I Am Ship
by Martha Pichey
directed by Sherri Eden Barber
I AM A SHIP takes us on board a whaleship and into the heart of the hunt. Yet men are nowhere to be seen—heard, yes, but this wholly original work is through the eyes of two women who live their lives one hundred and fifty years apart. Eliza defies convention to join her whaling captain husband aboard Superior in 1858, yearning to start a family. Pearl defies time to join her on board, searching for solace and escape after the death of her husband leaves her to raise three sons alone.
With a rich visual and musical aesthetic, I AM A SHIP draws from the countless whaling journals written by women who went to sea in the 1800s for Eliza’s story. And for Pearl’s, the story stems from the playwright’s own. Together, they gain strength and sisterhood through feelings of hope, love, grief, and frustration during an extraordinary year at sea.
Martha Pincley
Playwright
Sherri Eden Barber is a director, Artistic Director of Ricochet Collective, and Resident Director of HAMILTON on the West Coast (And Peggy). Recent productions: Tiny Beautiful Things with Nia Vardalos (Pasadena Playhouse), To Let Go and Fall (Theater Latté Da), Esperanza Spalding’s Emily’s D+Evolution (Development on European Tour), Happily After Ever (Ricochet Collective – 59E59, Edinburgh Fringe), good friday (The Flea Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Ricochet Collective – Teatro Circulo), Gordy Crashes (Ricochet Collective – IRT), Mr. Landing Takes A Fall (The Flea), Herman Kline’s Midlife Crisis (The Beckett), 24 Hour Plays on Broadway with Pablo Schreiber, Laverne Cox, and Melanie Griffith (American Airlines Theatre). Sherri is a recipient of The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Directors Fellowship, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and recipient of the US/UK Exchange Award. RicochetCollective.com | SherriEdenBarber.com
Sherri Eden
Director
Martha began her career in journalism, writing for publications such as The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, and Vanity Fair, along with writing for children at Scholastic. She earned her Masters in Screenwriting from the London College of Communication. Her first play,
Ashes & Ink, a semi-finalist for The O’Neill Conference, has been developed with support from the John Drew Theater Lab at Guild Hall in East Hampton, and a residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm. Produced by Nora’s Playhouse, Ashes & Ink opened in Montgomery, AL, in September, 2022, and is slated for production in New York.
She is a proud member of The Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Workshop, and the Beehive Collective of women writers. Her work can be found at www.marthapichey.com and The National New Play Network. Instagram: 73martha73