WAM holds space for Elders, Mother-Artists and Public School Teachers post-pandemic
by Talya Kingston, Associate Artistic Director
As summer of 2021 approached, many of us newly vaccinated, newly hopeful, tentatively emerged into public spaces. WAM Theatre held three story circles for affinity groups over the course of the summer, the groups included: Elder women over 65, public school teachers, and performing artists with young children. Each group of berkshire locals got a chance to sit together in space and listen to each other’s stories without comment or interruption. As facilitator, I simply offered a prompt and a talking object. Anyone could begin and speak for as long as they needed before passing the talking object onto someone else. No one was forced to speak or respond. After a year of isolation, frantic pivoting, static zoom meetings and child care stress, it felt radical simply to take two hours to listen to each other and reconnect.
In June, members of WAM’s Elder Ensemble gathered, visibly thrilled to see each other again after the pandemic. Initially some were nervous to tell a story, but listening to each other’s stories of the past year prompted everyone to share. Nancy Tunnicliffe reported that as the afternoon went on “I became a closer listener and less nervous speaker.” Flo Brett reiterated this point saying “The character of a person is revealed through their stories and it’s fun to tell a story (and therapeutic).” In addition to telling stories about things that had happened during COVID, the Elder Ensemble, prompted by Madeline Sayet’s performance Where We Belong, shared stories of their ancestors and where they came from. This led to several points of connection that Karen McNulty described as “sisters sharing.”
In July, WAM hosted our second story circle, this time for Berkshire public school teachers in collaboration with BCAN (Berkshire Community Arts Network). Many of the teachers had attended professional development workshops with WAM in 2018 and 2019, but hadn’t seen each other in person since the pandemic Their pandemic stories included: A music teacher who was suddenly unable to sing with her early elementary school students; an art teacher who found herself answering 50-70 emails a day from students; and an ESL teacher who was dealing with a whole new influx of new immigrants after the new President / change of administration. One teacher also recounted the joy on students’ faces when they were finally reunited in person this Spring, and another told about how she was connecting to students over zoom who were a lot more communicative than they’d ever been in the classroom. One participant, Wendy Lamberton reported afterwards that: “Learning about other people’s struggles, victories and stories created a feeling of belonging and growth…We all have a story to tell.”
Finally, on August 2nd (International Mother Artist Day) a group of performing artists who are also mothers gathered to share stories about the intersection of those identities. Of the group, at least three had been pregnant and given birth during the pandemic, and several of us had lost performing arts jobs and been thrown into impromptu homeschooling. From the first email invitation it was clear that this was a group who was craving connection, one participant responded to my initial email saying: “With a 3 year old and a 5 month old, I was shocked and delighted to see that this is taking place on a Monday morning! I had given up on participating in any kind of theater oriented get togethers for the time being, for obvious everything-happens-in-the-evening reasons, so I jumped at the chance to sign up for this.” Another participant in the circle took the speaking rock but for the first minute or so her speech was broken up with tears: “I’m sorry… I’m just feeling so emotional.. even being in this performance space with you all after…” She wasn’t alone in her tears. Hãna Kenny wrote afterwards of the importance of this affinity space: “Though “motherhood” is always a nice united factor between myself and other women, there is a whole other piece to the reality of inhabiting the roles of mother and artist that can be difficult to articulate, and often feels isolating. How great to be face to face with other people who are experiencing life in a similar way!”
It is important to note that while story circles or talking circles are common in many cultures and educational environments, I was reminded of the practice by Kamloopa playwright Kim Senklip Harvey (Syilx and Tsilhqot’in Nation) who recommended it as part of her own practice of Indigenous Artistic Ceremony.
WAM is also grateful to The Foundry for hosting these special summer story circles and Berkshire United Way’s generous sponsorship of them that allowed us to offer childcare, and a stipend to participants of the teacher and mother-artist story circles.