“ The way we grieve tells a lot about how we see ourselves in relation to our loved ones: those still with us, and those we mourn. In "Shrines," Ashley Rose Wellman shows us how one family clings to the memory of a lost child and does it in a touching, often humorous, and at times creepy way, yet we never lose sight of the loss each character feels and how it has changed them over the years. ”

“ Four explicitly drawn, complicated characters drive this sad, funny, powerful play. With dark humor the story of the deluded, grieving parents unfolds, in contrast to that of the dead woman’s troubled sister and the former fiancé. At times I cringed right through the laughter. I was fortunate to see the superb reading of Shrines at the Valdez Theatre Conference. Beautiful work. ”

“ I am so grateful to have seen a reading of this play at the Valdez Theater Conference in June 2021. There is so much that is so powerful and impressive about this play and its deeply painful, humane, and fresh expression of grief. Wellman has created four incredibly human and complicated characters, who we get to know intimately, painfully - and in real-time - as the guts of their lives spill out right in front of us. Wellman's attention to detail - in all ways - is exquisite and devastating. This is a beautiful, exciting work of theater. ”

“ A deep meditation on grief and its ability to capture and cage people in their moment of loss, exacerbated by pernicious, omnipresent social media. Wellman employs humor, and a slow, creeping dread that draws us into the world of these richly-hewn, deeply-broken characters. I heard a reading of the play as part of the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and was stunned by the dynamic tension, the investment in story, the well of hope and the devastating reveals. Wellman find capacity to express the new, within an age-old universal emotion grief. Brava. ”