Public Showing August 14 @ 8pm
Matter is Mother by Julia Bray
Counting Pebbles by Faultline Ensemble
Lab Work August 1-13
Matter is Mother
Created and Performed by Julia Bray
Costumes by Hailey Desjardin and Jane Staugas
Vocal Recordings by Ronald Peet
Matter is Mother is a one woman show set in a private resort in the Bahamas where a mythic sea monster named “Lusca” is said to dwell. Throughout the show the audience is coaxed in to this tropical world through character-driven monologues, recordings, dances, and songs as each character uses Lusca’s presence to reflect their relationship to the feminine. Drawing a parallel between the collective pressure we’ve placed on females in our society and the mindlessness in which we’ve treated the ultimate feminine force, Mother Earth, this piece offers science cloaked in raucous comedy and solutions for healing wrapped in poetry and performance.
Julia Bray is a performer, writer, singer, dancer, producer and teacher who has lived and created in New York City for the past 10 years. She has performed Off Broadway in multiple productions (including two New York Premiers), and appeared on television in “Law and Order SVU”, HBO’s “How to Make it In America” and “Boardwalk Empire” and MTV’s sketchcomedy show “Hey Girl”. In January 2015 Julia founded “ALL BOATS” a bi-monthly variety show that features new work in theater, film, dance, song, comedy, performance art and beyond. Julia’s writing and solo shows have been seen at Dixon Place, Fresh Ground Pepper, Theater in Asylum, The Habitat Theater Company and the variety shows “New Skin” and “All Boats”. She produces and directs the music videos for her comedic rap group “Sister Wives”, and is a founding member of two sketch comedy troupes “Thanks For Coming Comedy” and “Emotional Pizza”. She graduated from NYU Tisch and is currently exploring a bi-coastal lifestyle between her hometown of Portland, OR and her Brooklyn turf. She teaches ballet and Kundalini yoga to adults and children. https://julia-bray.com/
Counting Pebbles
By Faultline Ensemble
Directed by Taiga Christie
“If there’s one thing first responders do, it’s tell stories.”– The Code Green Campaign
First responders working in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are ten times more likely to contemplate suicide than the national average, and the most common reason responders leave the field is burnout and psychological trauma.
Created in partnership with the Code Green Campaign, this devised performance will explore experiences of first responders struggling with and finding paths through trauma. The piece will draw on interviews, anonymous stories collected by Code Green and art by EMS workers to weave a story of shared trauma, pride and resilience.
Taiga Christie is a Portland-‐based playwright and director of collaborative original works. She is the founder and director of Faultline Ensemble, an ensemble dedicated to creating theater that increases community health and resilience, and has studied community-‐based theater for social change at Dell’Arte International Theater Company, Cornerstone Theater Company and Sojourn Theatre. She also works as an EMT and health educator, and is a collaborating artist with Children of the Wild, company-‐in-‐residence at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, MA. Taiga’s past original, collaborative works include “Six Billion Utopias,” a documentary performance about mental health access for sexual and gender minorities, and “Holding onto the Sky,” a community-‐based play about disaster preparedness and health access in Portland. “Six Billion Utopias” toured in New England in 2013, in partnership with nonprofits working to increase minority access to care. “Holding onto the Sky” was recently remounted in Portland due to the popularity of its first run in 2014. Her work centers on pieces that incorporate a multiplicity of marginalized voices, conflicting points of view, and an anti-‐ oppression analysis. Taiga is also an Emergency Medical Technician, a practitioner of trauma support work in the healthcare field and a community health trainer. She aims to use theater to explore the tension between varied experiences of trauma, and to raise awareness and sensitivity to individual and collective trauma throughout our culture.