THE MARTIN SISTERS: The Origin Story
The Martin Sisters received a staged reading during our 2025 New Works Festival.
The Martin Sisters was inspired by A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1864–1885), a collection of letters written primarily by Zélie Martin, matriarch of the Martin family. While on a silent retreat, Sam Vargo received the inspiration to tell the family's story as a coming-of-age tale about Catholic young women finding their place in the world.
In July 2021, Sam directed a three-week devising workshop, in which five women—Tamara May, Mary Shaffer, Annie Smaron, Elizabeth Schafer, and Olivia Baum—took on the roles of the five Martin sisters and created scenes based on prompts from their lives. Olivia portrayed Thérèse in that initial workshop. Sam saw her heart for the project, and when Olivia shared her playwriting skill, the two officially became co-writers. Neither of us could have done it alone: Sam brings strengths in big picture vision, dramaturgy, and character building / arc development, while Olivia contributes a gift for precise dialogue, humor, and songwriting. It seems only fitting that a play about sisterhood has evolved through our sisterly collaboration.
We developed this script in focused bursts, navigating major life changes along the way. When Olivia moved to Iowa in 2024, we weren’t sure the project would continue—but many phone calls, virtual co-writing sessions, and quiet nudges of the Holy Spirit have kept it alive. Though the script has been shared privately in small groups at various stages of its development, this iteration is the play's debut to the public.
SAMANTHA VARGO has over a decade of experience at professional theaters, including several which specialize in creating original theatrical works and thus offered the opportunity for Sam to learn and develop skills as a director, deviser, and writer. She has worked on projects including a staged reading and developmental workshop of David Reiser’s Any Other Way; an interactive “alternative college tour” show, Welcome to Campus; an original musical, The Devil’s Auction, written for the 125th anniversary of Drexel University; and a game/theater experience exploring mortality called The End. Sam discovered MtBT within a week of moving to the Twin Cities in 2019, and immediately found an artistic kinship that has grown as she has been part of the theater’s leadership ever since, transitioning into a full- time role as Executive Director in 2024. She holds a BS in entertainment and arts management from Drexel University and an MA in Catholic studies from the University of St. Thomas.
OLIVIA BAUM is a playwright and actress, previously appearing in MtBT’s production of Sense and Sensibility. Several of her short plays have been performed as staged readings with Focal Theatre Lab, including the one-act musical Mirrors, which she was awarded a Focus Artist Grant to produce. Olivia was a contributing writer to the devised play Iowa Odyssey, which went on to receive two national Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival awards. Olivia holds a BA in performing arts and music from Iowa State University and an MA in Catholic studies from the University of St. Thomas. When not writing plays, she can be found on her Iowa homestead with her husband and daughter, where she enjoys planting flowers, playing in the dirt, and raising pastured Berkshire pigs. She puts her writing skills to use, too, penning the monthly farm newsletter (follow along at www.prairiemechanics.com)!
