Mothers Past, Daughters Future...

SHOW TITLE: Mothers Daughters

COMPANY: Meighan O'Brien and Andrea Parson

BASED CITY OF COMPANY: McKinleyville and Portland

AUTHOR: Meighan O'Brien and Andrea Parson

SHOW DESCRIPTION: “Orphan Girl” Created and Performed by Meighan O’Brien Directed by Cynthia Martells Solo Performance and Clown Coach by Michelle Matlock

In Orphan Girl, Meighan weaves together physical theater, dramatic monologue, and song to explore the haunting legacy of emotional absence in her family’s life. Through a visceral and intimate solo performance, she invites the audience into a generational reckoning—one where the echoes of unspoken grief and the longing for love ripple through the bloodline.

Can we transform inherited silence into connection? Can we reshape the cold relics of the past—a chain of emptiness, a stone cold bone—into new life, filled with meaning and care? With raw vulnerability and fierce artistry, Orphan Girl dares us to confront our personal history and asks: is it possible to turn our personal Density of Absence into love?

"The One” Created and Performed by Andrea Parson, Directed by Jessica Wallenfels

“In order to love somebody else, you have to love yourself first.” That’s what her mother told her when she was eight. Thirty years later, Andrea still wonders—was she right? The self-help gurus echo the same mantra: to find The One, you must first fall madly in love with yourself. Oh God…

In The One, multidisciplinary artist Andrea Parson dives headfirst into the slippery world of self-love and the search for connection. Is The One a romantic partner? A higher self? A Divine presence? Or a mystical feline named couts?

Blending evocative movement, heartfelt storytelling, and a playful clown sensibility, Andrea explores the modern obsession with finding love through the unexpected lens of a 14th-century medieval anchoress—those radical women who chose to live enclosed in tiny cells attached to churches as brides of Christ. For real.

Witty, sacred, and deeply personal, The One is a solo performance that dances between past and present, absurdity and truth, sacred longing and laugh-out-loud confession. Join Andrea on a journey where love might be elusive, but the search is everything.

TYPE OF SHOW: Both Solo-One Comedy and One Drama

TIME OF SHOW: 60

WARNINGS: None

BIOS:

Meighan O’Brien is a dedicated performer and emerging solo artist. In March 2025, she workshopped and performed her original solo piece, Orphan Girl, at Dell’Arte in Blue Lake, California, incorporating original music and personal storytelling. She appeared as Mother Superior in Ferndale Repertory Theatre’s 2023 production of Sister Act, where she sang two solos, danced in a large ensemble number, and brought the house down in the show’s finale alongside the leading lady. Meighan previously portrayed Sister Margareta in the 2015 Mainstage production of The Sound of Music at the Arkley Center in Eureka, California, performing with a professional cast in a beloved classic. She has studied acting with Ruthe Engelke (2016) and at Monterey Peninsula College (2021). Meighan’s website : meighanobrien.com.

Born and raised in Hillsboro, Oregon, Andrea Parson began dancing in the late 1980’s to the country records played in her family living room and in her mother’s aerobics classes. She began choreographing at a young age, making dances for friends and family, and often improvised down grocery store aisles. With dreams of becoming a professional dancer she furthered her studies at the Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Loyola Marymount University, where she received a BA in dance in 2009. After graduating she joined Northwest Dance Project in Portland, Oregon, where she received a Princess Grace Dance Fellowship award in 2010. For 11 years she performed nationally and internationally, finding much delight in dancing dramatic character roles such as Hedda Gabler and Carmen.

Andrea currently resides in Portland, Oregon where she creates solo shows, and devised ensemble dance theater productions. Her performance work blends contemporary dance, physical theater, storytelling and often comedy. Her latest award winning solo show, You Can’t Be Serious was presented at BodyVox Dance Center in 2023, as well as the Oregon Fringe Festival (2024), Hollywood Fringe Festival (2024), and United Solo Festival in NYC. As a choreographer Andrea has collaborated and created original dance works for both dance and theater organizations around the Pacific Northwest. andreaparson.com