Father and daughter Bill and Anisa George give a sometimes touching, sometimes harrowing look back at their relationship and their lives in theater with their stunning original piece "The Last Play" through April 2 at Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem. Wrenchingly honest, "The Last Play" is part family retrospective and part creative expression of what it means to be a theater artists.
Bill George, a co-founder of Touchstone Theatre, has spent his life creating theater. Anisa George has been on stage with her father since she was a baby. Now 40, Anisa is contemplating moving away from theater to focus on other pursuits, and that prompted the creation of "The Last Play" with her father. However, as she noted on stage, she has tried before to leave making theater but has always returned.
Over the years, the duo have created ten shows together and the stage is littered with remnants of those plays from puppets to a door to a cardboard train in which enter chugging away. 
Some of the memories are painfully raw. Bill recounts his first time on a stage in school when he forgot his lines and was laughed at. Even more traumatic, he also tells how his theater teacher died in front of him when he was 18. Yet, these experiences hardened his resolve to make a success of theater which culminated with the creation of Touchstone.
Anisas memories are less painful, although she recalls being upset as a child when her father was killed onstage and that has prompted her to not include her own seven-year-old daughter at this production. However, she also showed theater stills flows in the family blood when she tells how her daughter portrayed baby Jesus at two-weeks-old, and it is evident the experience was particularly uplifting for Anisa. Anisa often lets her emotions show throughout the night, getting choked up at certain moments.
The father and daughters journey through their joint theater productions is partly told through old photos on a large screen and partly acted out by the pair. One vignette reveals how they were confronted by police while sleeping in their car on a long theater tour.
There is plenty of physicality on the stage. Both performers do headstands at different points and Bill carries his daughter over his shoulders through the on stage door after she mentions she was often carried by Bill on stage. Towards the end, Anisa literally lifts up her father on her back and on her feet as he asks her probing questions similar to those she had asked him earlier. This part is unscripted and each night the duo will ask different questions to create true spontaneity.
Also completely spontaneous, Anisa called her mother and Bills wife Bridget George, up on stage and interviewed her, asking her about when she first met Bill during a theater production. A different person important to Anisa and Bill, will be called up on other nights.
There is a theme of death and endings that runs through the performance. Anisa talks poignantly about her nature-loving grandmother and her death. At one point the audience is invited to share out loud the name of someone they have lost. Audience members also are asked to read out loud short text on the screen, most of which relates to endings.
At the end, Bill, who has been made up in mime makeup up by his daughter, recreates an experience Anisa had with a 100-year-old Butoh artist in Japan, before disappearing off-stage following an imaginary balloon. It is a haunting and moving finale to a fascinating look at art, love and endings.
The audience is invited to join with the artists outside at a firepit afterwards.
Performances are 2 p.m. March 26 and April 2; and 8 p.m. March 31.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.
For information, call 484-767-2456 or go to touchstone.org.