"At times when I am alone and surrounded by the sounds and smells and sights of the outdoors, I suddenly experience a rush of pure happiness. The only other time I experienced this thrill was when my daughter was born."
Visions/Revisions begins eith a ritualived sharing of the ensemble's feeling and memories about land, nature and birth. Part I dramitizes how connections to the land have been stolen from people by money and power. In this case, railroads, power lines, mining companies and city zoning laws are the culprits. Then, weaving the experiences and stories of many women, part 2 follows a birthing woman from labor through delivery in different situations. Contrasting traditional hospital birth with even more traditional home birth, we see how medical intervention corrupts a vital natural process. At the end, both issues are interwoven with the ritualized creation of a god's eye, symbolic of our ties to Mother Earth.
Spider, spider
weave me a web,
a world web
stretch your special liquid
around the land,
above the waters
through tall trees
we will meet
all of us
women of every land
children on backs, in
arms, in shopping carts
We will meet in the center
make a circle
to discuss
to simply discuss
to simply discuss amongst
ourselves
our lives
and what is to be done
and with our fine spidernet
we intend
to entangle
the powers
that bury
our children.
"I found the play inspiring and dramatically entertaining. We are all interested in the future of our children and what lies ahead for them and their children and this play was a good example of how it was and probably always [will] be a struggle for a better land and opportunity for our families." |
-Dorothy Mills, reporter for West Seventh Community Reporter, June, 1978. |
The actresses:
Paulette Hines, Gail Irish, Melissa
Martin
Sandra Pappas, Nancy Sugarman,
Nan Weber