...but you could've held my hand by JuCoby Johnson

Four ten-year olds meet at a wedding. Little do they know, they will become the center of each other's lives for decades to come. Jumping through time, the play uses dance, music, and poetry to explore sexuality, gender, race, and love. You know, the big stuff. Life stuff.
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...but you could've held my hand

Recommended by

  • Kullen Burnet:
    22 Jun. 2020
    “ Almost like an old school family film reel projected towards us, “...but you could’ve held my hand” flows, cross cuts, and fades in/out of a group of friends trials, tribulations, pains, and joys as they grow up together. The dialogue crackles with tenderhearted intimacy, inside jokes and humble truth telling. The characters are distinct, incredibly flawed and all the more lovable for those flaws. And a monologue given by Eddie towards the end is simultaneously transcendent and devastating. Read this play! ”
  • Doug DeVita:
    3 Jun. 2020
    “ Four friends go through the big stuff and the little stuff and all the stuff in between over the course of several decades in this beautifully written piece. Johnson's effective use of time-jumping, and his exquisitely wrought characters – deeply flawed and wonderfully human as they are – lift the play from the merely marvelous into the sublimely superb. I loved reading it, and I'd love to see it staged. ”
  • Nick Malakhow:
    31 May. 2020
    “ Beautiful, exquisite, profound! I was bowled over by this piece and the opportunity to get to know these four loveable, flawed, and so tenderly-rendered humans. The exciting theatricality--shifting through time, the movement sequences, poignant and punctuating moments of magic--is balanced so adeptly with incredibly well-observed and human dialogue. I especially enjoyed the nuanced and complex treatment of huge topics that are written here with such a fine-tuned instrument--addiction, identity, love, gender, race. The portrayal of Eddie's struggles with addiction, in particular, floored me with its honesty, warmth, and delicacy. I sincerely hope to see this powerful play onstage soon! ”
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1F
2M
1 Non-Binary

Can be done with four actors who also do the movement in the piece or with four actors and up to four additional performers to do movement.

Development History

  • Workshop
    ,
    Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
    ,
    2020

Awards

Finalist
,
National Playwrights Conference
,
Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
,
2020