TheBadAssWriter
  • Home
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • Blog
  • About







​BadAss
Writer
Blog





     







​Photo by Earnest Brillo
.⁠
.⁠
.⁠
.⁠
Subscribe

StoryTellingCircle Stories: Permission to be a Storyteller: Part II

8/29/2022

0 Comments

 
I love coaching creatives writing their first memoirs. The journey is full of amazing memories, perspective & the celebration of the life you’ve created.

My client, actor/writer, Susan Heyward (The Boys, Delilah, OITNB) and I have been working together for the last year & I’m super excited to share some of her brilliant work:
Picture
Part II: Permission to Be a Storyteller from the StoryTellingCircles

by Susan Heyward (


“So other people got up & started ‘working the land’ with him. 

I thought, ‘Cool,they saw the same thing I saw.’

And then another kid got up & pretended to crack a whip.

And started to bark orders.

And suddenly we weren't just in a field.

We were on a plantation.

As soon as the whole class agreed that we were on a plantation, a bunch of my classmates rushed up to join & added to the world being built.

One of us pretended to be on a tractor.

One of us pretended to be feeding dogs, one of us pretended to be turning cotton into thread. Spinning cotton into thread.

I was still on the side of the room, watching. I looked & I looked & I asked myself, 

“Ok, how can I add to this world without repeating?”

I don't want to just do what everyone's doing.

and,

Something inside me pushed me up.

Before I really knew what I was doing. I was walking gingerly up to one classmate, my hands heavy at my side, my back bent over & in a voice unlike my own, drawled,

“Want some watah?”

And the way they looked at me. We'd stopped

Pretending. We were just living.

My classmates. A bunch of city kids at summer camp, they looked different to me. They looked at me with gratitude & surprise.

Relief.

I gave water.

More water. A moment between each laborer & I.

Together, we slipped into this world.

This improv lasted for 20 minutes..

And it was incredible, the imagination & freedom & sense of ensemble we built.

Whoever decided to cast themselves as the slave master went full in, grabbed one of the girls who was in the field & walked over to a corner with her. We heard the sounds of a master taking liberties, the kind that helped my great great aunts move west never to be seen by our black asses again.

( I should really track down that student & see how she's doing. How both of them are doing. I remember the teachers at the corners of the room coaching us, but I’m not 100%. 

All I remember is I felt safe enough to play the scenario, but I can’t speak for everyone. This would probably never fly in a classroom today, but I’d be lying if I said it felt anything other than natural & free & creative.)

Part III: Permission to Be a Storyteller


"The whole thing took on a life of its own. A momentum.

We all pretended to pick her up afterwards and put her back together. And she said, 

“I've had it, I'm leaving, we're not doing this no mo! I’m runnin’!”

And then we were cooking with gas!

One of the guys piped up that he was her husband. She couldn't leave without him & we approved “yes!” & went with it.

Okay, who else is leaving? 
Oh snap! There's a whole group who decided to go. 
Okay!

“I'm not going.”

The words came out of my mouth smooth as a curtain rising at the top of a favorite burlesque act. 

From a place inside me that felt like home, I knew we needed conflict. So, right then & there, I decided, the water girl had to stay.

I also decided (gasp!) master’s victim was my sister! So, I had to at least help her leave! Oh, & leave with her husband!

All these creative decisions, the freedom! Just firing off like firecrackers. Better than any drug. (At least I imagine. I’m from the D.A.R.E generation, drugs scared the shit out of me so bad that cussing & theater were my addictions. Still trying to shake ‘em both.) 

So

My‘brother-in-NOT-law-cause-we-was-playing-slaves-and-marriage-wasn’t-legal-for-the-likes-of-us’ plotted the whole escape, with a bunch of us huddled around him. The person pretending to be the slave master; I think heard us but knew that it wouldn't help the story if he ‘found out.’ So, he improvised other things to do. Kept himself busy. Listened to the teachers coaching from the sidelines. 

Then came the moment of parting, the moment, when we as an ensemble acted out the group escape. I felt such an upswell of emotion; sadness & grief & hope & joy. Literally, these people were going five or six feet across the room & pretending to go towards freedom, but we all believed it & our bodies acted as if it was the real thing.

And as they tip-toed away, we wept, whispering our goodbyes.

“You betta take care of my sister.”

Yeah, that was me. The drama! I gave you drama, honey!

Those of us who decided not to escape settled back into plantation life.

This thing had happened.

& we all knew it was special."


