←Recommendations of The Guest Room

Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn masterfully explores the emotional weight of loss through surreal imagery and aching dialogue. It’s tender, haunting, and quietly unforgettable. It's a beautiful play that walks the fine line between holding on and letting go.

There is no more consistently inconsistent force of nature than grief. It comes in waves, but randomly. It never goes away but it does get sick of us if we hold on too tightly, and checks back in after we let it go. Grief is also contagious. When it doesn’t spread directly, its damage has a radius. Floyd-Priskorn miraculously pulls off manifestations of grief that capture its amorphous/polymorphous nature, both in its immediate presence and over time. A gentle, subtle, extraordinary work.

Jacquelyn Priskorn has penned a moving play about May and Dan navigating the “after” of every parent’s worst nightmare. THE GUEST ROOM is certain to stay with audience members long after the house lights come up.

A study in grief by Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn about May and Dan and their struggle to move beyond the death of their child and piece together a relationship that will never be the same without that child. Even though we see the darkness that has overwhelmed them, there is a glimmer of hope as they discuss the possibility of painting the room a new color. Sometimes, those smallest of acts can start us down a road of hope and promise.

When we can’t seem to let go of the memory of someone we lost, are we clinging to that memory or is the memory an entity capable of controlling our emotions? In this deeply moving story from Jacquie Floyd-Priskorn, two parents struggle to move beyond their grief and guilt over losing a child and repair their marriage. Could painting a room be the answer? Beautifully written with wonderful possibilities for staging, including as a film for which it has already won numerous awards. Terrific work!

May and Dan struggle with their grief and, in Dan’s case, with feelings of guilt as well. Can it possibly be as simple as repainting a room? The Guest Room is a heartbreaking story but not without hope. Jacquie Floyd-Priskorn gives us three distinct perspectives on the loss of a child in this heartbreaking story. Perhaps a coat of paint will make a difference, be a significant step on the road to healing. Superb!

JACQUELYN FLOYD-PRISKORN’s “The Guest Room” is a touching and powerful piece of the grief of parents who loss a child. We can never truly forget, or ‘get over’, missing a loved one. The sorrow is always there. But, in this beautiful piece, the parents try to find their way to a kind of peace of mind, as best they can.

People we love never really go away. They exist, in an old photo, a song on the radio, a box in the attic, a memory in our heart. May needs something more, a manifestation she can continue to live her life with. But it comes with a price. As she grows closer to the memory of a lost child, she inadvertently pushes her husband away. As he tries to get his wife to move on, we find he has his own connection to his daughter that complicates his being able to. This is touching and heartbreaking.

A gentle, thoughtful three-hander that when it lands its punch, it hits like a sledgehammer. A touching consideration of grief and the ways we learn to cope at the expense of those who survive with us.