"The Amish Project" thoughts...

  About a year ago, Ed had a play produced by Simpatico Theatre Project, a small yet ballsy theatre company here in Philly.  It was the world premiere of his show The Meep Project and I was in it.  Since then, we've had an alliance with the company and we try our best to be at every opening night to show our support.

  On Thursday we went to see their remount of the harrowing The Amish Project by Jessica Dickey, as performed by Janice Rowland and directed by James Stover.  It is a co-production with The Renegade Company.

Janice Rowland in The Amish Project
Photo by Kate Raines & Plate 3 Photography

  In 2011 The Renegade Company produced The Amish Project over at Society Hill Playhouse and it was a hit.  I'm so happy that they decided to remount it, especially in the times America is steeped in right now.

  Some background:  The Amish Project (which I think is a take-off of the title The Laramie Project...except with better writing) is a response to the 2006 school house shooting in Lancaster, PA.  A man named Charles Roberts went in at about 10:30 in the morning, ordered the boys and teachers out of the building, and shot ten girls, aged 6-13, execution style and then shot himself.  About half of the girls died either immediately or they were taken off life support later at Hershey Medical.  The rest of them suffered serious injuries but luckily it seems most of them have recovered well.

  The story in The Amish Project is that and more, tales from the perspectives of people in the town, Roberts' wife, the little girls, and even Roberts himself.  All of these characters and more were strikingly performed by Janice Rowland, a local Philadelphia actress.

  I remember in 2011 when I saw the piece being deeply moved by her honest characterizations and storytelling but this performance was deeper, richer and more somber.  She was stoic when she portrayed the wife of Roberts, jovial with the 16-year-old high school student named America, disturbed when playing Roberts, and inquisitive with the Amish children.  With simplicity and ease she drifted between one character to another, allowing the moment to settle before moving on to the next.  She knew when to make the audience laugh, and when to allow us to steep in the moment. Janice blew me away.

  I am always so happy when I see my girlfriends on stage and I learn from them.  There are so many examples, even from just this current season: Mary Tuomanen in Pookie Goes Grenading, Kate Czajkowski in Angels in America, Kim Carson in Aladdin: A Musical Panto, Krista Apple in The Creditors.  The list goes on and on.  I watch these amazing women on stage and I learned from them, their techniques, their listening, their characterizations, their story telling.  And I am happy to put Janice on this list as well.  And this isn't even counting all the shows I've seen the past 6-7 years I've been seeing theatre in Philadelphia.

Mary, Kim, Kate, Krista...
WORK.

  So now it's 2013 and we've lived through another horrific school shooting in Newtown, Conn.  Seeing this play now was different than seeing it 2 years ago.  It was fresh and made me realize how actually current, important, and dire this situation is in our country.

  The other day, whilst rehearsing for a reading at The Wilma, a bunch of us ladies were sitting around and talking about the shooting.  My one friend mentioned that she had daydreams of sitting somewhere and someone with a gun comes blazing in and shoots the whole place up.  I concurred, as did several of the other women.

  It doesn't seem as though much has changed since Bowling for Columbine came out 11 years ago.  We do live in a nation of fear and fear-mongering by the media and I can't help but think that everything is fueled by money.  It's all about gain and no one regards loss.  I really don't understand why people in positions of power cannot take a breath and realize what they say and do effects everyone, not just their capital gains.  All for the word: "freedom".  Our freedom has bitten us in the butt and now we live in a country where guns are so normalized that people proudly pose for family photographs with hand guns and semi-automatics.  And yes I disagree with it.

  What this show taught me is that now we really need to do something.  Because every day there is another report of someone either permanently or intermittently or temporarily psychologically imbalanced grabbing a gun or several guns from their family's arsenal and gunning down a public area for no reason.  Not only do we have a problem with guns in our country, but we we have reached a point of contention in the mental health debate.  Seeing a therapist doesn't mean your weak, it shows you are strong and not afraid to face what ails you.

  I don't know what to do about it, I feel really lost and if someone out there has any suggestions for what to do please message me or post in my comments section.

  Back to The Amish Project: Go see it and be moved by a beautiful piece of theatre.  You will not regret it.  You may learn something, I certainly did.

Until next time...

-Cindy

**Photo Credits: Johanna Austin for Pookie, the other three I could not find so if you know please tell me and I'd be happy to put their credit on here. **