--Actor/Writer, Susan Heyward




Learn more about TellYourStory ChangeYourLife Workshop @www.TheDreamUnlocked.com



0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    TheBadAssWriter
    Blog


    is a place to find resources for playwrights & screenwriters.

    So I created this space for people who are actually writing as a practice, not just talking about it or dreaming about it, but are actually doing some badassery on the regular...

    meaning write every day...rain, shine, work, sleep, drunk, too tired, too many kids, blah blah...


    BadAssWriters just fucking write...


    April Yvette Thompson
    Tony-winning producer, writer, actor working across media.

    Categories

    All
    Abandonement
    American Saga
    April's Clients
    April's TED Talk
    April Yvette Thompson
    Artist Date
    Artist Grants
    ARTIST HOUSING
    Artist Success
    Ask April
    AutoEthnography
    Backstory
    BadAssSoloShowContest
    BadAssWriter Group
    BadAssWriterShit
    Betty Shamieh
    Black Panther
    Black Women Writers
    Branding & Marketing
    CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
    Character Inner Psychology
    Characters
    Character's Voice
    Connective Listening
    Conspiracies Of Silence
    Create Character
    Danai Gurira
    David Mamet
    DetachFromTheMatrix
    Dialogue
    Discovery
    DreamingMorocco
    Dreamingoutloud
    DreamingOutLoud Technique
    Emerging Playwrights
    Emmys
    Emotional Chords
    Exposition Vs Action
    Fear
    Fillmmaker
    Film Writers
    Finish Your Damn Script
    Fire This Time Festival
    First 15
    First Draft
    First Person Narrative
    Formulaic Writing
    FREE BadAssWriter Class
    FREE Class
    Fundraising
    Getting Off Your Ass
    Getting Produced
    Good Bread Alley
    Great Writers
    Great Writing
    Hero
    How To Start Writing
    How To Write A Solo Show
    Hyperbole
    IAmEnuf Minicourse
    Inciting Incident
    Intention Vs Action
    James Baldwin
    Jessica Blank
    Journaling
    Kipling
    Liberty City
    Make Your Own Work
    Make Your Won Work
    Memoir
    Me Too
    Miami
    Michael Chekov
    Michael Harriot
    MidLife Writers
    Mini MasterClass
    Monetize
    Morning Pages
    Narrative
    No Time To Write
    Office Hours
    One Woman Show
    Oral Storytelling
    Origin Story
    Outline
    Paulo Coelho
    Personal Legend
    Plays
    Playwright
    Playwrights
    Playwriting
    Political Theatre
    Procrastination
    Psychological Gesture
    Quinta Brunson
    Rainier Maria Rilke
    Release The Struggle
    Retreats
    ReWrite History
    Rewrites
    ReWriteYourStory
    Rilke
    Rumi
    Scify
    Screenplay
    Screenplay Vs Play
    ScreenWriter
    Script Outline
    Self-Publishing
    Sexy Script
    Showrunner
    Silence = Consent
    SimonSays Entertainment
    Solo Perfomer
    Solo Performance
    Solo Performer
    Solo Play
    Solo Play Structure
    Solo Show
    Solo Show Secret
    Solo Show Slam
    SoulsSong
    Spoken Word
    Story
    STORY STRUCTURE
    Storytellig
    Structure
    Syntax
    Tell Your Story
    TellYourStory
    The Alchemist
    The Arsht Center
    TheDreamingOutLoud Technique
    The Exonerated
    The Maori
    The Power Of Story
    The Psychological Gesture
    The Questions
    Thequestions
    The Underground
    Think Like A Writer
    This Is Us
    TIME
    Tom Fontana
    Toni Morrison
    TOP 2 QUESTIONS ABOUT SCREENWRITING & PLAYWRITING
    Trauma Porn
    TV Writer
    TV Writing
    UTube Channel
    Video
    What Is A Plot Point
    Where To Start Writing
    Why Do You Write
    Why I Write
    Women's Stories
    Write Everyday
    Writer Anxiety
    Writer As Listener
    Writer Beats
    Writer-fear
    Writer-habits
    Writer-outline
    Writer-problems
    Writer Prompt
    Writer Questions
    Writers Are Empaths
    WritersArsenal
    Writers Block
    WRITERSBLOCK
    Writers Of Color
    Writers Retreat
    Writers Super Seven
    Writers Voice
    Writer Tip
    Writer Voice
    Write The Story That Wants To Be Told
    Write To Heal
    Writing Formulas
    Writing Mentor
    Writing Time
    Young Writers
    Your Fuck THIS Moment

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • Blog
  • About