Handstand

A new play by Helen Huettner Nicholas

Produced by Helen Huettner Nicholas, Olivia Cope, and Molly Rabuffo

Featuring: Nicole Leigh Hood, Maddie Ryan, and Ben Salus

Photography by Kyle Deitz

About the Play

Set in present-day New York City, Handstand follows Mac and Liz, two best friends, roommates, and co-founders of a scrappy downtown theater company. Together, they’ve built a life full of ambition, inside jokes, and one peculiar secret they’ve never had to explain — until now. When Mac starts dating Kyle, the balance begins to shift, slowly unraveling the threads of the girls' carefully constructed world. Handstand is a story about the ties that bind us: to our past, to the people we love, and to the identities we struggle to outgrow. It’s about holding on too tightly, letting go too late, and finding out what remains when the performance ends.

From the Playwright
Handstand was originally set to premiere in March 2020 as a compact, two-person one-act play. Then the world paused, and so did the play. In January 2025, I returned to it, immersing myself once again in the world of Mac and Liz. I realized they had grown older, just as I had. Now in their thirties, their story had shifted, deepened. What was once a short piece is now a full-length play with a third character and new emotional terrain. Handstand is no longer the play it was, but something richer, more layered, and, I hope, more resonant. After years of waiting in the wings, it’s ready to meet the world.