Between in Between
by Amy Helms
Presented by For The Makers Productions in association with The Tank
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Director's Note
Dearest friends, family, and treasured theatergoers,
I cannot fully express how grateful I am that you are here with us. This team has poured their whole hearts into bringing this story to life, and it is a joy to share it with you.
Through Between In Between, our playwright, Amy Helms invites us into a world that is both simple and profound. Her writing is deeply human, and without it, we would not be gathered here today. Thank you, Amy, for your courage and care in telling this story. Watching you develop this play and getting to participate in its journey has been an honor.
We enter in 1883, along the West Virginia-Kentucky border, in a quiet forest clearing, a few steps away from a bustling fall festival. This is Etta May Aird’s place of refuge. It is here that she and Milo McKay connect, caught between love and generations of conflict. This landscape, steeped in Appalachian folklore, holds a thinning veil between the spiritual world and our own, a place where memory, presence, and possibility begin to blur.
In shaping this piece, I was drawn to places like the “Devil’s Circle” – mysterious pockets of land where the boundary between our physical world and the spiritual world feels fragile. In our play, this clearing becomes the space between realities: the life our characters know, the “tear” that holds memory and longing, and the veil, or imagined future, where love dares to explore what could be.
At the heart of this play is a question: Does love have the power to change the human heart?
We invite you not just to watch, but to join us. This story asks for your presence and imagination, as two actors bring an entire world to life. Lean in. Listen closely. Meet us in the “between.” Thank you for being here, for supporting live theater, and for stepping into this space with us.
With hope,
Leah Beth Etheredge
Director
“To be loved is to be changed.” – Aunt Sissy
Who's Who
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Bios
Leah Beth Etheredge
Director
Leah Beth Etheredge is a New York–based director, producer, and co-founder of For the Makers Productions, a company dedicated to supporting bold new work and championing emerging artists. Some of her directing credits include The Little Mermaid (Perry Ryan Theater Company) and the NYC premiere of Suckers: A New Play. She also served as Associate Director for Carousel in Concert by Rodgers and Hammerstein in Central Park, earning a BroadwayWorld nomination for Best Director. Her work is rooted in storytelling that reflects the human experience with both truth and hope, and she is honored to collaborate with artists in bringing Between in Between and stories like it to life.
Jude 1:24-25
IG: @lbetheredge | @forthemakers.productions
Amy Helms
Playwright
Amy Helms is a Seattle-based actor and playwright. She has an MFA in Acting from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training Program. Favorite acting credits include Sophie Scholl in We Will Not Be Silent, Catherine in A View from the Bridge, and Ruth Hoch in Book of Days. Her play, The Feeling Variations, had a staged reading with New Threads Theatre Company. Her short plays, Murderville, USA and Between In Between, were featured in the New Threads/RTF Short Play Festivals. Amy specializes in theatrical works that integrate faith and art, challenge creative norms, and explore the depth of the human soul.
Rachel Gifford
Etta May Aird & Others
Rachel is a New York–based actor and producer, and co-founder of For the Makers Productions, a company dedicated to supporting bold new work and championing emerging artists. Her recent producing credits include the short film An Act of Penance, and she is excited to next collaborate as a producer on the upcoming short film Written By. Select acting credits (NYC & Regional): Steel Magnolias, A Christmas Carol, Revelation: The Musical, Penn: A New Musical. She is deeply grateful to be part of Between in Between.
“Only connect. That is the whole of my sermon.” – E.M. Forster
www.rachelgifford.com
IG: @rachiegiff | @forthemakers.productions
Ryan Dunn
Milo McKay & Others
Ryan Dunn is grateful to be here, grateful to act, grateful to breathe, grateful to live, and grateful for you. Let’s dance. Off Bway/NYC: Story of God (Theatre 315), Revelation: The Musical, Dory Phantasmagory (NYCCT), Peter & The Starcatcher. Regional: Little Women, Band Geeks. Original Songwriting: Available on streaming - Through the Doorway, The Greenhouse. Live work - A Seasonal Playlist (Greenroom 42). Ryan is not on social media but loves a tête-à-tête.
Annie Sheehy
Stage Manager
Ryan Dunn is grateful to be here, grateful to act, grateful to breathe, grateful to live, and grateful for you. Let’s dance. Off Bway/NYC: Story of God (Theatre 315), Revelation: The Musical, Dory Phantasmagory (NYCCT), Peter & The Starcatcher. Regional: Little Women, Band Geeks. Original Songwriting: Available on streaming - Through the Doorway, The Greenhouse. Live work - A Seasonal Playlist (Greenroom 42). Ryan is not on social media but loves a tête-à-tête.
