Artist Statement

In my current solo work, I use interpreted forms of documentary, monologue and poetry to create an autobiographical context of a personal trauma to contribute to a collective healing and understanding. I delight in language, I seek out rhythm. I value humor as reparation, using comedy to make challenging ideas consumable. I look to create a dialogue between texts, as my scene partner is the audience, contributing an experience in its most authentic form.
 

I am drawn to solo performance because of its’ freedom in style and yet its’ challenging confines: there is no luxury of the function of traditional dialogue, the story must rely simply on the telling of it. This allows me as the performer to be both narrator and subject of narration. Depending principally on language, I am forced to strip away the extraneous, the sensational or attention seeking, so that I can be left with the essential heart of the story. I appreciate the terrifying nature of solo performance, that at the end of the day, it is I, and I alone who must stand by my work, my choices, and my words. It is this fear that fuels me to not attach to what I might think clever or moving, but to seek out what moves others and arrive at a performance worthy of sharing.
 

As a performer and rape survivor I stand in my conviction to create a conversation and tell a story that challenges our current culture of doubt and victim blaming. I seek to simultaneously create a more inclusive work that has the ability to connect to those of differing viewpoints and history. Every individual has experienced trauma in some form and whether personal or inherited, there is a communal healing that takes place when one bares witness to another’s revealing of their trauma. When we stir up our stories and mix them with creativity, we have the power to ignite change, for standing in your truth through performance, you permit others to stand in theirs.