Been listening to a stethoscope to sleep at night. / Listening to your heart? / My chest, my breath. Though I know I have a murmur, I know I’m fine. / I think you are great.

“Miss Your Tan Line” is a one act play inspired by when I lost one of my shoes and my doctor told me to take off the other. The audience sat in chairs arranged like a waiting room, pointing in different directions, with the performers in the center. The play has two characters, a hypochondriac doctor and the patient who is in love with them. The action takes place over one of their frequent appointments. The visit is more than routine. It is an experience memorized by both of them; they are very close. It’s the inner dialogue of a person who is lonely but not alone, hurt but not hurting. Walking around with one shoe all day really hurts and you want that other shoe real bad. If you take off the one you have, will you be relieved of those feelings? If anything there is satisfaction in symmetry. I am considering how longing can be traumatic if not acknowledged. Both characters are obsessed with the doctor in different ways, the doctor out of worry over their own health and the patient out of love. The patient wants the doctor and the doctor wants a diagnosis. Love isn’t often mutual but these emotions are pointing in the same direction, towards an anxiety around potential loss. The play was meant to portray comfort and provide options for healing.