Lee Lillis
Lighting Designer
Lee Lillis is a NYC/DC-based lighting and sound designer with a passion for merging art and technology in order to create new theatrical experiences. His designs have been featured at the Edinburgh Fringe, Elysian Theater, HERE Arts, Audible Theatre, Abrons Arts Center, Theatre Row, Royal Family, Chain Theatre, The Tank, Stella Adler, Atlantic Acting School, Fordham University, and more. In the rare moments that he’s not in the theater, he can be found playing the piano, doing the crossword, reading, and playing with his cats, Linus and Lucy. lillislighting.com, @lillislighting.
Bryson Steele Johnson
Set Designer
Bryson Steele Johnson is a filmmaker based out of Brooklyn, NY. He makes a living in the art department doing construction, carpentry, set dressing and set design work for films and Commercials. This is his second time working with For the Makers Productions after having served as production designer on their short film An Act of Penance in 2025. He is excited to be back. Bryson grew up in North Carolina, spending most of his childhood deep in the woods and canoeing in the river. He has a deep love and respect for nature and enjoyed trying his best to capture a piece of it in the set of Between in Between. When Bryson isn’t working on movies he fills his time with watching movies, writing movies, thinking about movies, and feeling bad about the fact that he isn’t working on movies. Sometimes he also reads.
Jackson Pachar
Costume Designer
Jackson Pachar is a current BFA Theatre Design and Technology Sophomore at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and is so excited to be working with For the Makers Productions on Between in Between! Recent Credits include Assistant Stage Manager for Alice by Heart at Baylor University, Costume Designer for Legally Blonde at Southeast Texas Stages, and Costume Designer for This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing at The 5 Day Play Project. He would like to thank his family and mentors for all of their support in his endeavors.
Kristina Swearingen
Fight Choreographer
Kristina Swearingen is a New York-based actor-combatant dedicated to safe, narrative-driven storytelling. An Intermediate Actor-Combatant with the SAFD, her extensive combat "toolbox" includes mastery of the longsword, short sword, rapier and dagger, and bullwhip, with specialized training from Neutral Chaos and New York Combat for Stage and Screen. Notable credits include Julius Caesar and Coriolanus with Hudson Classical Theatre Co, as well as serving as a Court Fighter for the New York Renaissance Faire. IG: swearingen_kb
Lola Basiliere
Sound Designer
Lola Basiliere is a sound designer for live performance based in New York City. Recent work: Scarecrow (The Tank), Elephant Woman (Rutgers Church), The Cherry Tortured (NYU), Cassandra (Teatro LATEA), Shell (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Steve Burns: Alive (La MaMa), Romeo & Juliet (Catskill Mountain Shakespeare), Seagullmachine (GreenSpace), Stop Kiss (The Chain), Where Women Go (HERE Arts), Weasel Festival (The Brick). Associate/Assistant: Watch Me Walk (Soho Rep), The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire (The Vineyard), Friday Night Rat Catchers (NYLA), I’m Repeating Myself (The Brick), Radio Downtown (59E59), Joan of Arc in a Supermarket in California (The Tank). BFA: NYU lolabasiliere.com
Carly Speno
Marketing
Carly Speno is one of the original founders of For The Makers Productions back in 2019. Graduating from Texas Christian University with a BFA in 2017, she moved to New York City for a few years working in events and marketing. Currently, she works as the Marketing Director for Bonfire Entertainment and WinterWonderGrass, a bluegrass music festival bringing in 20,000 people over 3 days in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. She lives in Quebec, Canada.
Donors
Special thanks to our donors – none of this would be possible without you. THANK YOU for supporting new works, live theatre, and creative careers!
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Friend of the Work
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Special Thanks
NoMAA Studios
AMDA Studios
The Tank
Baylor University
In Association with
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2026 TANK INSTITUTIONAL FUNDERS
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
The Tank’s programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
The Howard Gilman Foundation | The Shubert Foundation | The Jim Henson Foundation | Off-Broadway Greening Grant | The Puppet Slam Network | The Hyde and Watson Foundation | The Mental Insight Foundation | The John Golden Fund | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation | Axe-Houghton Foundation | Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation | Booth Ferris Foundation
Who We Are
For The Makers Productions
For the Makers Productions is a New York–based company dedicated to developing and producing bold new and reimagined work in theater and film. We collaborate with artists to bring projects from early development through production, with a focus on strong storytelling and thoughtful execution.
