WHAT “The Me, Mom & Dad Show!,” part of “The Words in Motion Festival,” has been created by Martie Sanders.

Q What inspired your intergenerational and multimedia “The Me, Mom & Dad Show!”?

A Mostly the purpose was to discuss memory and the loss of memory, said Martie Sanders. It became a much bigger telling of a bigger story. It started with this piece about a really old memory that I had when I was 3 of my dad tap dancing at a teacher talent show in Detroit. I wanted him to fill in the gaps for me.

Q Does your dad, who has studied tap for years, reprise his historic number on stage?
A Charlie Sanders has never performed professionally. At 79 years of age, he does in this show. My dad was one of the only white guys in an all African-American work environment in 1967 during racial tensions in our country. I just remember this moment when the kids cheered on my dad; there was a real unity of spirit. I reflect on that.

Q What is your theatrical background?
A I’m an actress based in theater, but all the stuff that I’ve been doing with The Sweat Girls (a female writers and performers collective; www.sweatgirls.org) and on my own is all autobiographical storytelling. None of it is made up. We talk pretty frankly about our lives. There’s always entertainment value in that. The Sweat Girls is kind of a group of theater buddies, all actresses. We just started writing our own stories and telling them. We weren’t afraid to get on stage and bare our soul.

Q You open the show by interweaving reminiscence with video clips featuring your mother, Carolyn, correct?
A The mother piece was developed as part of a bigger project with The Sweat Girls. We interviewed (each other’s) moms on video with the help of a documentary filmmaker (Emmy-winner Joe Winston). It was a total experiment, and was before reality TV in 1994. We each had six hours of our moms to look at: the mother lode.

Q Did you gain unexpected insights?
A Working with my family, I started to realize I really document my life (in a way) that a lot of people don’t. I just hope the show inspires others to kind of do the same thing, investigate their own stories and their own history. The connections that we have, we shouldn’t take for granted. If you’re in a place where you can still connect with those people, do it and find out the gaps in those stories.

Q Is storytelling particularly suited to an intimate space like the Berwyn theater?
A It’s perfect for solo performance to look into the eyeballs of the audience members and establish kind of a relationship. That’s the fun of solo performance: The audience is your other character.

Catch the play

WHERE 16th Street Theater, Berwyn Cultural Center, 6420 16th St.; (708) 795-6704

WHEN Shows begin at 7:30 p.m. April 17; 8 p.m. April 18; 7:30 p.m. April 23; and 5 p.m. April 25. A free preview for seniors begins at 4 p.m. April 15, with reservations required by calling (708) 795-6704, Ext. 105.

HOW MUCH $16, seniors $14; buy online:

www.16thstreettheater.org