Zach is a lady, a cowboy, with a sad story to tell and a guitar to help tell it. She’s got a girl she calls Curls who’s not often nearby. Curls comes from a map far, far from Zach’s, but they do overlap (Curls’ and Zach’s maps) and “tango jes fine.” Zach calls her girl “Curls” cause her hair’s all gold coin. Curls calls Zach “Big Z” on account of her size - and the fact her name’s Zach.

This play is Zach’s story. She’s never “known much of knowin,” she’s always sort of just been – been enduring, been avoiding, been committing the odd petty sin. By the time she meets Curls, she’s been enduring and avoiding an awful long time, and she’s ready to settle, explore life with one girl. But something Terrible Happens, and Zach must now find a way to mold meaning, leave all the bullshit behind. She must craft from adversity a new sense of self, must lift anger’s skirt to find emotional wealth.

The Terrible Happening lands Zach in jail, where she meets a Navajo woman named Angie who sees all things, and well. We learn from Angie that Living and Believing, in the Navajo system, have circular structures broken down into fours: Four seasons, four winds, four foundation colors –

So this play’s a circle broken into five sections: Four major movements and one minor twang. (The twang’s in the middle and triggers a change in direction; it, a la Angie, points us back home.) The last scene is the first scene repeated, done with more Light in a different location (a new, improved ranch where Zach now lives with Curls). The many ways this Light manifests is a bit TBD – I just know that it’s bright, that it feels like the start of a happier story.

The circular structure corresponds to the seasons and breaks down like this: The first movement’s autumn, death that in time will fertilize life. The second’s the darkness of winter, all anger and fear. Then there’s the trigger, and a new way of living begins to appear. The third movement brings the soft promise of spring, and the fourth movement’s summer: life that’s been fertilized is set to begin.