Consoling Through Communication

People needed to communicate on Sept. 11, 2001.

Whether you were in Manhattan that day or on the Jersey side of the river, there was an instinct to get in touch with co-workers, friends and families to talk about what was happening, reassure each other, and try to put things in perspective.

Hillsborough resident Midge Guerrera expressed her feelings that day through e-mail. When the first plane hit the North Tower, she was on a train on her way to Rutgers in Newark where she taught. She saw the second plane hit the South Tower from a rooftop on campus.

“We were close enough to see it from University Heights and to feel the shock of it all,” said Guerrera, whose father John was the mayor of Hillsborough in the 1960s and '70s. “But it was a difficult day for all of us, even to get home because you couldn’t get a train out, everything stopped.”

When she finally did get home, she e-mailed her friends and family about what she experienced and went to bed. She woke up the next morning to an inbox full of responses.

That experience led to “E-mail: 9/12,” the play Guerrera wrote based on her experiences that day, and which is being performed in a staged reading at on Sept. 10.

“Part of my personal goal was that theaters and communities would use the play as a catalyst for discussion,” Guerrera said. “That it would kick-start an open dialogue, because a lot has happened in 10 years and some things we talk about as a nation and some things we don’t.”

In the play, a woman named Margaret writes an e-mail similar to the one the Guerrera wrote. That leads to a series of replies from people sharing stories and thoughts about what they’ve experienced.

“One of the things that appealed to me so much about it when I read it was, given the fact that the piece is drawn, really, from the e-mails that she wrote back and forth in the days following 9/11, it brings so many different perspectives to the events that happened then, that I just found if fascinating,” said Andy Gordanier, who’s directing the play, which is also getting productions in Philadelphia and Asbury Park.

One perspective the play brings is a global one, as it includes thoughts from people throughout the world.

"We were all so personally impacted by those events — since to a degree we’re kind of extended New Yorkers — that getting some of that perspective globally, I thought, was really interesting,” Gordanier said. “And it’s something that I think a lot of us didn’t necessarily get exposure to.”

In writing the play, Guerrera left spaces where e-mails from people in each community can be included, making each production personal for the audience seeing it. Part of Gordanier’s work as director has been collaborating with people whose submissions will be featured in the play and figuring out how to best present them.

“It obviously hits very close to home and has a very personal impact,” he said. “At the same time, I think sometimes being able to share that and to voice that is therapeutic for people.”

The play’s cast consists of seven actors, all of whom play multiple characters, the exception being Jennifer Lubach, who plays Margaret. The other actors are Steve Hackenberg, Eileen Hladky, Betsy Schwartz, Joan Wagner and Ken Webb.

Gordanier said an advantage to the one-night only performance is that he was able to bring in talented actors he’s worked with before who might not be able to commit to a long run. He said that while reading the play, he heard specific voices speaking for certain characters. “They (the actors) will bring a voice to this like nobody else can,” he said. “So it’s been a great experience from a director’s perspective to be able to bring these people together.”

He hopes the play gets people talking about their own thoughts and experiences from that day. He’d also like people who see the play to remember how united America became after those attacks.

“And what I’m hoping is in that, particularly in looking at everything with the sort of 20/20 hindsight that we do now, about the events of 9/11, that we understand that it was a tragic, tragic series of events that happened that day,” he said. “But at the same time, we should remember the way we came together as Americans and the way we put our political differences aside to join together, and we shouldn’t lose that.”

“E-mail: 9/12” will be performed at Somerset Valley Players Playhouse, 689 Amwell Road in Hillsborough, on Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, donations will be accepted and will be given to a 9/11 charity. For information, call 908-369-7469.