Our Souls Did Touch | BorderLight 2026

Kiara Sylvie Durbin

I first saw Kierstan Kathleen Conway when played Kattrin in a local production of Mother Courage and Her Children. Kattrin is the daughter of the titular character, so traumatized by her wartime experiences she has been rendered voiceless. 

My wife and I were both so taken by Conway's performance and I strongly recommended the folks at Talespinner Children's Theatre ask her to audition for my new play, The Toothpaste Millionaire. 

It wasn't until after I had suggested she audition that I realized I had never heard her speak. No matter, she was just the right person to play Kate.

Conway is not only a talented actor, she is also a photographer, theater producer and playwright, and she wrote Our Souls Did Touch which was presented in the Grille at the Hermit Club. I don't know enough about the Hermit Club to know why they call it that, the paneling and baby grand piano more befits a space called the Parlor than the Grille, but it was ideal for this production.

Shows like this are like an elegant gift box, when a fringe production is assigned an unusual space which they subtly inhabit (I speak from experience). I can't even say whether Conway's team brought in a single piece of furniture, they didn't need to, it was all right there, down to the small piano lamp which narrator Truth Alice Taylor, channeling the spirit of Hedda Hopper, would use to briefly illuminate her space to provide context and innuendo.

Our Souls is a fictional piece inspired by the kind of sordid tales found in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, though in this case "sordid" doesn't involve ugly details like Coke bottles or low overpasses but instead the lives of people in non-heteronormative relationships.

Complimenting the space, Conway created handwritten programs in the form of love letters, and designed a series of devastatingly stylish period looks. The playwright is also blessed with a classic face, even in her starlet character's most difficult moments, she looked as though she could be captured for a black and white still for Look. Her paramour, a journalist played by Kiara Sylvie Durbin, was styled in a number of Katherine Hepburnesque pants looks, each more confident than the one before.

This is what I am talking about. Big stories, big talent, small budget well spent, a dedication to the details. Well done.

BorderLight Theatre Festival at Playhouse Square, July 8-11, 2026