Water was a melody, a liminality, and a place
an oracle, and a dance floor
a stillness, a weight, and a light
a night sky, a gray whale
a distance and a dream
a refuge, a rescue remedy, a wilderness.
-Sara Nesson
Sara Nesson is multi-talented creator who once enjoyed the freedom of a body untethered, experiencing the transcendent through outdoor adventures and a thriving career mentoring Jewish teenagers. But when she was diagnosed with ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) she was forced to find new doorways to the sacred, turning first to visual art and then back to her roots as a writer and storyteller. Through her work, she opens a dialog about loss and creativity’s power to heal our spirits and provide refuge through hard times.
I recently had the privilege to read Sara Nesson’s advance script for her newest monologue Body of Water, which follows her journey as a landlocked distance swimmer struggling to find the way home. And to honor the title, I wanted full-body immersion. Setting aside an afternoon with a cat on my lap, I let her waves of dialog crash over me, feeling into the mastery of her storytelling and its layered expressions—from mundane to sublime. When I finished, I was left with a deep appreciation for the way Sara illuminates a path of sacred becoming for any of us who face loss and uncertainty.
Please take a moment to watch Sara’s trailer for Body of Water, which she tours online. For bookings or to be in touch with Sara, you can reach out to her directly via her website.
Sara is an artist, writer, and performer with a lifelong passion for all things creative.
As a dramatist, she has been creating and performing theater for twenty-five years, appearing with companies such as A Traveling Jewish Theatre and The Marsh in San Francisco. After a 2.5 year tour of her solo work The Broken Mishkan to communities around the country, she is now offering a new solo piece, Body of Water, a tale about wrestling with life’s limitations.
Sara is a 2023 recipient of the Janavi Held Endowed Poetry & Art Grant and her creative projects have received funding from Interfaith America, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Alliance for Jewish Theatre.
Sara has also led Taizé candlelight services in churches, taught storytelling workshops at seminaries and hospitals, mentored Jewish teenagers, and performed as a singer-songwriter. She facilitates a group for artists living with chronic illness and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Harvard College, and the Graduate Theological Union.
These days Sara lives on a peaceful hillside in northern California with her husband and two high-personality cats.
This sounds intriguing. She has a beautiful expressive face as she's performing. I'm writing about water at the moment--the full immersion and transformational element of it. (It is a story about actual water though!) xo
It is so wonderful that when our physical limits are hampered we are still able to find a sense of peace through different forms of art. Thanks for sharing Sara’s story.