Telling My Way Home
Telling My Way Home was performed spring 2007 in University of Northern Iowa's Interpreters’ Theatre. The performance was a part of my Master’s thesis and served as both a public sharing of data and a continuation of analysis. Through poetry, music, and stories, Telling My Way Home reveals how in a family identities are passed on from one generation to the next. It seeks to understand how family stories aid in the creation of individual identity. How three generations of family stories have helped shape who I’ve become.
When I told my grandma that I planned to create a performance based on our family, she responded, “Well, we should have our own show, because we are important people.” Telling My Way Home has the potential to remind us that individual lives and histories do matter. By recounting the happenings of everyday life we make sense out of those experiences. The process of becoming is full of struggle, discovery, disappointment, understanding, self-reflexivity, and hope. It is my hope that this production will inspire you to embark upon a journey of your own, that you might learn how family stories have twisted, turned, and affected you, that you might discover that you, too, are an important person.
When I told my grandma that I planned to create a performance based on our family, she responded, “Well, we should have our own show, because we are important people.” Telling My Way Home has the potential to remind us that individual lives and histories do matter. By recounting the happenings of everyday life we make sense out of those experiences. The process of becoming is full of struggle, discovery, disappointment, understanding, self-reflexivity, and hope. It is my hope that this production will inspire you to embark upon a journey of your own, that you might learn how family stories have twisted, turned, and affected you, that you might discover that you, too, are an important person.