|
 |
|||||
 |
|
|
Denver, Colorado
Opening night was a surprise as we only sold about 23 tickets in advance and ended up having about 90 people come to a 100 seat venue. The next friday night was a sell out and we had to turn people away at the door because we were out of room. The performances went great and we got rave reviews from our audiences. One of our actors has a dad who's an OB and after the play he had a lengthy conversation with our actress who played Sandy. He said that he veiws himself as the advocate for the baby and gets really frustrated when the moms he works with are reluctant to consent to a c-section when he feels one is necessary. He said that seeing Sandy's story reminded him that the experience isn't ALL about the baby, but mom's process as well and that he could do better to take a few moments to check in with mom and see how she is feeling and just to take a moment to hear the mom side and listen to her and create a space where the mom is involved in the decision and not just him as the OB. He said it was a great play and I could hear him laughing behind me during the performance. Another great story is that of another of our actors, Anita. She played Jillian and has a 19 year old son. he came to opening night and she told us that after the play she had a great discussion with him and he was pretty much brought to tears to see the stories and the way birth is treated sometimes. It was quite moving to hear that a young man who isn't married, doesn't have any kids could relate to a play about women giving birth. I think he will be a great advocate for his future wife and baby. The theme for our BOLD Talkbacks were "What is Mother-Friendly care and how do we get it?" Our first BOLD talkback on opening night was cancelled because the owner of the cafe double booked the space and we were not able to hold the talkback. On the second performance we had 2 homebirth midwives and a doula there to talk to our audience. The conversation was heavy on the homebirth talk, and it seemed that all who stayed for the talkback were mother/midwife friendly or new or expecting parents wanting more information as we didn't have any dramatic moments or heated discussions about anything. For the third talkback we had a homebirth midwife, a CMN, a doula, and a family practitioner who catches babies. it was pretty good, but was still quite heavy on the homebirth questions and how OB's are so "horrible". It was kind of frustrating during that talkback to hear all the doctor bashing comments, because I know some great doctors who are mother-friendly. One of mt goals for our BOLD event was not to tell people that doctors are bad and that midwives are good- but to encourage women and families to take the initiative for their care and to get educated about choices and options that are available to them. I think the most rewarding part was on opening night when the actors and stage mangers and I were warming up before the performance. We were all standing in a circle facing each other and I felt this overwhelming feeling of gratitude and love for these women who had sacrificed their free time, and put their families on wacky schedules in order to help me put together something that I feel so passionate about. I can truly say that I love all of the women that were apart of this and I am so thankful for all of their help and talents. Miranda Cacek was the BOLD Organizer in
Denver.
|
