NEW LONDON — It’s possible, given their involvement in New York theater, that writer and actress Laurie Graff and comedian and composer Nancy Shayne eventually would have crossed paths.
But as fate would have it, their friendship took root not in an acting workshop or a writers’ salon, but at a pet bereavement group at an animal hospital.
In 2011, Shayne was mourning the death of her pug, Willie Bean, who succumbed to melanoma of the mouth, while Graff was bereft over the loss of her Maltese, Charlie, who suffered from Cushing’s disease, a hormonal disorder.
“I didn’t know what to do. I was lost,” Shayne recalled.
Eventually, the two started meeting for dinner every Wednesday. One day Shayne played Graff a snippet of a song she called “Charlie’s Shiva.”
“I heard her music and it just went right to my soul, and then we just talked and we looked at each other and we were like, ‘We have to write this,’ ” Graff said.
“The Pet Project,” Shayne and Graff’s musical about a fictional pet bereavement group in New York City, is slated to make its world premiere at New London Barn Playhouse this Thursday.
Directed by Emmy Award-winning actress Francesca James, “The Pet Project” follows one meeting among six members and their fledgling leader at Pets “R” Us bereavement group in an animal hospital on a frigid winter night.
Graff said the play could be set in any metropolitan area, but there’s something about these characters that feels distinctly New York, as if they were plucked from the supporting cast of “Sex and the City.” (Aptly, Shayne and Willie Bean made an appearance in the series’ 2008 movie sequel.)
Among the group’s members are Sandi, a single woman who sat shiva for her dog to honor his death; Leo, a gay lawyer who’s bereft over the loss of his beloved cat; Jill, whose sadness has rendered her mute; Gina, an acerbic woman who hates dogs and misses her cat; and Val and Marco who are desperate to resuscitate their marriage after Marco has taken to blaming his wife for the death of their darling Willie Bean.
Each character delivers their tragic reason for showing up that day in a song, be it in the form of a Joni Mitchell-style lament, or an angry ballad.
What they sing “comes from the character themselves, and what they’re going through drives it,” said musical director Rob Cookman.
A number of observations from Graff and Shayne’s time in their bereavement group are grafted onto “The Pet Project,” namely, the competitive dynamic at play between cat and dog owners.
“The dog people kind of tended to want to hear the dog stories,” Shayne said.
The two chalked up the tribalistic tendency to poor leadership from the group’s mediator. “It was like a free-for-all,” Graff said.
The play’s characters might exhibit some of the same group dynamics, but ultimately their story is one of mutual solidarity, and a needed one at that, Graff and Shayne said.
While the pet industry may be booming, with owners willing to go to extreme lengths for their pet’s well-being (Hanover resident Geraldine Van Dusen wrote last month in the Valley News about the expensive and time-consuming process of saving her dachshund’s life after she ingested a poisonous mushroom), there are few stories, in theater or otherwise, that get at the overwhelming grief that can surface when a pet dies.
“I never knew that his loss would make me feel like there was really no reason to have a life without him because he had brought me such joy,” Shayne said of Willie Bean.
People who have lost a pet may finally have a story made for them.
Shayne and Graff have a lot to show for their experience of loss, too. Following the shows at Barn Playhouse, they hope “The Pet Project” will land a run in New York, a national tour, and even a partnership with an animal adoption agency.
“As horrible as it was to lose (our dogs), look what they brought us,” Graff said. “Not just the joy of those years, but this friendship, this collaboration, this show.”
“I look at my dog as magic,” she said.
“The Pet Project” is up at the New London Barn Playhouse from Thursday, Sept. 4 through Sunday, Sept. 7. For tickets ($49) and more information, visit nlbarn.org or call 603-526-6710.
First Friday fun
This week marks First Friday in White River Junction. At the center of the festivities is Revolution’s semi-annual parking lot party located behind the store. Quechee’s DJ Skar will be spinning beats on vinyl, and Munchie-Rollz will serve a variety of egg roll-inspired eats for hungry partygoers. RePlay Arts and Northern Stage also will have craft projects set up for kids and anyone else who’s interested. To learn more about the event, visit Revolution’s Facebook page.
In addition to the parking lot party, Tip Top Pottery is waiving studio fees after 5 p.m. and Putnam’s Vineyard will be holding tarot card readings along with live music from jazz guitarist Tom Horton Davis, of Norwich, and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter, Chloe Brisson. A menu of summery drink specials including house-made limoncello will be available as well.
Later in the evening, at 8 p.m, JAM (Junction Arts & Media) will host a free screening of short films by Upper Valley filmmakers in Lyman Point Park. For more information about the event, visit uvjam.org.
They aged like fine…cheese?
On Sunday, Billings Farm & Museum will host a screening of “Shelf Life,” a documentary from Emmy-nominated Maine director Ian Cheney that looks at the parallels between the aging process of cheese and the human process of growing old. What’s the human equivalent of a well-aged cheddar?
The event is a collaboration with the Vermont Cheese Council in honor of Vermont Cheese Week. The screening, which is slated for 3 p.m. at the visitor center theater will be followed by a cheese tasting and discussion with Zoe Brickley of Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vt. Admission is free and open to the public, but the theater has a limited capacity, so moviegoers should arrive early to secure a spot. For more information, visit billingsfarm.org.
