“Inspired By”
What’s the difference between “based on” and “inspired by?” It’s a distinction that comes up frequently when discussing books, films and plays. To put it simply, “based on” implies a new work adheres fairly faithfully to the facts and shape of the original story or historical event. “Inspired by” implies a brand-new creative direction, triggered by experiencing the original work. That is closer to what MAYBE WE’LL FLY is, my new play with music. And as its playwright, it’s up to me to help audience members understand the difference.
My relationship to the real-life Mary Nohl is nuanced and long-standing. Though her story is the original and continuing inspiration for my play, I have made adaptations from literal facts. MAYBE WE’LL FLY is not a documentary – nor have I intended it to be. There are better alternatives already out there for that purpose. I have not studied her life as closely as other local scholars, nor do I know her art as intimately as the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) or their Mary Nohl curator, Alex Gartelman.
That being said, I have absorbed her story by living in Milwaukee during her lifetime; I have read books and studies about her; I have witnessed her art with delight; I have followed her tumultuous relationship with the Milwaukee residential and cultural community; I met her – once. I am friends with those who knew her well.
I am an artist in theater. And I am a human being, trying to make sense of my world. My play is one attempt to do that.
Here’s how my life has intertwined with Mary Nohl’s. I raised my two daughters in Milwaukee with Mary Nohl as a legendary local figure. Her house was locally known as “The Witch’s House” – though, like most people, I imagine, I never believed that. Still, it was a fascinating atmospheric destination to experience. People from all parts of the city would drive down and see the environment art she had created. I admit, I did the same – though I do not now endorse it! It made my daughters and I feel part of a magical, mysterious world. We loved it.
I met her in the ‘90s when my and Mary Nohl’s friend Barbara Manger invited my sister Julilly and me to meet her. She was elderly by then – seemingly pleased to be visited, had a twinkle in her eye and was curious about her visitors. As I left, she gave me a small vase of a nude woman.
My cousin Ruth Kohler (of the JMKAC and the Kohler Foundation) was deeply committed to preserving Nohl’s art and property and, along with others, preserved it. At death, Mary Nohl willed both to the Kohler Foundation and donated 9.6 million dollars to The Greater Milwaukee Foundation to be given away as grants to local, cutting-edge artists.
Soon after Mary Nohl’s death in 2001, the community became convulsed about the future of the property. There was a movement to move the house from its site. Meanwhile, Barbara Manger and Janine Smith proceeded to write a book called Mary Nohl: Inside and Outside published by The Greater Milwaukee Foundation. I read and was captivated by it. (And heartily recommend.)
I decided I wanted to write a play inspired by Mary Nohl. I talked to The Greater Milwaukee Foundation to check on legal issues. They gave me permission to draw from the book’s narrative, and I started on the play around 2014. That’s right – twelve years ago!
But the harder question was still in front of me . . . how close to make my play to Mary Nohl’s actual life story. At that time the controversy was still high in the community. My first instinct was not to have the piece refer to Nohl at all. But that seemed a loss – I felt people in the Milwaukee community would like to see a play with at least some connection to her. They deserved it. I began having workshops of the play and writing more drafts. I realized more and more that although I was writing an original story, I wanted to acknowledge that Mary Nohl was the source inspiration for the play.
As I worked on it, there were turns I needed to take away from facts. I adapted some moments in the character’s life-story and skipped others. I changed some events in the timeline to make it cohere as a dramatic whole, in the way filmmakers Stephen Spielberg and Christopher Nolan work. The piece is playfully surreal in scenes. I created an ending for the play distinct from anything “real.”
But the inspiration of Mary Nohl and her creativity are at the emotional heart of the story. As is her spirit of adventure, her outsider style of making art, her drive to live and work exactly as she chose – that was and is a deep inspiration for me.
Born in a generation (1914 – 2001) when unconventional life choices were uncommon and difficult for women, Mary Nohl deliberately split away from the norm. Coming of age in the 1930s, she chose not to marry. Instead, she taught art in schools, started her own ceramics shop (with the financial help of her father). She turned away from commercial art when her parents died; and she inherited her home on the beach and a good-sized chunk of money. From then on, nothing deterred her from pursuing her own unique course. She did not try to sell her art; she did not care what people thought . . . though she may, in fact, have had the opposite impulse: shocking conventional taste may have been fun to her.
There’s another thing that draws me to Mary Nohl’s story. As individuals and artists, we often wonder what we might leave behind as legacy at the end of our lives. How do we approach aging and the loss of control? Mary Nohl had great control in the second half of her life – but she, being human, did not have the ultimate control of avoiding mortality.
In my fictionalized play I suggest that the Artist wants to live forever in order to preserve her art. Of course, I’m just imagining. Spinning a tale. That’s the difference between being “based on” and “inspired by.” I have taken the bare facts and colors of her life and stitched a separate character. Thanks to the generosity of The Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the Kohler Foundation, I have used some portions of letters and journals she actually wrote to her friends and family for many years. I have used some facts from Nohl’s life: growing up with a brother well-known as a deep-water diver; a parsimonious, well-to-do father and a musician turned housewife/mother; the tragedy of an infant brother who died in an unusual accident.
But I have changed some aspects of that story to fit the arc of the theatrical story I want and need to tell. MAYBE WE’LL FLY is its own piece of art. There is a common distinction drawn between “Truth” and “Honesty” in adaptations. For me, in this play, emotional honesty was closer to what I strove for than factual truth. I wanted to bring to life an artist facing the end of her life, considering what her life contributions might have been . . . and “letting go” of her emotional baggage. That is the story I wanted to spin and share.
MAYBE WE'LL FLY
A New Play by Marie Kohler
with Music by Josh Schmidt
Inspired by the Life of Mary Nohl
Directed by Elizabeth Margolius
September 18 — October 11, 2026
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Broadway Theatre Center | Studio Theatre
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