INSIDE CATF: SEASON 25
EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH CATF: In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t know a
thing about fashion. A client once asked me if my shoes were Ferragamos. I replied, “No, they’re mine.” Would you recognize a pair of Ferragamos? SHEILA CALLAGHAN: No. I’m not a fashion maven. I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to labels. I know names, and I kind of stalk people on the Internet who have a fashion fetish. I’m sort of a voyeur of people who appreciate such things, but I am not an active appreciator myself. I don’t own one designer thing.
CATF: The following is from the opening to “Every-
Five Playwrights Five Voices By Sharon J. Anderson
thing You Touch.” Victor, a ruthless fashion designer, is addressing a model: “When the model spits with rage, I want to feel that spittle. I want to smell your sweat. I want to taste your bile. I want my blood to boil. And I want to feel too overwhelmed after the experience to speak. This, to me, is the power of fashion.” Is this the power of fashion? SC: No, it’s the power of art. Throughout the play, Victor sees what he does as a form of expression and a way of coping with a pretty devastating past rather than actually building clothes for people to put on their bodies. The play isn’t really about fashion even though fashion is the vehicle through which the play is communicated. It’s about family and art and what we compromise with one and what we sacrifice with the other. CATF: TimeOut New York said that “Everything You Touch”
has a “contagious nausea about women’s self-hatred.” SC: Through the character of Jess, we are coping with our own self-loathing. Jess’s self-loathing is partially brought about by societal expectations of what makes an acceptable female and partially because of her upbringing at the hands of a fairly toxic parent who was suffering.
Researched, interviewed and edited by Sharon J. Anderson, CATF Trustee/Professional Story Listener and Creative Director. sharonjanderson.com Interviews reprinted with permission from catf. Graphics provided by catf. 24 | fluent
CATF: Your play has been described as “the struggle to
find an identity that is more than skin deep.” Have you found your identify? SC: I find one every day. Part of my job is to inhabit
the psychic space of different individuals in order to accurately communicate them. I feel like if I’m not