‘A Memorial Service for Lily Evergreen’ @ Outcry Theatre

Photos by Jason Johnson-Spinos & Andy Gonzalez-Bendiksen

—Teresa Marrero

At memorial services for the recently deceased, one is bound to dig up old wounds and compare memories with other attendees about what the departed family member, friend, lover, acquaintance meant to you. Outcry Theatre’s A Memorial Service for Lily Evergreen does just that.  It is an immersive (though not participatory) experience staged in and outside the Stone Cottage at the Addison Performing Arts Centre.  Conceived by company founders Becca and Jason Johnson-Spinos, and devised by the cast and creative team (with direction by Jason Johnson-Spinos assisted by co-founder Becca), this 12-character piece invites the audience to eavesdrop on various conversations by the bereaved during the first 30 minutes of the show—followed by 60 minutes of the “service.”

Upon arrival, audience members are given a program entitled “Order of Service,” which includes some dos and don´ts about our contact with the actors. Guests (us) are given white clip-on roses to wear on our clothing, while funeral parlor staff wear purple flowers, and the bereaved family members no flower at all. This was a smart idea to help audience members identify who was who, where not to stand, etc.

After the initial action, and with what information we’d gathered by trailing actors and listening in, we moved into the Stone Cottage and took our seats. The program told us nothing about Lily Evergreen except that she was born in 1998 and passed away in 2025. She was quite young—too young. Was her death caused by a terminal disease, an accident, a suicide? While none of the conversations we “overheard” gave away the why or how of Lily’s demise, we definitely had become aware of conflicts among family members and friends. There was quite a bit of yelling and storming off in a rage. At other times, the conversations were almost whispered so that no matter how close we came, listening was futile.

Audience members were a mix of younger and older people—the younger ones enthusiastically following various actors (or small groups of actors) hoping to figure things out. Others sat inside the cottage/funeral parlor and waited for the action to come their way.

The memorial service began 30 minutes in, and both family members and friends were invited to give testimony.

Heavens, what an outpouring—though we might have guessed there would be a deluge of emotion and information at a service for a young person.

First came Andrea (Jessica Lomas), Lily’s best friend, who seemed not to have a speech prepared, but meandered through her thoughts and emotions. For reasons unspoken, Andrea and photographer Santiago (Andy Gonzalez-Bendiksen) got into a boisterous argument in Spanish before her eulogy.

Then came Art Evergreen (Trev Turnbow), Lily’s gay performance-artist sibling. Art turned the eulogy into a (self-indulgent?) dance piece that included strobe lights and some stripping—but no nudity. He did tell us that Lily was the second of the family’s children to come out of the closet.

Clyde (Will Frederick) came next, to stutter his way into disclosing some relevant information: He and Lily were in the same psych ward, evidently after Lily’s (first?) suicide attempt. If there was a second time, perhaps she she succeeded?

The ghost of Lily herself (Ashley Tysor) made an entrance in a long white wedding gown. She seemed able to control the movements of the live characters—and remained a presence onstage to the end of the performance. A scene between Lily and her sister Eva Evergreen (Stephanie Oustalet) began sweetly, only to degenerate into intrafamily discord, with their mother as the centerpiece. Ava stormed off choking.

The funeral director called for a 10-minute time out, after which Lily’s partner Parker Calloway (Rashe Boyd), the would-be groom in this lesbian relationship, gave her eulogy.

The performance ended with a Flower Ceremony in which all the attendees—audience members and cast—were invited to return their flowers into a basket held by bride Lily herself. We were encouraged to make a wish as we did so.

Thus ended the Memorial Service, to an enthusiastic response by quite a few audience members, while others quietly pondered their experience. In the end, one had to be comfortable not knowing exactly what happened to Lily—and even wondering if her killer might be there at the service. Was her death a drug overdose? Did she mean to kill herself—or did someone else do her in? Was the death a tragic accident? The program included both the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline contact numbers.

The multi-racial cast worked beautifully as an ensemble within this emotional piece of storytelling—one that also included choreographed movement by Becca Johnson-Spinos. I’m looking forward to what Outcry Theatre comes up with next.

Teresa Marrero is a Professor of Latin American and Latinè Theater in the Department of Spanish at the University of North Texas.

WHEN: February 14-26, 2025
WHERE: Stone Cottage (Addison), 15650 Addison Rd., Addison TX
WEB: outcrytheatre.com