09/11/2026
25 years later, we remember. 🇺🇸
Twenty-five years ago today, our country changed forever.
This year, we had the privilege of telling the story of Come From Away. A story that begins on one of the darkest days in our history, but ultimately becomes a story about humanity, kindness, and what happens when people choose to open their doors to strangers.
As we prepared for this production, we knew we wanted the people who were lost on September 11, 2001, to be more than a number in the story.
So we put their names on our set.
All 2,977 of them.
And our cast didn't simply print those names or put them on a backdrop.
They wrote every single one by hand.
For weeks, those names surrounded our cast through every rehearsal and every performance. They became part of our company’s experience of telling this story.
They were there during the laughter and the ridiculous moments. They were there during the exhaustion of tech week. They were there during the quiet moments when the weight of the story really sank in.
We thought about them during “Something’s Missing,” when the show asks us to sit with the emptiness left behind.
We thought about them when our characters were searching for connection, comfort, and something familiar in a world that had suddenly become unfamiliar.
We laughed with those names.
We cried with those names.
We sang with those names.
And somewhere along the way, they stopped feeling like words written across a backdrop and started feeling like the people they represented.
Every time we looked at that wall, we were reminded that every one of those 2,977 people had a life. They had families, friends, jobs, inside jokes, favorite songs, people who loved them, and people who were waiting for them to come home.
They were people. And we wanted to remember them as people.
At the center of that wall, we placed the words:
“NO DAY SHALL ERASE YOU FROM THE MEMORY OF TIME.”
And at the bottom:
“We honor what was lost. But we also commemorate what we found.”
Those words became more meaningful to us with every rehearsal.
Because Come From Away doesn't pretend that September 11 didn't leave an unimaginable hole behind. It asks us to look at what happened in the middle of that loss, too.
We found people who opened their homes to strangers.
We found communities that fed, comforted, and cared for people they had never met.
We found kindness in unexpected places.
We found courage.
We found generosity.
We found connection.
And we found that, even in the middle of something terrible, people could still choose to take care of one another.
As a small-town theater company, that part of the story means a great deal to us.
We know what it means when a community shows up.
We know what it means when someone lends a hand, makes room at the table, brings what they can, or simply asks, “What do you need?”
That is why this story stayed with us.
We were fortunate enough to tell Come From Away this year, but in many ways, the story became something bigger than a production. It became something we carried with us.
And perhaps the most important thing we took from it is that remembering isn't only about looking backward. It's about deciding what we carry forward.
Twenty-five years later, we remember the 2,977 people whose names surrounded our stage.
We remember their families.
We remember the first responders and the heroes who ran toward the danger.
We remember the survivors and everyone whose life was changed forever.
And we remember the kindness that emerged when the world was at its darkest.
We honor what was lost.
But we also commemorate what we found.
Twenty-five years later, we remember.
We will never forget. 🇺🇸
