STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The art of the pen pal—a one-time familiar ritual—now replaced by Instagram and Snapchat.

It’s an oddity in today’s social media world is definitely is on the mind of one girl as she sits down to pen a letter to a girl in England as part of a class assignment.

“This is so weird,” she writes. “I’ve never written a letter before, have you? I guess it’s like texting, but with paper.”

At least that’s the way the play started out on Monday. The play “Pal” could look completely different by Friday night when actors present it in a play reading at The Liberty Theatre.

And, then, it’s possible the audience’s response could change it further.

“The audience doesn’t lie,” said playwright Tasha Gordon-Solmon. “If everyone laughs, you know it’s funny. If they start shifting in their seats, something needs to be fixed.”

Gordon-Solmon, a New York playwright, is in the Wood River Valley collaborating with Company of Fools on her new work-in-progress.

A free reading of the play will be staged at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, with a post-show conversation following. Audience members will be able to ask questions about the play and, perhaps, even contribute to its development during the post-show chat.

Taking a play like this one through the process of rewriting—and rewriting some more—dovetails with the Sun Valley Center for the Arts’ current BIG IDEA Project “The Unreliable Narrator,” said Ilana Becker, Company of Fools’ interim artistic director.

“For one thing, this is unreliable. We have one draft at the beginning and it changes through the week because of who we are,” she said.

The project also fits with the “Unreliable Narrator” on other levels, one of them being that the identity someone creates in a letter may be their own version of themselves and not who they really are, said Gordon-Solmon.

“You’re writing a letter to someone who doesn’t know you or your life and where you came from so you can embellish,” she said.

Indeed, the DOA—draft on arrival—could very well leave viewers wondering what’s real and what’s fantasy in some areas as the two letter writers weave through talk of their deepest wishes and greatest fears.

“I’m so interested in the relationship between these two people, the way they use the language in the letters to create versions of themselves for connection. There’s something so relatable about this,” said Gordon-Solmon.

The play boasts a secondary them featuring the relationship of twins. Gordon-Solmon cut her teeth on “The Parent Trap” and the “Patty Duke Show” and had always wondered what it would have been like to have had a twin who could have understood everything about her.

It comes out in the play in some very unique ways—at least, in the DOA.

Gordon-Solmon, a recipient of the Dramatist Guild Fellowship, has written a number of plays, which have been developed and produced at places like Actors Theater of Louisville and The Humana Festival of New American Plays produced annually in Louisville, Ky.

One of them, “I Now Pronounce,” revolves around weddings and the multifaceted opportunities they provide for elation and dread as one navigates pent-up fears about committing one’s life to one person.

“Coffee Break” follows two co-workers over repeated cups of coffee but it also segues into the relationship between inanimate objects, such as that of a scone that falls in love with a saucer.

The play reading will star Sophie Hassett, the New York actress who co-starred in the recent Company of Fools play “Bright Half Life.” She is joined on stage by Boise actress Tiara Thompson.

The two read the play onstage with Becker, the director, and Gordon-Solmon for the first time during a four-hour session Monday afternoon. That session will be followed by three more four-hour sessions leading up to Friday’s staged reading.

Gordon-Solmon, who had already revised the draft based on preliminary comments from Becker, scribbled furiously as the two actors asked questions about the play and the characters and offered comments.

“Between the first draft and production there are a lot of drafts. And, at some point, you need to hear the play read. My plays tend to be language driven so I need to listen to the rhythm and how it sounds,” she said.

The actresses comprise the first audience members, Becker said.

“And the audience is always our final collaborator,” she added. “Maybe Tasha thinks the audience will respond one way and they respond in a very different way.”

Hassett says most of the work she does involves new plays. That’s ironic, she said because school focused on the classics and Shakespeare.

“This play feels very real to me, as I had a pen pal growing up,” she added.

“What I’ve gleaned so far is that our plans for the future don’t always turn out like we imagine—that life always surprises you,” added Thompson.

Gordon-Solmon says baring her scripts before directors and actors is always terrifying.

“Right before they start reading, it feels horrifying. I think, ‘Why did I do this to myself?’ But it’s also exciting, as I understand it’s a step in process,” she said. “Really, we’re all in this together learning and building the final version.”

In the final analysis Gordon-Solmon hopes that the play will resemble something more than two actors sitting on stage writing and reading their letters.

“I hope that something magical will occur as the audience becomes caught up in two pen pals building a relationship,” she said.

IF YOU GO:

Admission to the play is free, but donations are welcome. For information, call The Center at 208-726-9491.