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

Morgan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project is the one I’m currently doing. My one woman show that I am touring at festivals. I am a multiple amputee and dating is hard enough, but with a disability it’s even harder and a rather taboo subject. In the show I share stories about my experience dating, both awkward and bad, while the main story is my experience with being sexually assaulted and the aftermath of that. I am at a point where I am ready to share that particular story and hope that other’s will feel less alone.

Morgan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always done theatre since I as a kid. Starting at the age of four as lamb #2. I grew up dancing and going to the ballet and theatre and eventually found my love of musical theatre (yeah, I’m that person). I’ve always loved writing and sharing stories and so for as long as I can remember I was always going to be writer, whether that was books, scripts, plays. As much as I love being on stage, I would rather be behind the scenes. I started stage managing for theatre and working different festivals and then I entered a playwrighting contest and won.

I never wanted to write about disabilities/ my disability. I didn’t want to be known as “the disabled writer”, so I would stay away from that topic. I was a silly rule that I gave myself, however, as more disabled characters started to appear on the stage and screen, it was obvious that they were written by able-bodied people. I learned to set aside my… I don’t know, ego? and started to embrace the fact that this is a topic I should write about.

About 90% of what I write about still has nothing to do with disabilities, but now I’m proud to incorporate being a multiple amputee into what I write.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

For me, I’m not a very adventurous person, but I’m very good at overthinking and talking myself out of things and not even trying. So, my goal for myself is to take more risks (of course doing research first to make sure it’s a good choice) and doing things that might have scared me in the past or felt a bit daunting.

This year. I have decided to say yes to everything, which admittedly isn’t the best decision, because all the sudden there are three deadlines happening at the same time. However, by taking chances on certain things, like applying to festivals I maybe wouldn’t have applied in the past or other competitions. It’s scary, but in a good way.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Working in theatre it’s all about being together in an intimate setting. When 2020 hit, everything shut down, and the last thing to make it’s way back was theatre. When you’re doing festivals and you get in this groove and then suddenly everything stops and you just have to wait and see, it’s difficult. I participate in the Fringe festivals which are all over and there are some that are still trying bounce back.

For me, I was writing a few plays and I had new ideas and then things shut down and I just had to think of something else to do. It’s tough being a creative person, but I started a small business, doing markets selling my knitting, candles and coasters. I found a new creative outlet and now that I’m back doing theatre, so I’m trying to maintain a balance of doing both things.

It is a lot and overwhelming, but I’m happiest when I’m working.