Some stories arrive like a lightning strike. Missed Signals was one of them.

I began with a simple, unsettling question: What if someone truly believed they were loved back… and they weren’t? From that seed, Claire Wren emerged—wounded, wary, and quietly burning for connection. She lives in a world of almosts: almost seen, almost chosen, almost loved.

Missed Signals is a one-act play about the delicate, dangerous space between admiration and obsession. It’s a story of crossed wires, misread cues, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are to other people. At its core, it asks: When is it safe to reach out? And who decides what’s “too much”?

Claire is many things—introspective, brave, emotionally unguarded—but she’s not a villain. And yet, like many women who dare to pursue instead of wait, she gets labelled: dramatic, delusional, stalker. I wanted to hold that double standard up to the light and ask why we’re so quick to condemn longing when it’s female.

Enter Leo Frost—charming, elusive, a little dangerous in that way certain public figures can be. He’s a musician with a magnetism that draws people in. But what happens when someone in the audience sees more than he intended to show?

This play is deeply personal. It touches on themes of maternal control, emotional gaslighting, and the ache for validation that runs bone-deep when you’ve been made to feel invisible. It also explores memory and miscommunication through a lens that’s part psychological, part poetic. There’s music, too—Claire’s original song, “The Heart and the Sea,” plays a central role in her relationship with Leo, and in her unraveling.

I’m currently preparing Missed Signals for staged readings and development opportunities. If you’re a director, producer, or fellow playwright curious about the work, I’d love to connect.

▶️ Learn more about the play here.

Thanks for reading—and for believing in complicated stories told with heart.

— Naomi