I Stay With Me.

What happens when the life you planned no longer looks like the life you're living—and you have no idea what comes next?

Birmingham Festival Theatre presents I Stay With Me, an original one-woman show written and performed by multidisciplinary theatre artist Markeitra "Queen Key" Gilliam, for two performances only, September 19 and 20 at 7:00 p.m. at Encore Theatre and Gallery, 1604 2nd Avenue North in downtown Birmingham.

Part theatre. Part poetry. Part music. Part confession.

I Stay With Me is an intimate, independent performance experience about getting lost, beginning again, and learning that when everything else feels uncertain, there is still one person you cannot afford to abandon: yourself.

Blending storytelling, poetry, original music, humor and personal reflection, Gilliam invites audiences into the beautifully unfinished territory between who we thought we would become and who we actually are.

There is no tidy roadmap here. No miraculous revelation that suddenly makes everything make sense. Instead, I Stay With Me sits inside the messier truth: sometimes we wander. Sometimes plans disappear. Sometimes the familiar stops feeling like home. And sometimes moving forward begins simply by deciding to remain present for yourself.

The result is a deeply personal piece of independent theatre that feels less like watching someone perform from a distance and more like being invited into the room while an artist wrestles, remembers, laughs, questions and creates her way forward.