain View for five years and now serves as Director of Programs for SVCREATES, the arts council for Santa Clara County. He is an immersive and devised theatre creator and practitioner as well as a poet, filmmaker, and visual artist that creates stories at the intersection point of media forms. Favorite  shows directed include: The Mountaintop, Sunset Baby, and Frankenstein.

Dramaturg
AUSTIN RIFFELMACHER

Austin Riffelmacher (he/him)‘s credits include Production Dramaturg on Eden at Yale Repertory Theatre; The Royale directed by Lauren F. Walker and his solo performance “A Phantastic Christmas” at Yale Cabaret; and Stray Dogs by comfort ifeoma katchy, HELLYOUTALMBOUT by ML Roberts, and The Misanthrope directed by Mary Lou Rosato at the David Geffen School of Drama. Austin is originally from Worcester, Massachusetts, and is currently Literary Manager and Casting Associate at American Conservatory Theater.

Meet the Cast

Cast TBA Cast bios TBA.

#BAPF47