Living in this world can be very challenging. As the years pass by, it seems more difficult to keep calm & carry on.

Theatre has a way of bringing difficult topics to the surface. For example, Next to Normal was one of the first musicals I saw about mental health. 

When I read about Sharon Scott William's show, Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness, a play that also deals with this sensitive subject, I knew I had to spotlight Sharon & help bring this conversation to my audience.

In this interview, Sharon answered my call to share:

• How Crazy Mama leapt from page to stage without losing its raw emotional punch
• Writing as excavation, healing, and a way to turn family chaos into art
• Breaking the silence around mental health, shame, and the stories families hide
• Creating with her husband, director Anson Williams, and trusting the vision in rehearsal
• From award-winning advertising exec to author and playwright, and what it takes to switch lanes
• So much more

Connect with Sharon: Instagram

Connect with 59E59 Theaters: Website, Facebook, Instagram

Laced with humor and pathos, Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness is a testament to the steely resilience of the human heart and the enduring nature of hope.

Sharon races home from school a couple days after her 8th birthday to beat her teenaged brother Spikey to the last slice of birthday cake.

When she enters the kitchen, she finds her mother wielding a knife. As the Sheriff escorts her mother away, the deputy tells Sharon that her mama is “not right in the head.”

Crazy Mama is a one-woman tour-de-force about a woman’s decades-long dream of saving her mother from the soul-crushing grip of mental illness.

Directed by Sharon's husband Anson Williams & starring Actress Linda Purl, Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness will play a limited run at 59E59 Theaters in NYC through October 18, 2026. Click Here for tickets!

Anson Williams & Sharon Scott Williams
Photo Courtesy of
Sharon Scott Williams's Social Media

1. Your play, Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness, is currently playing at 59E59 Theaters in NYC. What made you want to adapt this novel for the stage? Actually, it was my husband's idea. He was reading my memoir a few years ago, walked in the room and said, "This is a one-woman show!"

I had never given any thought to an adaptation, but with Anson's background as a screenwriter and director, he helped me structure it, finding the essence of the 75,000-word book that would comprise a 16,000-word play.

2. What was the most challenging part about bringing this story to the stage as opposed to the page? Why was it so difficult? I believe the most challenging part was to make 16 characters come alive, distinct and recognizable, within one actor.

Besides Linda's bravura performance, I give a lot of credit to the director for designing the scenes in a way that makes you believe you are watching 3 or 4 characters on stage at the same time. It's almost a magic trick.

3. What did you learn about yourself from writing Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness that you didn't know living through it? I was only eight years old when Mama had her first psychotic break, jolting me out of my sweet everyday life. Most of my young childhood was spent completely overwhelmed by a bewildering unknown world.

Never having received therapy to help me deal with the memories, I began Crazy Mama as an emotional excavation project.

When you suffer a series of traumatic events, especially as a child, you tend to bury them deep in your subconscious.

My brother still can't remember many of the episodes that are vivid in my mind.

Over a period of years, I wrote every day, and key moments came flooding back. I've learned that putting thoughts down on paper can be a powerful act of healing.

4. What do you hope audiences come away with after seeing Crazy Mama? I hope it will help them heal, whether they or someone they love are suffering from the illness. We hope they will realize they're not alone and it's okay to talk about this difficult subject that has been shrouded in secrecy for so many years.

5. The director of Crazy Mama is your husband, Anson Williams. What made you want to have him direct your play? Anson has been with me on this project from the very beginning. He has the skills and sensitivity to bring my story to life. What's more, casting his friend Linda Purl was an act of genius.

Linda Purl in Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness
Photo Credit: Lore Photography

6. Crazy Mama deals with the sensitive subject of mental health. How do you hope your play will help further this conversation? We've noticed, both after our performances at the Rubicon Theatre on the West Coast, and here in New York, people come up to us afterward to share their personal stories about their mothers, their fathers, their lovers.

We can see how healing these conversations are, and are working on some other ways to defeat the stigma.

Recently, we did a Congressional briefing in Washington about the healing power of theatre.

For our next step, we will do a Congressional hearing along with mental health care professionals, to present a policy proposal and perform Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness to the members of Congress.

7. You actually started your career working in advertising where you earned hundreds of national and international awards working on iconic global brands. What made you want to switch careers & become a writer? I was a writer in the advertising business, so I didn't switch careers, I just switched who I was writing for.

(L to R): Linda Purl, Sharon Scott Williams
Photo Courtesy of Ojai Valley News

8. What do you get from writing that you didn't get from advertising? In an ad agency, you are writing against a particular strategy to ultimately move products or services.

In theatre and in literary writing, you work to entertain, educate, thrill, laugh, make people think.

In my opinion, there's no comparison.

9. What advice would you give to someone who wants to switch careers, but is afraid to? In writing, it's a good idea to have a back-up plan to keep you afloat. It's usually a long road from the time you finish your piece to the time you sell it.

10. What is something we didn't get to talk about that you'd like my audience to know about you? I just want to thank Karyl Lynn Burns, Producing Artistic Director at the Rubicon Theatre for taking a chance on Crazy Mama in the beginning; my husband, Anson Williams for believing in me all this time; Linda Purl and Will Huse for making Crazy Mama an incredible work of art, and Val Day, Artistic Director of 59e59th Theatres for bringing us to New York.

Sharon Scott Williams
Photo Courtesy of
Sharon Scott Williams's Social Media

More on Sharon Scott Williams:

Sharon Scott Williams is a native Virginian who studied English and Performing Arts at Roanoke College before beginning a distinguished advertising career. Rising to become the first female creative director at Young and Rubicam, she earned hundreds of national and international awards working on iconic global brands.

Relocating to Ojai, California, in 2003, she turned her focus to writing. Her award winning memoirs exploring her upbringing with a paranoid schizophrenic mother served as the inspiration for the world premiere of Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness.

She is the proud mother of daughter Lindsay MaHarry.

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