Developed in partnership with the Code Green Campaign, this production explores trauma and mental health struggles in prehospital emergency medical providers. First responders working in Emergency Medical Services are ten times more likely to contemplate suicide than the national average, and the most common reason responders leave the field is burnout. This devised performance incorporates experiences of first responders struggling with and finding paths through trauma. The piece draws on interviews and conversations with EMS providers across the United States to weave stories of shared trauma, pride and resilience.
Counting Pebbles was granted a workshop residency at CoHo Productions as part of CoHo's Summer Workshop Lab in August of 2016, and received its first full performance at the Yale Cabaret in 2019, as part of a masters thesis by Taiga Christie on the use of theater in addressing occupational trauma exposure. Ticket proceeds were donated to the Honor Wellness Center to support interventions in first responder mental health.
Counting Pebbles was granted a workshop residency at CoHo Productions as part of CoHo's Summer Workshop Lab in August of 2016, and received its first full performance at the Yale Cabaret in 2019, as part of a masters thesis by Taiga Christie on the use of theater in addressing occupational trauma exposure. Ticket proceeds were donated to the Honor Wellness Center to support interventions in first responder mental health.
Developed in response to the #metoo campaign, as well as the experiences of Faultline artists, this project intends to develop interventions to prevent sexual assault and harassment in small theaters. Drawing on occupational health research on workplace sexual assault prevention, as well as interviews with theater practitioners across the country, this campaign aims to promote cultures of consent, bodily autonomy, trust and mutual support within companies, with specific focus on physical and ensemble work. Funded in part by a grant from the Network of Ensemble Theatres, Brave Space intends to create specific and concrete interventions to support the safety and autonomy of all artists, especially those most at risk of assault and harassment.
Carrying Pebbles: Toward Trauma Informed Theater with Emergency Medical Responders
Masters Thesis
Yale School of Public Health
Spring 2019
This thesis integrates theater, public health and principles of trauma informed care to argue for the use of theater to address work-related trauma with Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers. Drawing on interviews with EMS providers, the thesis uncovers the prevalent and chronic nature of occupational exposure to psychological trauma in this field. It then constructs a model of trauma informed theater, based on the model of trauma informed care, in order to promote dialogue about this stigmatized topic. Drawing on Faultline's creation and first performances of Counting Pebbles, this project hopes to spark open conversation among peers within the EMS industry, and to shed light on the lack of mental health support for first responders.
Masters Thesis
Yale School of Public Health
Spring 2019
This thesis integrates theater, public health and principles of trauma informed care to argue for the use of theater to address work-related trauma with Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers. Drawing on interviews with EMS providers, the thesis uncovers the prevalent and chronic nature of occupational exposure to psychological trauma in this field. It then constructs a model of trauma informed theater, based on the model of trauma informed care, in order to promote dialogue about this stigmatized topic. Drawing on Faultline's creation and first performances of Counting Pebbles, this project hopes to spark open conversation among peers within the EMS industry, and to shed light on the lack of mental health support for first responders.
This Portland-based performance about disaster preparedness and community medical resources received a Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant for its first run in 2014, and a Pollination Project Seed Grant for its second run in 2016. It was created in collaboration with the Rosehip Medic Collective, a local community health collective researching alternative emergency medical systems developed in communities lacking access to care. First-person narratives form the basis for this devised performance, a collaboration between playwrights, community artists, and health and education advisers from the Rosehip Collective. Both runs played to sold out houses, and the second run included a series of discussions with local disaster and community health experts, addressing practical questions about health and disaster resilience.
The performance uses the fictional setting of a disaster - a major earthquake in the Portland area - to create a setting where emergency medical infrastructure has failed, and performers and audience must brainstorm alternative methods of medical care and community disaster response. In an area certain to experience a major earthquake in the near future, and where many residents live without access to healthcare due to financial inaccessibility, homelessness, and systemic prejudices within the healthcare system, this project combines the pedagogical possibilities of theater with the health education work already active within the community, creating new visions for the future of community-based care.
The performance uses the fictional setting of a disaster - a major earthquake in the Portland area - to create a setting where emergency medical infrastructure has failed, and performers and audience must brainstorm alternative methods of medical care and community disaster response. In an area certain to experience a major earthquake in the near future, and where many residents live without access to healthcare due to financial inaccessibility, homelessness, and systemic prejudices within the healthcare system, this project combines the pedagogical possibilities of theater with the health education work already active within the community, creating new visions for the future of community-based care.
Six Billion Utopias
A collaborative performance about gender and mental health
Reed College Theater
Spring 2010
Six Billion Utopias began as an undergraduate thesis project at Reed College - an experiment in creating a community-based, documentary performance that was rooted in a strong ethical practice and prioritized participant agency. It used an anthropological framework to create a process that placed community participants at the center of the performance and its creation.
