We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Caress a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I wrote a play called The Pool. it debuts in Denver in April, 2025.

Tagline: Love will always end in grief.

Synopsis: Jessica knows that if she leaves her husband, he will end his life. She also knows that if she stays, she won’t survive. The Pool is a ghost story about life after suicide, and having to make a horrific choice.

Backstory: A few years ago, I wrote a fictional monologue to explain what it is like loving an addict, and destroying oneself to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. I knew that this piece was part of something bigger, but all attempts at writing around the monologue failed, so I set it aside. In early 2024, I found the monologue again and the story of Jessica and Phillip flowed from me, and The Pool was born.

This story is meaningful to me because I normally write horror and comedy, not drama. It’s also meaningful to me because it is loosely based on my story.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a fiction writer who started out writing dark comedy and sci-fi novellas, but it was clear to me (and the readers) that I was so much better at dialogue than I was at writing action, so I switched to writing sketches and screenplays. And one theatrical play which is titled, “The Pool”.

And that is what I’m here to talk to you about today.

The Pool is a ghost story.

Jessica knows that if she leaves her husband, he will end his life. She also knows that if she stays, she won’t make it. The Pool is what happens when you finally stop doing whatever it takes to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, and the aftermath of that most difficult choice.

Many years ago, I wrote a monologue that was a metaphor for loving an addict. It was about trying to save someone who wasn’t willing to put in the work to save themselves. I knew this piece was destined for SOMETHING more than just being a monologue, but what? I didn’t know. So it sat in an electronic file and waited…

I came across the piece last March and it sparked the story of Jessica and Phillip, and their journeys through grief after his death. I mentioned it was a ghost story, right? I ended up completing the entire script in about three months (a record for me!), sent it through my writing group scene by scene, made revisions, and did a stage reading for it in July.

I went back and forth about whether I admit the story of Jessica and Phillip is based on a true story or not. I don’t want to air my very personal “dirty laundry” but at the same time, other suicide loss survivors need to know what others have experienced, and that they aren’t alone. To say that writing this script was therapeutic is an understatement. Ultimately, I was able to give Jessica and Phillip the happy ending I hope to give myself and Patrick one day.

One day. Grief from suicide is an immortal beast that refuses to leave. Somedays it sits on my chest, somedays it walks quietly along side, and somedays it screams in my face, demanding my undivided attention.

There are days when I still try to text him so that we can laugh together about something that happened to me. And days when all I can remember is that last message he sent, the last words I heard him say. I’ll keep working towards that happy ending, but until then, I’ll keep writing, keep telling stories, so that maybe, just maybe, we can all heal together.

The Pool debuts at the Three Leaches Theater in Denver, Colorado. April 17th-19th, 23rd-26th, 2025.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is bringing people into the story, into the world I created. Meet the characters, feel for them and with them and allow us to take you–the audience– on a journey.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Being true to the story, no matter how strange, wonderful, or wacky it may be, don’t pivot from the authenticity of the story that came to me to be told so that it is more mainstream, more generally acceptable to the masses. The lesson I learned after far too long is that there is an audience for every tale. And this above all, to thine own story be true.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @thepool_play