Hedy Understands Anxiety

Hedy Grier, an African-American woman, has just buried her grandmother, Maxine. With no ties, Hedy uproots herself, sells her Harlem brownstone, and embarks on a cross-country trip to search for the mother who abandoned her 20 years before. Hedy then takes the audience on a fantastic ride through states both real and imagined, hilarious and tragic—a truly romantic and mythical journey across the U.S. and into Hedy's past and present. On the road Hedy reluctantly picks up a drifter in search of his big break in Las Vegas. From the moment they "collide" at an Ohio gas station, Armand becomes Hedy's verbal sparring partner. Unwittingly, she finds herself locked with this equally sharp-tongued companion in the search for a new identity and a break from the past. Against the backdrop of '70s black empowerment, music and fashion, Hedy and Armand raze the ghost of Hedy's enigmatic mother, Isadora, in 1990s fashion. A funny and moving play, replete with ghosts from the past—including the recalcitrant Maxine whose spirit keeps coming back—Hedy Understands Anxiety is a story about an African-American woman in search of a personal history, a history that eludes and threatens to consume her.