FST's Shedding a Skin

SARASOTA — The Florida Studio Theatre recently opened Amanda Wilkin's Shedding a Skin, a one-woman show starring Samaria Nixon-Fleming. The raw, poetic work delves deeply into race, identity, injustice, and anger in a way that feels deeply relevant to present-day events.

In exiting her soulless corporate job, Myah punches her boss in the face, sending her life into sudden upheaval. She's forced to take a room in an older woman's home, and from a vulnerable and uncertain place, she tells us not so much her story as her truth.

I've always been fascinated by the single-actor play format, which is among the most challenging artistic endeavors in any artistic medium. The intense pacing and emotional weight of this role cannot be overstated, and Nixon-Fleming delivers a titanic performance that sees her engine running at full throttle for the entire 90-minute runtime.

The final work in an outstanding three-play Stage III season, Shedding a Skin asks much more of its audience than Advice and Bad Books, but it's a journey worth taking. Nixon-Fleming's Myah is engaging, endearing, and at times hilarious in the rich glimpse we get of one woman's torment and growth.

Shedding a Skin runs through April 26 in the Bowne's Lab. Click here for schedule and ticket information.