Pepper Faye & The Quiet After the Curtain

By: Pepper Carlson-Humphrey

For the ones who give everything on stage, and wonder who they are in the silence that follows.

After the final bow, the Forest Between grows still.
The applause fades.
The makeup smudges.
The roles begin to slip.

Drawn into a quiet backstage realm woven from old scripts, shadowed mirrors, and the echoes of exhausted hearts, Pepper meets the ones the audience never sees: the stagehands, the understudies, the dancers unraveling behind closed doors. They’ve spent their lives performing. Now, they are learning how to rest.

This story is not about the spotlight. It is about what happens after. About the sacred hush that follows performance, the ache of invisibility, and the beauty of unmasking.

Together, they sit in the stillness, trading lines for truth, claps for quiet, and roles for raw presence. They don’t need to prove themselves anymore, they only need to remember: They are worthy even when no one is watching.

If you’ve ever felt like your value was tied to how much you give, this story is your exhale.