After the death of his son William from an accidental heroin overdose at age 24, educator and writer Bill Williams turned to writing as a way to process grief, eventually shaping those reflections into a stage monologue.
Williams will perform “History of a Brief Time” May 30 at the Lew Beach Community House in Lew Beach. The piece draws on essays he originally wrote for his blog and later published in outlets including The New York Times, along with his experience as a teacher and public speaker.
Williams, who also hosts The Kingfisher Project on Radio Catskill, said the work emerged gradually, rather than as a planned theatrical project, after he began writing following his son’s death and sharing those writings publicly.
“I was inspired by some former students of mine who had created monologue pieces. I was inspired by a monologist called Spalding Gray. But I didn’t sit out to write a stage piece,” Williams said.
Those writings eventually found a wider audience after encouragement from his family led him to submit an essay to The New York Times, where it was published on the op-ed page. Over time, Williams said he has published roughly 50 essays across various outlets, many first developed on his blog.
Much of Williams’ work is shaped by his family’s pledge, made at his son’s memorial, to advocate for addiction awareness and treatment access. He said the performance is one way of continuing that commitment. He added that speaking publicly about addiction also helps him process grief while working to help others.
“I think the personal grief is taken care of by knowing that if I do something for the public, if I help other people, if I educate, having been an educator, if I help in some way to reduce the stigma around addiction,” he said. “That that makes me feel like I’m doing something in my son’s honor and that um swages for one of a better word the the grief.”
At its core, Williams said storytelling is central to changing how people understand addiction.
“You can quote statistics on how many people have died and what what’s going on and things are what’s going up and down and how much money we’re spending and certainly numbers of deaths. But if you want to reach somebody’s heart, if you want to get close to them, tell them a story or ask them what their story is,” he said.
Williams said that while grief remains permanent, writing and performance have helped him live with it.
“I don’t I think it’s helpful help me. It’s helped helped me a lot,” he said. “But I’m also aware that there’s always I mean, losing my son has changed me in a way that I will I’ll never get him back. I’ll that that’s never going to change.”
Image: Bill Williams (right) lost his son William to an accidental heroin overdose in 2012. (Bill Williams)