Somerset Valley Players Wants Your 9/11 Story

Midge Guerrera has shared the story of her experiences on Sept. 11, and now she’d like you to share yours.

Guerrera is a Hillsborough resident and playwright whose newest play, “E-Mail 9/12,” follows five characters who tell their Sept. 11 stories through e-mail. Somerset Valley Players is presenting a staged reading of the play on Sept. 10, and to make it complete, the group is seeking stories from Hillsborough residents to include in the play.

“Part of my personal goal was that theaters and communities would use the play as a catalyst for discussion,” Guerrera says, “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.”

Guerrera left “donut holes” in the script where stories from Hillsborough residents can be added. Anyone who would like their stories considered for inclusion in the play can e-mail them to lindag852@aol.com or call 908-359-3881.

“(That) personalizes the production, that was my objective, to make this a personal story,” Guerrera says, adding that the play is also being performed in Philadelphia and Manhattan.

The stories Guerrera wrote will be in each production.

The play begins with an e-mail from Margaret, who sees the attacks on the World Trade Center from the window of a train. When she gets home, she sends e-mails to friends and family. She spends a restless night away from her husband and in the morning discovers an inbox full of e-mails.

Margaret’s story reflects Guerrera’s real-life experience on that day, spent teaching at Rutgers in Newark.

“Essentially, that first e-mail of the play is my story,” she says. “No knew what was going on and people were pulling out their cell phones and trying to find out what had happened.”

When she got to University Heights, people were on the building’s roof to watch the Towers, while others took in news reports on television and the Internet.

“Then suddenly, a second plane hit the second tower. We were close enough to see it from University Heights and to feel the shock of it all, but it was a difficult day for all of us, even to get home because you couldn’t get a train out, everything stopped.”

In writing her play, one of Guerrera’s goals was to explore the wide range of emotions people felt on Sept. 11.

“I wanted to show the disparity between how people felt that day,” she says. “Some people felt fear, some people felt sadness, there are moments of humor, there’s a story of a child. Each e-mail is from a different character and each character had a different perspective on that day.”

There are serious and emotional stories of course, but also humorous ones, including one about a man who was on a boat with his mistress when the attacks happened. Guerrera says some of her tales are based on interviews she held with people. When asked if the one about the guy on the boat was based on someone’s actual story, she replies, “I’m not telling tales out of school on that one.”

Guerrera thinks e-mail is an ideal way to submit a story because it would fit the structure of the play.

“Because it’s an e-mail and it’s a format that we’re now all so familiar with, I thought that would be an easier way for members of the community to feel comfortable drafting their stories,” she says. “Rather than having someone ask, ‘Write me a monologue,’ which sounds scary.”