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Sliding Down the Main: Hidden Histories from an Immigrant City
Crazy: One Woman's Search for Sanity
Sliding Down the Main: Hidden Histories from an Immigrant City
Frances just immigrated to Montreal. She’s trying to learn French
and get used to her new surroundings. When she explores the attic in her
new home, a hidden history comes alive. Sliding down the Main, she meets
various characters, including the Quebecois Mr. Veillette, Mei-li, a young
girl from China, Westmount’s British Mrs. Elizabeth, and David and
Rebecca, German Jews who fled Europe to escape the Nazis. Frances realizes
she lives in a lively, eclectic city full of people who, like her, have
reestablished themselves and who, like her, are full of stories to tell.
Perfect complement for educational units on immigration, multi-culturalism,
local history, and French/English language study.
A play for children ages 6-12.
Running time: 45 minutes
pdf
"Sliding Down the Main"
pdf
"En Glissant sur la Main"
Crazy: One Woman's Search for Sanity
Crazy is an autobiographically-based multimedia performance project jamming with, spying on, and crooning about anxiety and depression. The project is designed to open conversations and shift paradigms about mental health and mental health challenges.
The solo play, which is one part of the project, is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes stark but always engaging theatrical peek into the lived stories of artist Gail Marlene Schwartz. Audiences will encounter, among other things, a nightmare, a steam cleaner, a bike ride, a bunny, a very short tune and a very long list.
The project also includes community panel discussions, creative arts/dialogue workshops and residencies, a blog and a resource list. Schwartz is interested in helping to develop new ways of talking about, understanding and responding to experiences like anxiety and depression-ways that are more holistic, systemic and connected. As such, the stories in the play have been deliberately included because they raise key issues associated with mental health challenges including isolation, socioeconomic status, bullying and other forms of discrimination, nutrition, violence, labeling and medication.
Another goal of the project is to promote positive mental health through creative expression, exploring different paths to and definitions of wellness, and taking time to nurture each relationship associated with the project, viewing the creation of healthy balanced relationships as an essential component of the project itself instead of being exclusively or primarily focused on end products.
Winter/spring 2009 presentations
- February 21st Canadian Mental Health Association of Ontario, Toronto, ON
- March 4th-6th Expanding our Horizons/Beers Foundation conference, Toronto, ON
- March 23, Laurier-McDonald Community Learning Centre, videoteleconferencing event, Montreal
- April 17-22nd MICA Community Arts Convening and Research project, Monterey, CA
- April 18th, Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Fremont, California
- May 4th, Hebrew Academy High School, Montreal
- May 5th, Maimonedes High School, Montreal
- May 6 Anxiety Disorders Association of Canada, Montreal, QC
- May 11-12 College Committee on Disability Issues, Huntsville, ON
- May 14th, Emmanuel Christian High School, Montreal
- May 28-31 Philadelphia GLBT Arts Festival
- June 6, Canadian Mental Health Association of Nova Scotia, "Festival of Hope," Dartmouth
- June 12, ALPABEM, conference, Montreal
- June 13 Canadian Psychological Association annual convention
- June 19th, Canadian Mental Health Association of Weyburn, Saskatchewan
Project offerings include
- performance of the play, which runs one hour
- post-show discussion with community panelists
- one hour talk with the artist, including three monologues, project history, and sample workshop exercises
- residencies with the artist to create autobiographically-based performance work around mental health issue>?s
- one-three hour creative arts/dialogue workshop exploring the place of anxiety and depression in contemporary life
Please contact us to discuss custom packages, rates, and block booking discounts.
For more information
contact Third Story Window at (514) 389-4231
or gailmail@thirdstorywindow.com
Canadian
Jewish News review of "Crazy"
Contact
TSW for more info or to book a performance
Recent performance projects
Crazy, Vermont tour in collaboration with VSA Arts of Vermont, April 2007-May 2008
This project, funded by the Vermont Community Foundation, was designed to unravel stigma associated with mental illness. We combined presentation of the play with a post-show panel discussion and a creative arts workshop. We toured to five educational institutions and collaborated with community members engaged with mental health work as panelists. The workshop, developed in partnership with Amy Stuart, M.S.W., was a key element in involving audience members with the subject matter on a much deeper and more personal level. It was also terrific fun and very moving.
Performance venues: UVM College of Medicine, CCV Burlington, CCV St. Albans, University of Southern New Hampshire Graduate Program in Community Mental Health, Vermont College Master of Education program.
Unraveling Herstory
Collaboration with Common Thread Productions, May-September 2007; Montreal, QC
The goal of this project was to explore contemporary issues women face, including racism, sexism, homophobia, classism and family trauma by creating a play exploring ancestral stories. We began by forming a collective ensemble comprised of nine women, researched our individual stories and then developed them for the stage through different artistic media (music, dance, writing, drama, mask-making, video). A unique aspect of this project was the egalitarian power structure of the group and trying to learn how to function outside of the hierarchies we are used to. We presented our piece to the general public at Concordia University’s Cazalet Theater in Montréal.
