Until Next Time

After three years, six productions, eight locations, many nights of improv, summer play readings, and a virtual improv festival, we have chosen to step away from Hearth and Mantel Theatre for the time being. We are so grateful for all of your support and constant encouragement as we started this company from the ground up. Through your patronage, we sold over 500 tickets as a brand new company, which allowed for five full length plays to have their world premieres right here in Jackson, Mississippi. So, THANK YOU! Thank you for coming to all of our quirky venues, sharing countless cups of coffee with us, and being a part of this process. Your belief in us and our vision has meant more to us than you can imagine.

On Writing The Lady With Bruce Willis Eyes: Behind-The-Scenes, Weird Titles, and Storytelling

I like to think this play is for you, for any human wrestling to make sense of all the love and loss and suffering we go through, for the collective “us” as we try and claw past one another’s walls of insecurity and anxieties and, somehow, miraculously, connect with each other. This story is for that friend we lost we never expected to lose and that glowing light in their eyes we haven’t seen in so long.

Drifting Stars and Unfamiliar Skies

“The Dying of Ida Greene” began two years ago with image and word, neither of which exist in the current drafts of the play. In fact, the only things that remain of the early drafts are the names of the characters. It wasn’t until Pavel turned his face to the sky and began talking about the stars that the play truly began to take shape. Even then, I wasn’t quite sure what the point of it all was. It wasn’t until I heard my wife describe the play to a friend of ours that I came to realize: more than anything, “The Dying of Ida Greene” has become an exploration of the ways in which people change.