On Mary Wright’s email is a quote that says a lot:

“We are the stories we tell.”

Wright, “Spirited Stories” storyteller, theater artist, consultant and coach, brings that motto and all of her skills to bear in what is possibly her most personal work to date, “Mae Swe,” a one-woman show in its world premiere Jan. 14 - 17 at Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem.

“Mae Swe” (pronounced “May Sway”), Burmese for “My Friend,” is based on Wright’s early years in Burma where she was born to parents who were Baptist missionaries, as well as stories she gathered from 30 interviews she did with family members, and refugees from Myanmar (pronounced Me-yan-ma, and formerly known as Burma) who emigrated to the United States and now reside in the Lehigh Valley.

In her 19 years living in the Lehigh Valley, Wright has done much work interviewing sources and shaping their stories into performance pieces for Touchstone Theatre, where she’s an Ensemble Associate, including Touchstone’s “Journey From The East” (2014).

Since 1985, Wright has done 120 storytelling performances at schools from pre-K through college, 40 artist-in-residencies, 65 workshops-continuing education classes for adults, storytelling and acting classes for pre-professionals with Touchstone Theatre’s apprentice program, playwriting classes for elementary through high-school in Touchstone Theatre’s Young Playwright’s Lab Program, performed in 20 festivals, 35 professional theater productions and three original one-or-two-woman shows, directed 10 productions and is a founding member of Lehigh Valley Storytellers Guild.

Of all her work to date, “Mae Swe,” which has been eight years in the making, is near and dear to her heart. You can hear the care that she has taken with “Mae Swe” in Wright’s voice:

“When people entrust their stories to you, there’s a moral obligation to honor those stories and to honor the people. You have to be real careful not to take the stories out of context because that’s not honoring the person.

“There were some people who entrusted me to share some pretty tough memories. The burden and the joy of sharing those stories is mine. I’m trying to find ways to do justice to them.”

Wright was four when her family, as well as all foreigners, were forced to leave Burma several years after a military coup took place there. “Mae Swe” tells Wright’s story, the story of her family and that of Myanmar natives who’ve resettled in the Lehigh Valley.

“Mae Swe” reflects on the idea of home and the theme of belonging, using figures from Burmese history and folktales, traditional Burmese puppets, Burmese music, lacquerware and traditional Burmese attire.

Wright portrays herself at different ages, and plays other roles, including those of family members and interviewees. The performance is 75 min. with no intermission.

“Mae Swe” and the accompanying “Burma Project” is funded in part by grants from the Rider-Pool Foundation and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. It is supported locally by Touchstone season sponsors First Generation and RCN. WDIY provides media sponsorship.

“One of my goals for this [“Mae Swe”] is that I’m creating and staging it in such a way that I can tour it. I would like to go to theater festivals. And I’m very interested in performing it in churches that have helped to resettle refugees.”

Catholic Charities and Lutheran Services have helped with Myanmar refugees’ resettlement. Wright estimates there are about 300 former Myanmar refugees in the Lehigh Valley. Significant numbers of Myanmar refugees have settled in Lancaster; Philadelphia; Princeton, N.J.; St. Paul, Minn., and Delaware.

Wright conducted her interviews in English and with a translator. Among those interviewed was a Myanmar woman who’s a masters candidate at Lehigh University.

Creating “Mae Swe” presented particular and sensitive challenges:

“I think any artist who starts exploring an issue that is fundamentally close to them, you have to wade through a lot of your own stuff. You have to continually ask yourself the question, ‘Why am I doing this?’

“And I didn’t want anyone to say, ‘Why is this white lady standing on stage telling us these stories of these ethnic minorities?.’

“But I also didn’t want this to be, ‘Oh, let me tell the story of my life.’

“Somebody said what gives me the right to stand up there and tell these stories is because of my own family’s story, and the notion of what makes some place home. For me, the first four years of my life, Burma was home even though we were forced to leave.”

Wright and her family lived in then Burma 1962 - ‘66. Her father Clifford Gilson, a minister, and her mother, Rosemary, a teacher, were missionaries posted in Burma by the American Baptist Church. Wright’s sisters were three and five when the family moved to Burma. A younger brother was also born in Burma.

Wright’s family next lived in south India for four years where her parents’ work as missionaries continued.

Wright celebrated her eighth birthday in Buckfield, Maine. “Boy, was that culture shock,” Wright recalls. The family moved in with grandparents for six months there before Wright’s father accepted a call to churches in Hoosick and West Hoosick, N.Y., in upstate New York near the Vermont border.

“This may sound strange, but in the first eight years of my life, I was a minority, particularly the first four. Here in this country, in the United States. I look like everybody around me, but for the first few years, I certainly didn’t feel like everybody around me.’

Wright returned to Myanmar 12 years ago. She visited her sister, Ruth, who lives in Thailand. They drove to the Myanmar-Thailand. “You could walk in for a day,” recalls Wright, who spent about 10 hours in Myanmar, but didn’t have enough time to revisit her childhood home in Rangoon. Her parents have returned to Myanmar several times.

Wright says family members and some area Myanmar immigrants are expected to attend performances of “Mae Swe.”

“This whole exploration of belonging and of home, it’s very personal for me.

“But once I knew that there were refugees here from Burma, I thought for a lot of refugees here now, if there’s anyway I can open the eyes of people in the U.S. They [Myanmar natives] could easily be mistaken for Thailand or Phillippine natives. If there’s anyway to give voice to these people who are new to this community,” Wright continues and emphasizes, “This [‘Mae Swe’] turns out to be incredibly timely right now because of everythng going on in Iraq and northern Africa and Syria and people fleeing their countries.

“You let those stories tell you what the end story is. It’s the way I’ve taken on many of these stories, story-gathering turned into theater. You start out with a vague idea. You start asking questions. And those stories reveal other questions. And the pieces reveal themselves. And you weave it togeter to hopefully make some sense.”

Helping Wright make sense of “Mae Swe” was Jennie Gilrain, a Freemansburg Elementary School teacher in the Bethlehem Area School District and Touchstone Theatre veteran with whom Wright has previously worked, who directs “Mae Swe.” Says Wright:

“She [Gilrain] pushed me into areas outside my own comfort zone. Part of this project is to get people out of their own comfort zone. And hopefully push me out of my own comfort zone. To tell a story that is both specific and universal of what it means to be home.”

“Mae Swe,” 8 p.m. Jan. 14, 15, 16; 2 p.m. Jan. 17, Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem. Group rates available. On Thursday, Touchstone offers a pay-what-you-will ticket at the door. Tickets: touchstone.org, 610-867-1689