However, in the last decade she's been a prolific writer of plays, television shows, and screenplays. I first encountered Ackermann when, in 1995, I played Lee in a small production of her wonderful, bittersweet play, Stanton's Garage. Like Stanton's Garage, Off the Map describes moments when characters find themselves stuck or broken down, in need of healing and redemption.
Unlikely saviors come to the rescue in both plays, and images of journeys and travel proliferate.
In Off the Map, readings recur from Richard Henry Dana's 19th century classic, Two Years Before the Mast. Lyrical and evocative, Dana's book a compilation of his private journals also describes the practicalities of a sailor's life. His sea voyage has obvious resonance in this memory play's journey through a family's turbulent summer. However, as we've drawn closer to opening, I've found myself coming back to the questions that more literal journeys or vacations always raise in me questions raised by Ackermann's plays and Dana's book. This play won't give you the answers to these questions, but I hope you'll enjoy the way it asks us to ponder them.