A playwright-producer stages her first full play while parenting an eleven-month-old

The writer is a Southeast Asian playwright-producer in her early thirties living in New York City with her actor-director husband (V), their eleven-month-old (L), and a large dog. She works part time in community engagement at a theatre company and runs her own producing company. The piece is a diary of tech week for her first fully staged play, produced by her, V, and a group of collaborators.

Mornings are calibrated around L's sleep schedule. On a typical tech-week day she wakes at 6:39 a.m., nurses, and uses a sleep app to track L's naps. By 7:47 a.m. she is up and alternating between getting ready for rehearsal, catching up on emails, and handling producing tasks. Monday described in the diary includes prepping for community-engagement events, coordinating payroll with a fiscal sponsor, and looking for set pieces.

Caregiving logistics and division of labor

Income streams included steady television residuals, audiobook narration work by V, and the author's part-time community-engagement job, which provided schedule flexibility and occasional permission to bring L to work. They also budget for monthly rent of $2,118 and about $1,000 for food, utilities, gym, and car insurance. They paid $202/month at times for a playspace/café membership to write while L socialized, and swimming lessons began at four months at $200/month.

Self-producing required managing both high-level and granular tasks: rehearsals, props and set procurement, financial coordination for actor payments, community outreach (flyers and workshops), and scheduling. The author calls out practical aids: owning a car purchased during the pandemic sped travel to the space and made logistics easier than relying on public transit.

The account is a specific look at how one small theatre production gets made when the primary producer is also the primary caregiver to an infant. It reveals trade-offs—income versus childcare, career momentum versus time with a child—and the everyday improvisations producers use to keep a project moving: shared care, flexible jobs, small paid gigs that fit caregiving windows, and community resources that provide childcare without applicants having to ask.

The writer's story is practical: producing a staged play while parenting an infant required continuous triage across caregiving, finances, and production work. Concrete supports—flexible employment, occasional paid caregiving, caregiver-friendly residencies, and a partner who could both direct and parent—kept the production possible.