The performance - a series of interwoven monologues taken from interview transcripts - explored the ways our culture's beliefs about mental health influence individual experiences of gender. Based on interviews with participants of a wide variety of ages, gender identities, life experiences and beliefs, the piece focused on queering our perspectives on binary conceptions of both gender and mental health, and questioning the definitions of "normal" and "abnormal" present in our society. The script was a collaborative project, created with input from the interview participants, performance ensemble members, designers, and project advisors from the local community. Six Billion Utopias played to sold out houses at the Reed College Studio Theater.
Throughout the performance, the ensemble wrote in chalk on the walls of the small black box theater, illustrating points, defining terms, and claiming the space as their own. At the end, audience members were invited to write questions, comments and reactions on the walls and floor of the space. The goal was to create a space for audience members to question societal norms in relation to both gender and mental health. After each performance, the walls, floor and stage were filled with questions.
The performance - a series of interwoven monologues taken from interview transcripts - explored the ways our culture's beliefs about mental health influence individual experiences of gender. Based on interviews with participants of a wide variety of ages, gender identities, life experiences and beliefs, the piece focused on queering our perspectives on binary conceptions of both gender and mental health, and questioning the definitions of "normal" and "abnormal" present in our society. The script was a collaborative project, created with input from the interview participants, performance ensemble members, designers, and project advisors from the local community. Six Billion Utopias played to sold out houses at the Reed College Studio Theater.
Throughout the performance, the ensemble wrote in chalk on the walls of the small black box theater, illustrating points, defining terms, and claiming the space as their own. At the end, audience members were invited to write questions, comments and reactions on the walls and floor of the space. The goal was to create a space for audience members to question societal norms in relation to both gender and mental health. After each performance, the walls, floor and stage were filled with questions.
From Spectator to Protagonist in Community-Based Theater
Academic Thesis
Spring 2010
An undergraduate thesis in interdisciplinary theater and anthropology, this academic paper assesses existing models of community-based theater and attempts to create a new ethical framework for interview-based performance. Basing its exploration in anthropological methodology, this project argues for approaching community-based performance as ethnography and critiquing its biases, contradictions and ethical dilemmas within this discipline. The project looks closely at the imperialist implications of professional artists entering underprivileged communities to create theater, and argues for applying an anti-imperialist and anti-oppressive lens to the work. This approach attempts to more fully acknowledge the complex nature of defining communities, the influence of the playwright on documentary performance, the many layers of dialogic process, and the inaccuracies of portraying community-based performance as an impartial lens. Throughout this process, it attempts to construct a new model of interview-based theater, which fully explores its own problematic assumptions and privileged positioning in order to create more responsible, critically engaged productions.
Six Billion Utopias: New England Tour
Sandglass Theater, The Off Center for the Performing Arts, Ludcke Auditorium
Fall 2012-Winter 2013
In Summer of 2012, Six Billion Utopias was invited to create a remount in Southern Vermont, sponsored by the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont's Crossroads program, a queer community-building and health education program for young people. The result was a production slightly edited from its original to convey the production history, and cast with actors from the local queer community. Here it served as a new kind of process for community performers, who created new incarnations of the characters and brought their own experiences to the original interview participants' words. The remount played to sold out houses at the small but legendary Sandglass Theater in Putney, Vermont. Following the performance, it was invited by Pathways to Housing Vermont, a nonprofit working in peer mental health support, to perform as an outreach event for their headquarters in Burlington, Vermont. It was also approached to perform in Portland, Maine, for Justice in the Body, a health justice organization working to make holistic care accessible to minority populations.
These performances allowed an ensemble of local, nonprofessional individuals to experience the rehearsal and performance process, engage with the stories of the characters' struggles and triumphs, and come together to inspire and facilitate open dialogue in their community. The performances were followed by post-show discussions with medical and mental health practitioners, Pathways Vermont and Justice in the Body staff, and local residents, highlighting the affects of rigid mental health categories on the ways our society views gender roles. Performers shared lessons learned from their own life experiences, their work on the production, and their engagement with their characters, in an effort to question societal norms and create a greater acceptance of diversity in mental health care.
These performances allowed an ensemble of local, nonprofessional individuals to experience the rehearsal and performance process, engage with the stories of the characters' struggles and triumphs, and come together to inspire and facilitate open dialogue in their community. The performances were followed by post-show discussions with medical and mental health practitioners, Pathways Vermont and Justice in the Body staff, and local residents, highlighting the affects of rigid mental health categories on the ways our society views gender roles. Performers shared lessons learned from their own life experiences, their work on the production, and their engagement with their characters, in an effort to question societal norms and create a greater acceptance of diversity in mental health care.