Director battling ALS brings show to SF stage despite not being able to speak
SAN FRANCISCO – Despite not being able to speak due to a deadly disease, a Bay Area theater director is at the helm of a play opening in San Francisco Thursday.
Erin Merritt has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Merritt spends her days typing into a synthesizer computer, which has become her extended voice.
It's how she directs, and it is how we did the interview.
Merritt lost her voice when she was teaching a Shakespeare theater class and it kept getting worse. Last August, the diagnosis came. It's a condition that breaks down nerve cells.
"What does the future hold? Oh, who knows?" Erin told KPIX via her computer.
"I will become increasing disabled and die. ALS is 100% fatal and though there are medications for it, all it will do is slow down progression and don't seem to be working for me," she went on to say.
The heartbreaking diagnosis sent out a rally cry to the Bay Area theater community. A final play to direct.
The play, called "Tea Party," is opening Thursday at the city's ACT Strand Theater.
"It takes time to type. She still brings her humor, and she asks open ended questions," said actor Anthony Cistaro.
How it's all coming together is a work of pure art in itself.
Rehearsals can be challenging, and her daily medication treatments are exhausting. But she perseveres and smiles and even makes her cast laugh.
"She also takes time to be funny which I appreciate," said Cistaro.
Merritt went to Berkeley High school and has two 17-year-old twin daughters. Actors in the community have set up a fund for her as she will need medical equipment as the disease progresses.
"Tea Party" runs through March 19.