WE ARE ONE BODY: Warrior Mother Sheila K. Collins unites us all at her book performance with Soulprint Players

CELEBRATING THE WARRIOR MOTHER. On March 13, 2015, Sheila K. Collins performed her book, Warrior Mother, in Atlanta, Georgia, with the support of InterPlay Atlanta's Soulprint Players. (photo by Callahan Pope McDonough)

by Ruth Schowalter, certified InterPlay leader

"We are one body," proclaims Sheila K. Collins as she delivers her life's story written in the book, Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss, and Rituals that Heal, at the Mask Center in the Little Five Points Community Center, Atlanta, Georgia.

INTRODUCING THE STORY. With the audience on her right and the Soulprint Players on her left, Sheila stands center stage at the Mask Center and begins her story after having the audience watch the video about her book on their mobile phones. Here is the video link. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

In sharing her story of losing two adult children, one to AIDS and the other to breast cancer, Sheila emphasizes the importance of the community body to help an individual to sing and tell stories that are too large to bear alone. "The weight of one person's story becomes lighter," she says. 

And Sheila knows. Her 31-year-old son, Kenneth died of AIDS, and seven years later, her daughter, Corinne, died of breast cancer. In 2013, Warrior Mother, her journey through this unimaginable loss to healing and joy, was published.  Merging InterPlay forms with a "book reading," Sheila, now in her 70s, has shared her story of grief and loss with many communities around the world. 

The evening at the Mask Center was spent with Sheila moving between reading from the pages of her book and inviting InterPlay Atlanta Soulprint Players to expand the themes through performance. Below are some of the performance highlights:

THE WARRIOR MOTHER DANCE. Members of the Soulprint Players learn the "Warrior Mother Dance" from Sheila. Punctuated with voiced "huhs," the stomping performers energized the room--the community body--with their repetitive mother warrior dance back and forth around the stage. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

WHAT GOOD CAN COME FROM THIS? Asking several Soulprint Players to join her in singing the phrase, "What good can come from this?," Sheila engaged three other performers to move. Audience members witnessed the transformation of an anguished plea to find meaning out of loss and death (What good can come of this?) to a triumphant proclamation--GOOD CAN COME OF THIS. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

THE THINGS PEOPLE DON'T TELL YOU. As Sheila moves to the part of her book about being in the presence of her son as he is dying, she explains that there are things people don't tell you, things you have to find out for yourself. She and her family had been told to keep her son comfortable in his last hours, but that was it. She had to discover how to be with her son as he passed away. In this InterPlay form, Sheila invited her husband, Rich Citrin, to do a side-by-side story with her. Taking turns until their stories were completed, one moved while they other told a story about things that people don't tell you. (photos by Ruth Schowalter)

TOGETHER WE ARE ONE BODY. Sheila and Rich came together at the end of their story telling and movement. It was clear to the audience that these two had spent years in this dance around death, loss, healing and joy.  Yet, at the same time, there was a freshness to this moment, to this story told in community. All of us felt nurtured, moved, perhaps healed. Ahhhh, we are one body, aren't we! (photo by Callahan Pope McDonough)

Other book performances of "Warrior Mother" with Sheila K. Collins in Atlanta:

Warrior Mother Sheila Collins
Dancing social worker, Sheila Collins does a performance of her book at the Alta Senior Living Center and then participates in a program on managing grief at Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting.

Performing Warrior Mother
Sheila brings her book performance to the Darnell Multipurpose Senior Center (May 2014)

GOOD CAN COME FROM THIS! Thank you Sheila Collins! (photo by Callahan Pope McDonough)

Performing Warrior Mother: Atlanta InterPlay Goes to Darnell Senior Multipurpose Center with Sheila K. Collins

CONNECTING AFTER THE PERFORMANCE. How wonderful to share experiences about life after Sheila K. Collins' performance of her book, Warrior Mother. Sister Jewel, an international InterPlayer, looks on while Sheila talks to members of the audience. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

By Ruth Schowalter, InterPlay Social Media Facilitator

Imagine finishing 3-days of InterPlay with Sheila K. Collins, the dancing social worker and author, and then joining her to perform her book, Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss,  and Rituals that Heal,  at a very large senior center! The Darnell Senior Multipurpose Center has programming to fully engage its seniors at physical, social, and emotional levels. What a perfect place for Atlanta InterPlay to visit with Sheila and her one of-a-kind-book performances!

Even better? We Atlanta InterPlayers had seen this group of seniors from Atlanta’s southwest side before we visited them at their center! Recently, one of their theatre troupe rehearsals followed our Second Saturday InterPlay at the Mask Center in the Little Five Points Community Center! Now, we are on the way to becoming more than acquaintances! Who knows what collaborations and play may ensue!

Here are some photos documenting this Atlanta InterPlay event with Sheila. 

ARRIVAL.  On a cool Monday morning in May, six of us Atlanta InterPlayers accompanied Sheila to the Darnell Senior Center to assist in the book performance of Warrior Mother. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

GREETINGS. We were delighted to be engulfed by the energy filling this multipurpose center for seniors. In addition to swimming, working out, art and calligraphy classes, we found that our InterPlay performance was scheduled in a room between the theatre troupe's rehearsal and the bridge club. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

THEATRE TROUPE REHEARSAL. Pre-book performance with Sheila, something fun and intriguing was going on! (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

BOOKS FOR SALE. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

THE BOOK PERFORMANCE. Sheila reads from her book and sets up the InterPlay performance. Our clarinet player, Debra Hiers, was late and one of the audience members volunteered to accompany us with his saxophone! The wonderful surprises that life brings us. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

THE PITTSBURGH FORM. We began the performance with a group InterPlay form that uses both movement and story. Each member introduces herself and tells a short three-sentence story on a theme (Sheila had given us the theme of "laughter and tears") and then creates a movement that is repeated by everyone.  (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

A LARGE BODY STORY. Instead of reading a particular passage from her book, Sheila decided to tell it as a "large body story," moving and talking at the same time. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

IMPROVISATIONAL MUSIC. Atlanta InterPlay is so thrilled to welcome Debra Hiers to its performance group. Her improvisational clarinet music is just amazing to move to! We performers did the form, "Walk, Run, Stop," while Sheila read from her book and Debra played her clarinet. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

FINISHING UP. Jennifer Denning proposes future possibilities of play with our audience. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

TALKING ABOUT THE BOOK. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

GROUP PERFORMANCE PHOTO. We were drawn to pose with this glorious sculpture directly outside the front door of the Darnell Senior Center as we left. (photo by a volunteer)

 

WARRIOR MOTHER SHEILA COLLINS: Atlanta InterPlay hosts the dancing social worker author

AFTER THE BOOK PERFORMANCE.  Following Sheila K. Collins' performance of Warrior Mother at the Alta Senior Living Center, some of the audience members lingered to talk with the author and to pose for this picture. (photos by Ruth Schowalter)

--by Ruth Schowalter, Atlanta InterPlay social media facilitator

Sheila K. Collins wears many hats and all with joyful ease of someone who has been doing InterPlay for a long time. While visiting Atlanta to facilitate InterPlay’s “Life Practice Program,” Sheila spent one day using InterPlay forms to perform her book, Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss, and Rituals that Heal (2013).

The Alta Senior Living Center

 At a book performance Sheila introduces herself as a “dancing social worker,” which always succeeds in intriguing her audience, and those in her audience at the Alta Senior Living Center in John’s Creek, an Atlanta suburb, were no exception. Their interest heightened to see where this 74-year-old author was going to take her dancing social work at the launching of their very first book club meeting. They were not disappointed.

 

NEW BOOK CLUB KICK OFF.  Sheila had the honor of being the first author for the seniors' newly launched book club. Two of the audience members had already read her book, Warrior Mother, and were ready with questions. Sheila promised she would return for another book club meeting in the future for a more in-depth discussion.

Sheila’s book readings are unique in that they combine explanation, reading, music, dance, and other InterPlayers. Jennifer Denning, Atlanta InterPlayer Director, Christine Gautreaux, and I were there at the Alta Senior Living Center to assist in the performances based on themes that Sheila pulls from her book. These meaningful themes, which include mothering, children, death, and joy, thoroughly engage the audience members who soon discover they are in the presence of a woman who has lost two adult children to disease and found a way to survive their deaths.

 

ATLANTA INTERFAITH BROADCASTERS.

After her book performance at the Alta Senior Living Center, Sheila had an engagement with Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters (AIB) in the heart of downtown Atlanta. With Christine managing interstate traffic on a cold rainy day, Sheila arrived at AIB just in time for filming. Audrey Galex, a free-lance producer for AIB-TV and an Atlanta InterPlayer, had invited Sheila to participate in a panel discussion about managing grief.

AIB Producer Audrey Galex and Sheila

The short but very interesting panel discussion concluded with Sheila using a form of InterPlay to give viewers a “taste” of what her book, Warrior Mother, is about.  Combining storytelling with movement, she was supported by three other InterPlayers (Audrey, Christine and me), who echoed her movements.

Each time Sheila performs her book, the performance is different. The variation results from the improvisational nature of the InterPlay tools. When Sheila returns to Atlanta in May and does other book performances, I encourage you to check one out. You’ll never think of an author reading in the same way again or the themes that she brings to the stage.

AIB PANEL PARTICIPANTS.  Producer Audrey Galex (far left) assembled artist Carolyn Rose Milner (left center) life coach Lori Davila (right center), and Sheila K. Collins to discuss their different approaches to managing grief.

THE LIFE PRACTICE PROGRAM COMES TO ATLANTA 2014

An Interview with Sheila K. Collins

By Ruth Schowalter, Atlanta InterPlay social media facilitator

In January 2014, some Atlantans took the opportunity to go deeper into the tools and philosophy of InterPlay. It is the first time that the four 3-day-weekend “Life Practice Program,” has been offered in the Metro-Atlanta area (see details below). Pittsburgh InterPlay’s Sheila K. Collins is facilitating this long-term program based in supportive community. Soon after meeting Sheila in October when she visited Atlanta with Cynthia Winton-Henry to facilitate the program “Secrets,” I asked her to answer a few questions about the “Life Practice Program.”

Ruth Schowalter: What is the “InterPlay Life Practice Program”?

SHEILA K. COLLINS

Sheila K. Collins: In InterPlay, we have a system of art-based practices, and the “Life Practice Program” is the application of these practices to your life.  The playing of InterPlay practices into your life can be for amusement or purposefully--whatever your goals are, whatever you are hoping to accomplish in your life.

Ruth Schowalter: Why might people consider doing the “Life Practice Program”?

Sheila K. Collins: I know an awful lot of people who consider themselves to be working too hard and being too serious. They are just not having as much fun in their lives as they would like to be having. I think we all would like to have more ease in our lives, and  that’s what the InterPlay system offers.

In terms of myself, I was fascinated with InterPlay.  I would be at an InterPlay event, and it would be fun and enlivening and I would ask myself, “How can I bring InterPlay into my regular life—in my relationships with my husband, or children, or into my work space?”

Ruth Schowalter:  Who would benefit from participating in the “Life Practice Program”?

Sheila K. Collins: I think it would be a benefit to anybody.

Ruth Schowalter: When did you first become involved in InterPlay?

Sheila K. Collins:  In 1992, I met Cynthia Winton-Henry by telephone after seeing a poster advertising an event she was doing.  I lived in Texas at the time but was visiting Berkeley CA. to promote my first book, Stillpoint: The Dance of Selfcaring, Selfhealing. A former student had invited me, so I was visiting the Pacific School of Religion (PSR)  on “holy hill,” where there are all of the various seminaries—Baptist, Jewish, Catholic, —and PSR where Cynthia taught was non-denominational and focused on the arts. I saw one big wall with all these posters and Cynthia’s caught my eye.  I felt strongly that I needed to talk with her and called her up. In those days, because we didn’t have the Internet, we developed our relationship through snail mail, using letters with stamps.

Ruth Schowalter: What differences has InterPlay made in your life?

Sheila K. Collins: I would say it has given me the ability to fully own and embody, all that I am. I often felt I wore these different hats, playing roles that were separated from each other. Through the practices of InterPlay, all my parts came together in one container. Also, InterPlay allowed me to connect again to the arts, which provide such tools for transformation; it gave me that permission.

Ruth Schowalter: How does InterPlay manifest itself in your life today?

Sheila K. Collins: I think the biggest difference has been the communities that I am connected to all over the world. I have a sense of being in a very large tribe of people that wherever I go, I can connect with people who are InterPlayers. We can sing, dance, and tell our stories to one another, like tribal peoples always did.

In my book, Warrior Mother: A Memoir of Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss, and Rituals, I write about the way the InterPlay community has supported me through personal challenges in my life. For example, when my daughter was being treated for breast cancer at a hospital in Houston, I contacted a woman I had met in California through InterPlay. She was a chaplain, serving a hospital directly across the street from where my daughter was receiving treatment. My daughter and I helped her do an in-service for her staff using InterPlay. 

The idea to perform passages from Warrior Mother came to me through the work I do with InterPlay. When I was writing the book I used InterPlay tools to help me generate memories and stories from my experiences with my children. Now using InterPlay to improvise on the book’s themes feels like turning a prism to highlight different aspects of my stories, inviting other people to connect their stories to mine.

Since my book is about the death of my two adult children, it could be a downer. However, I have been using the gift of play to get inside the story of our lives by highlighting important life themes. I think many of us have the belief that we have to be in the mood to play. That is not true. In fact, the spirit of play may be more necessary when things get heavy in our lives.

Ruth Schowalter: Do you like teaching the tools, forms, and philosophy of InterPlay? Why?

Sheila K. Collins: I think it is one of my most favorite things to do in the world. I have always worked with small groups, and experienced the magic that can happen. The “Life Practice Program” is a kind of seminar where you have a curriculum with theoretical material that you are learning, and, at the same time, you are bringing your own experiences to it.

Ruth Schowalter: You just came to Atlanta to facilitate “Secrets of InterPlay” with Cynthia Winton-Henry. How did you find Atlanta?

Sheila K. Collins: Atlanta surprised me because it is so beautiful. The trees and forests where I was staying were unexpected, as was the sunny, wonderful weather. The particular people I met were quite amazing. InterPlaying together offers the opportunity to get to know people in a special way. It was very magical.

Ruth Schowalter: Anything to add about coming back to Atlanta for the “Life Practice Program” in 2014?

Sheila K. Collins: There are a number of people in the Atlanta area who want to form an InterPlay performance group, and they have asked me to teach a class on InterPlay Performance Forms while I’m here (see details below). I am very excited about that because I know from my own InterPlay performance experiences in Pittsburgh that a performance company provides a fun way to serve important needs in the community.

DETAILS ABOUT THE LIFE PRACTICE PROGRAM:

WHEN: January (24, 25, 26); March (14, 15, 16); May (16, 17, 18); and July (11, 12, 13).

WHERE: Pine Lake Clubhouse, 462 Clubhouse Drive, Pine Lake, Georgia, 30072

COST: $1,950 plus a space user fee of $100. $100 reserves your place in the program.

DETAILS ABOUT THE INTERPLAY PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP SERIES:

 WHO: lead by Sheila K. Collins, PhD.

WHEN: Friday January 24^th, 2014, March 14^th, May 16^th, July 11^th 10 am–12:30 pm

COST: All four Sessions - $99. Single session - $30.

WHERE: To be announced.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BOTH PROGRAMS: Contact Atlanta InterPlay's Jennifer Denning (404-272-0848 or jdenning1@yahoo.com) or InterPlay (510-465-2797 or www.interplay.org)