Tag: Performance

This program is being offered in a virtual format. In order to participate, please click the RSVP button above or email programs@smithcenter.org. Once registered, you can expect to receive the Zoom invite the morning of the session.

with Sara Nesson

in partnership with Hope Connections

Body of Water is a chronology of love, loss, and reconciliation that follows Sara’s
journey as a landlocked distance swimmer struggling to find the way home. Set on the rugged coastline of Northern California, the 25-minute monologue weaves lyric storytelling, myth, and sacred text. Playful and poignant, it is an homage to Sara’s aquatic nature, her passion for the wilderness, and a life altered by chronic illness.

Sara’s performance will be accompanied by a conversation about longing, grief, hope, and healing.

What People Are Saying:

An exquisite dive into the full-body wilderness of longing and belonging as well as a masterful teaching for any of us facing hardship or uncertainty.
–Kimberly Warner, Unfixed Media

Not to be missed! Refreshingly honest, relatable, validating, and above all else, healing.
–Dr. Annie Brewster, Health Story Collaborative

A luminous work about facing life’s seemingly insurmountable obstacles and a much-needed story in these challenging times.
–Helen Stoltzfus, Black Swan Arts & Media

See a recent article written about Sara’s performance here.

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About Sara Nesson

Sara Nesson is a California artist, writer, and performer living with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) who has been crafting original theater for twenty-five years. She has been touring as an online storyteller since 2021 and facilitates a group for artists living with chronic illness. She is currently at work on her first dance film: Unbound.

Learn more about Sara and watch a show trailer: here.

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About Hope Connections

Their free, professionally led programs for people with cancer and their loved ones deal with the emotional and physical impact of cancer. Come to Hope Connections in Bethesda, Landover, or online for emotional support, education, wellness, and hope. Learn more here.

This program is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, register by clicking the RSVP button above or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org.

You will receive the Zoom information no later than the morning of your program.

with Jodi Kanter

Stages of Healing

Join dramatherapy intern Jodi Kanter for an experience of devising a short performance from original stories, scenes, monologues and theater exercises. Working together, we will create a group performance of 15-20 minutes in length, to be shared with a small, invited audience over Zoom.

 

The purpose of the performance will be to articulate and transform our own stories of healing and loss into a new artistic expression. In the process, we’ll gain new insights for ourselves and offer something of value to friends, family members and / or caregivers.

Stages of Healing: Therapeutic Play-Making is a 4-part series limited to 4-8 participants. Participants are required to attend all sessions as part of the group experience.

Program Series Dates: 

  • Fridays, February 18th & 25th, 1:00-3:00pm
  • Friday, March 4th & 11th, 1:00-3:00pm

Suggested Donation: $10/session or $25/series

About Jodi Kanter

Jodi Kanter

Jodi has been involved in theater since she was ten years old. She grew up acting and studying performance in American theater’s “Second City,” Chicago Illinois.  She is currently a professor of theatre in the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, where she has been on faculty for nearly fifteen years. Her academic work in theater includes her book, Performing Loss: Strengthening Communities Through Theatre and Writing (2007). Jodi’s focus on performance as a tool for individual and social healing and change has led her to create workshops, events and productions in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, schools, and prisons. Most recently, she co-created a four-month diversity and inclusion program for members of DC’s fourteen Neighborhood Village associations using the methodology of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Jodi holds a PhD. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in dramatherapy at Lesley University.

This program is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, register by clicking the RSVP button above or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org.

You will receive the Zoom information no later than the morning of your program.

with Jodi Kanter

Stages of Healing

Join dramatherapy intern Jodi Kanter for an experience of devising a short performance from original stories, scenes, monologues and theater exercises. Working together, we will create a group performance of 15-20 minutes in length, to be shared with a small, invited audience over Zoom.

 

The purpose of the performance will be to articulate and transform our own stories of healing and loss into a new artistic expression. In the process, we’ll gain new insights for ourselves and offer something of value to friends, family members and / or caregivers.

Stages of Healing: Therapeutic Play-Making is a 4-part series limited to 4-8 participants. Participants are required to attend all sessions as part of the group experience.

Program Series Dates: 

  • Friday, October 29th, 10:30am-12:30pm
  • Fridays, November 5th, 12th & 19th, 10:30am-12:30pm

Suggested Donation: $10/session or $25/series

About Jodi Kanter

Jodi Kanter

Jodi has been involved in theater since she was ten years old. She grew up acting and studying performance in American theater’s “Second City,” Chicago Illinois.  She is currently a professor of theatre in the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, where she has been on faculty for nearly fifteen years. Her academic work in theater includes her book, Performing Loss: Strengthening Communities Through Theatre and Writing (2007). Jodi’s focus on performance as a tool for individual and social healing and change has led her to create workshops, events and productions in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, schools, and prisons. Most recently, she co-created a four-month diversity and inclusion program for members of DC’s fourteen Neighborhood Village associations using the methodology of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Jodi holds a PhD. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in dramatherapy at Lesley University.