Performance Night
For a long time I felt the call to do more in the birth world. To pick up my activist shoes and go out there and make a difference beyond the one birth at a time work of being a doula and childbirth educator. I have been a doula for over 4.5 years and I love it. I love the couples I work with and the amazing births that they invite me into. What I struggle with is the pain and trauma I see women experience in childbirth due to their choices being limited or just not respected. I decided that I needed to do something more about it. I needed to make a difference in my own community beyond the support I provide to individual women and couples. That is where BOLD came in www.boldaction.org. BOLD is an internationa arts-inspired movement to create childbirth choices that work for women. Starting in January of 2008 I and 4 other passionate birthy women set aobut bringing BOLD to London Ontario by producing the play Birth, by Karen Brody and hosting a Red Tent Event for Mothers. Below is the email I wrote to the interntational group of BOLD women after our play. Instead of trying to recreate the words and emotions of that time, I will just copy what I wrote. What I would write today would be different, but this captures the essence of my experience so much better than I could do justice to right now.
Hi,
*Phew*…..I feel like I was just at a very long and satisfying birth. We had our one and only performance of birth last night and it was more than I ever hoped for. When our online ticket sales closed last night we were at 92 tickets and I was incredibly pleased. My goal was to reach an audience of about 100 people which is really out there for a city like London. Well… we ended up selling over 50 more tickets at the door for a grand total of 146 people in attendance. Our show was in the performance hall of our Central Library and our signs attracted a lot of walk in audience members. People who were just walking by, became intrigued and then bought a ticket. We also had a BOLD Statement table set up for donations where people could give a donation of their choice in exchange for a BOLD statement card to hang our our BOLD wall of support. We raised an extra $56 through that and next year I think we can do even better with more signage.
Along with that good news we had a few blips this week. We had to let go of one of our actors this week. It was heartbreaking for all of us and a decision that we were reluctant to do. We were so grateful for her contribution and she did come out to the performance. So that meant as of Monday we were down an actress for Vanessa’s role. Our talented Director stepped in, learned the lines and rocked the house last night with her performance. She was amazing!!! I cannot believe she pulled it off with everything else she had to do and I will be eternally grateful to her for her true BOLD comittment.
We also lost our videographer this week. We had struggled with finding someone all along and last week I though the BOLD fairies had visited because a journalism student contacted me to ask me if she could film the performance for one of her classes. Yes!!! But no….she called me a couple of days ago to back out. *sigh* So, we went to plan D and asked a friend of one of our organizers. She graciously stepped up. Unfortunately we had a lot of technical difficulties with the camera during the performance and I am reluctant to look at the footage as I know there are gaps and I just hope the performance came across ok.
But…..those were the challenges and the show itself more than made up for it. The actresses rocked the house and they had the audience laughing, chanting, crying and it ended with a standing ovation. Their performance in front of an audience was dynamic and the audience’s response back just fed the energy. It was one of those sizzling theatre moments and there was so much buzz at intermssion and after the show. I got to see how well your play Karen sets up that dynamic between the audience and the actors. It was an exchange of power and energy…just like Birth.
Our talkback was good but short because of time. We were just gaining momentum when it was time to close. It was a good beginning though and I feel it has built some bridges between the doula community and the care providers. We now have a basis for dialogue which is what I was hoping for.
It is now the morning after and I wouldn’t have thought I was capable of just writing all that. I am exhausted but satisfied. I am looking forward to refocusing back on my kids and letting some of the BOLD magic circulate out there before we pick up the momentum and keep going.
Thank you Karen for your beautiful play and support, thank you Randie for being our BOLD doula and all that you have given and a ton of gratitude to all the other BOLD organizers – you are the wise women I felt with me throughout this BOLD path.
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