Santa Fean Robin Duda was a 29-year-old performing The Lorax by Dr. Seuss at the first Earth Day festival in 1990 St. Louis when she had her near-death experience.

She stepped on a bottle cap, which happened to have pierced through a cable hooked up to the speaker system.

"It shocked my whole body," Duda said. "As I left my body, I went into a spiritual place where I felt more love than I've ever known. Some people define that as being with God."

Duda, now 50, said she had a conversation with God about the choice she faced: to go with God or to go and live her life.

This real-life experience is the opening scene for Duda's one-woman play, titled My Parts Are Having a Party! which opens Friday at The Railyard Performance Center.

Duda, who has lived in Santa Fe for 17 years, wanted to return to performing after many years away from the stage.

"I turned 50 this year and I said, 'If I don't go back to the stage, I will not do it,' " Duda said. "There was a performer in me from the time I was very young and I performed and taught modern dance at a university."

These days, Duda works as a spiritual healer and life coach at her business, which she runs with her husband, Joseph, called Sustainable Love Training and Guidance Center.

Duda, who also has a background in social work, said after her near-death experience all those years ago, she connected with her spiritual side and her sensitivity to her "psychic ability" was heightened.

"I became very clairvoyant and psychic," Duda said. "It was as if a part of my soul just woke up from my body. I started doing healing work immediately after that."

The start of her new spiritual life and her new line of work was also the beginning of a difficult relationship with her family, she said. Her father, a behavioral psychologist, didn't believe in her new way of thinking.

"He thought we are the way we are because of our genes and our conditioning — what we're taught to believe — and I presented that we are who we are because of our spirit. I would say our soul is here to learn and experience," Duda said. "When I started seeing spirits and energy, he thought I was crazy."

But after seeing a run-through of the play and reliving Duda's near death right along with her, he has changed his mind.

"He's opened up tremendously," Duda said with a smile, her green eyes lighting up. "He was crying. He was so moved by it, especially when I helped him understand the near-death experience."

The play, which also includes a segment celebrating the life of Duda's late mother, is directed by Tanya Taylor Rubinstein.

"Robin is such a strong performer," Rubinstein said. "I love the transformational element in her show as well, it's uplifting."

Rubinstein, who runs Project Life Stories, has been helping people produce solo shows for the past 15 years. She's worked with hundreds of people who have done therapeutic monologues, she said.

"I really love the solo performance," Rubinstein said. "There is something so powerful about writing and performing one's own vision. It's such a rich, authentic, deep work. For most performers, it's a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience."

Duda, a mother of three, said the process has been extremely therapeutic for her. In her play, she examines the various versions of herself, including "Rescue Robin" who is a "New Age charismatic problem solver"; and "Super Mom," a mother overcoming the trauma of her then-husband's suicide attempt.

Duda wasn't sure the "Super Mom" version of herself would be able to get back on stage.

"I just didn't know if I could pull myself together after being a mother of three," Duda said.

"Just to have my father's response and have my connection with him has almost made the whole thing worth it," Duda said.

Duda hopes the audience will take away one message from the play.

"No matter what we think we are or what we think we can't do, I would want to share with people to follow your dreams and your heart," Duda said. "It takes a lot of courage but it's well worth the ride, no matter what the outcome is."

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.