See the production on March 12 at Charleston Music Hall and find out which stage it's headed to later this year
Midlife Monologues, 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, Charleston Music Hall, $350-$60, midlife-monologues.com
Lives: Longtime Sullivan’s Island resident, now building a home on John’s Island
Age: 58
Family: Married to Ian Devine with a college-age daughter
Education: BS in communications from Florida State University, MFA in creative writing from Queens University in Charlotte
Career: Senior communications role at Merrill Lynch, CEO speechwriter and independent consultant, founder of Hot In Charleston, producer of Midlife Monologues showcase
For Kerri Devine, the turning point came soon after the 50-year-old branding executive moved to Charleston and was overcome by hormonal rage at a craft superstore while shopping for a fundraising gala. The meltdown caused Devine to realize that she, like many women, was “an overstretched, perimenopausal, working mother and volunteer who internalized the demands of everyone else and made them demands of herself.” She started hormone replacement therapy, fired her clients, and went back to school to get a master’s degree in creative writing, determined to share her experiences in hopes of making life transitions easier for other women. Devine launched the Hot in Charleston platform and hosted a World Menopause Day event in October 2023 to encourage women to tell their own midlife stories. Last year, she shared her essay about the craft store incident during two sold-out shows of the multigenre Midlife Monologues production with Pure Theatre that she created. Here, she shares how the concept has evolved.
CM: Tell us about your experience with perimenopause.
KD: I had anxiety, sleeplessness, and even rage, and it was a real wake-up call. A new friend said to me, “Check your levels,” and I said, “Levels?” and she said, “Well, you’re probably in menopause.” It had never even occurred to me, of course, because our mothers and doctors told us far too little about this. I had spent my career as a crisis manager, but when it came to my own midlife crisis, I had no game plan, so I decided to make my own.
CM: What inspired you to build the Hot in Charleston community?
KD: I wanted to examine this period, midlife— perimenopause and menopause—but also the craven irony that this is a time that not only includes these vast physical and emotional and relational changes, but it’s when other ruptures are happening, such as aging parents, losing parents, changes in careers, divorce, facing illness, the empty nest. I knew that if I was struggling then other women were, too.
CM: What did you learn from the World Menopause Day event?
KD: When I hosted it at the Gibbes with MUSC, I didn’t just have a panel of doctors. We brought in memorists who could talk about these transition moments in their lives. When I saw that the audience included women from their 20s to their 70s and they were all leaning in, I realized that these in-between times affected women no matter where they were in their journey. That’s when I decided to take the conversation to the stage and created Midlife Monologues. Women would come up to me in the grocery store and say how they finally felt seen and it changed them.
CM: How has Midlife Monologues evolved?
KD: This year, with partner Pure Theatre, we’re focusing on the entire arc of a woman’s life. It’s a carefully curated script of work from award-winning writers who will perform their own material and actors who will perform excerpts from iconic works of people such as the late poet Mary Oliver. I like to say that the show is part-play, part-pep rally.
CM: What do you hope the audience will take away from the show?
KD: There are two key social determinants of health for women. One is emotional and social support, and the second is family support. If we help women feel comfortable sharing the challenges they’re facing and help them feel seen and supported, we can improve their health. In this way, storytelling is medicine.
CM: What’s next?
KD: I’m partnering with director Constance Zimmer and documentary filmmaker Abby Epstein to transform our shared passion into a national movement. A new, original production of Midlife Monologues should hit the New York stage in late 2025.
WATCH: Watch highlights from the 2024 Midlife Monologues intergenerational showcase produced with Pure Theatre in this video produced by @HotinCharleston/Target Market before you see this year’s show, which features different cast members:
