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| INTERPLAY WARM UP AT THE FRIENDSHIP CENTER (photo by Ruth Schowalter) |
By
Ruth Schowalter, Certified InterPlay Leader
Beginning
in October 2015, InterPlay Atlanta began offering InterPlay sessions twice a
month at The Friendship Center, an outreach program of Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, a diverse worshipping community in the heart of Atlanta.
The
tools and principles of InterPlay continue to surprise me in the way that they
meld and fit the needs of different communities. One might say that InterPlay celebrates the "art of being human" in the way that its forms and principles honor each individual in each setting and catalyzes creativity. The
Friendship Center is an inclusive community that promotes the mental, physical,
and spiritual wellbeing of adults marginalized by mental health challenges and
by poverty who visit Holy Comforter to volunteer, work, learn, listen, and worship.
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| INTERPLAY ATLANTA GOES TO THE FRIENDSHIP CENTER |
InterPlay
Atlanta is grateful to be a part of the rich programming at The Friendship
Center that includes “Greenhouse and Gardening,” “Wellness and Recovery,”
“Recovery through the Arts and Food.” Find
out more about The Friendship Center by clicking here.
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| GATHERING TO INTERPLAY. Jennifer Denning, certified InterPlay leader (left) waits for other participants to arrive before beginning the second InterPlay session at The Friendship Center of Holy Comforter in October. (photo by Ruth Schowalter--identification of participants forthcoming) |
The Reverend of Holy Comforter, Alexis Chase, is familiar
with the improvisational system of InterPlay from firsthand experience, and she invited
our certified InterPlay Atlanta leaders to her community for sixty
minutes of play on Thursday mornings from 10:30 to 11:30 AM every other week.
After attending our first InterPlay session, which took place right there in the
church, she expressed the good that she saw InterPlay contributing to the
participants, and we asked her to write her observations down which resulted in
the following testimonial:
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| Reverend Alexis Chase |
“So often, in the lives of those living
with a mental health diagnoses and living in poverty, there is very little
autonomy, very little choice. The gift and benefit of having Interplay here is
that while playing everyone is given a chance to choose, they are all given a
chance to express themselves. During Interplay our participants can watch, participate,
dance, move, babble, or sit and their expressions are valued and lifted up. One
recent participant said it was the best form of physical activity he had all
week. The creativity and free expression Interplay encourages fits with
and enhances what The Friendship Center already does well.”
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| Masankho Kamsisi Banda |
Our connection to
Holy Comforter Episcopal Church deepened as the decision was made to bring
Soulprint Players, InterPlay Atlanta’s performance troupe, for the performance,
“The Art of Being Human,” on Sunday, November 8th, at 5:00 PM, to
celebrate this community and to raise funds for ongoing InterPlay sessions.
Then as Jennifer Denning, the director of Soulprint Players, was developing the
concept for the November 8th performance, she was delighted to
discover that the International InterPlay Leader and Storyteller, Masankho Kamsisi Banda, was going to be visiting Atlanta and would be able to be a guest
performer at this celebratory event.
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| SOULPRINT PLAYERS & MASANKHO. InterPlay performs "The Art of Being Human" at the Friendship Center of Holy Comforter Church. |
We look forward to
our connection continuing to deepen with this community in the upcoming months
and invite you to join us for our November 8th performance from 5:00
to 6:00 PM at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church at 737 Woodland
Ave SE, Atlanta, Georgia, 30316. Suggested
donation: $10 to $50 (Be affordable but generous, as $100 in donations will
support one month of InterPlay at The Friendship Center).
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| ENERGIZED. When asked how they felt at the end of the InterPlay hour, one of the participants answered, "energized." (Photo credit and identification of participants forthcoming) |
