LEARNING TO HUMAN
A SOLO SHOW by SIMS HOLLAND
September 18 – October 4, 2025
A show about grief, chaotic life choices, and recovery—that is somehow still just incredibly funny. Critics are giving it all the love:
Some nights at the theater hit like a freight train. This searing, soul-baring one-woman play is part confession, part poetry slam, part stand-up set, and completely unforgettable. . . . From the moment she steps on stage, Holland commands attention. . . . Holland’s physicality crackles with energy. She hurls her whole body into the performance, flowing effortlessly from despair to rage to joy.
Do not walk to this show. RUN. Take a friend, take your mom, take the person you know is barely holding it together. You will laugh together, cry together, and leave with a renewed sense that life, even at its messiest, darkest, and most painful, is worth living.
A “one-woman powerhouse of a tragedy-comedy . . . raw, captivating candor . . . unfiltered, unremorseful, absurd, and devastating. Yet through the wild antics, we see a woman ready at last to face herself, ready to learn what it means—messy, complicated, triumphant—to ‘human.’”
“Vivid, beautifully kinetic narrative . . . There's plenty of laughter . . You have no idea of what'll come up next.”
And check out this one-minute video trailer!
Join Sims Holland on a rollercoaster journey that navigates the chaotic trials of life as an addict to the all-thumbs attempt at building a sober life afterward. Speckled with poetry, dotted with dance numbers, and doused in honesty, this true story will take you on a ride you won't soon forget. Written and performed by Holland, directed by David McCusker.
Actor and stand-up comedian Holland hails originally from Austin, Texas. She left Central Texas after high school, already grappling with the troubles of a budding addict, and proceeded to spend a considerable amount of her adult life running away from herself from the East Coast to the West. Tangled up in addictions, self-doubt and escapism, Holland struggled to make headway as a human until eight years ago, when she finally cleaned up and kicked all the vices.
Holland’s performance has been garnering accolades, winning Best Autobiographical Show in its Off-Off-Broadway premiere in New York’s United Solo Festival as well as Austin’s Best of FronteraFest, and receiving a nomination from Austin’s prestigious B. Iden Payne Award Council for Outstanding Solo Performer. The show is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, combining vulnerable stories, hilarious honesty, and beautiful poems that remind us that everyone is still learning to human.
Praise for Learning to Human:
“The kids may have Dr. Seuss but grownups need Dr. Sims, whose unique medicine of vulnerable stories, hilarious honesty, and beautiful poems serve to remind us that inside everyone is someone still learning to human.”
- Dan Prevette, actor, writer, and solo show performer
“Learning to Human is a unique gem of a show: hilarious, tender, unflinchingly sincere, intimate... I left the theatre both completely charmed by Sims Holland’s inner sparkle and inspired to keep working toward more joy and connection in my life. What more can I ask from a single evening of theatre?”
- Actor, Playwright Taylor Flanagan 2025
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