Erin Merritt, diagnosed with ALS, is directing political satire ‘Tea Party’ — with a little help from her friends.
From left, cast and crew for “Tea Party” include, Terri DeMartini, Alicia M.P. Nelson, Louel Señores, Cassidy Brown, Isabel Anne To, Erin Merritt, Livia Gomes Demarchi, Bob Greene, Anthony Cistaro and Brady Morales-Woolery.Erin Merritt has been a powerful force in Bay Area theater for decades, as a director, actor, producer and as someone who all-around makes things happen.
Now friends from the Bay Area theater community are coming together under the name One of Our Own to give Merritt a chance to direct a play she’s been wanting to do for a long time: the world premiere of Gordon Dahlquist’s “Tea Party.” Merritt first encountered “Tea Party” when it was part of Playwrights Foundation’s 2012 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, where she was working as a dramaturg on George Brant’s play “Grounded.” She’s been pitching Dahlquist’s play to theater groups on and off ever since.
All the other plays from that year’s festival have premiered in the meantime. Two of them went on to win Glickman Awards for best play to premiere in the Bay Area: Christopher Chen’s “The Hundred Flowers Project” with Crowded Fire Theater and Aaron Loeb’s “Ideation” with San Francisco Playhouse. SF Playhouse did “Grounded” as part of a rolling world premiere, and Lauren Yee’s “Samsara” debuted at Chicago’s Victory Gardens.
Merritt first started experiencing symptoms in March 2022, such as slurred speech and difficulty singing in tune.
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