The Things We Keep
Late at night in a self-storage facility, Adam sorts through his late husband’s belongings, trying to outrun grief he’s been avoiding for months. Nick, the young night attendant, ends up stuck on-site and almost accidentally becomes Adam’s witness and helper. They find a letter in the husband’s handwriting addressed to “Michael,” revealing the husband confided in someone else during his illness because Adam tried too hard to fix him instead of simply listening. The discovery forces Adam to confront guilt, betrayal, and love, while Nick admits he once left someone too soon out of fear. Adam finally leaves with the sense that people are like storage units—packed tight with what they can’t say, waiting for someone to open the door.
David J. Valdez (Playwright) is a Tampa-based director and educator whose work lives at the intersection of queerness, tenderness, and survival in red America. His plays often examine the quiet bravery required to choose connection, especially in the face of grief, shame, memory, and loss. His play Learn to Live was featured in The Road Theatre Company’s Summer Playwrights Festival last year, transcendently directed by Brian Raiman, and he is deeply grateful (but mostly just surprised) to return to SPF 17.
David’s recent directing credits include I, Banquo at Jobsite Theater Company, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Alice by Heart at the University of South Florida, Steel Magnolias and The Glass Menagerie at Carrollwood Cultural Center, and RENT and The Normal Heart at Carrollwood Players. He holds an MFA from Florida State University, teaches theatre at USF, and is a Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Matt Hill is an educator, director, and actor from the Bay Area of California. MFA in Performance Pedagogy from LMU. Directing: Government Inspector (Wildwood); Pippin, Urinetown, A Christmas Carol (CMTSJ); Frozen, Aladdin, Disney’s Dreams (DCL). Acting: The Very Best People (IAMA), Les Miserables (National Tour), The Lightning Theif (National Tour), Frozen (DCL), Translations (LMU).
