Musings from the Margins

Posts to this blog, also published in This Week @ Emmanuel, are written by our student intern from Lesley University’s masters program in Expressive Arts Therapy. This year, we are pleased to welcome intern Mary Schwabenland.

“Musings from the Margins” was founded in 2013, when The Rev. Susan Ackley was Sabbatical Priest and Artist in Residence with us. Over the years since then our Expressive Therapy Interns have faithfully and creatively recorded their thoughts about their experiences during the academic year at Emmanuel.

Improvisation

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This week, we’re continuing rehearsals for the Easter Play, and I’m excited to incorporate some drama-therapy-based character work into the process. Through a series of movements and prompts, participants will step into their characters to explore their desires, motivations, and challenges through light improvisation.

This will be my first time facilitating exercises like these, so I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous.   I know, however, that the only way to improve is by practicing; and honestly, I couldn’t think of a better group to practice with.

If time allows, I’ll continue with my superhero interviews, but otherwise I’m taking it easy this week. Looking forward to seeing where all of this leads!

– Mary Schwabenland

Preparation for Our Easter Play

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This week, back from my spring break, I’m feeling refreshed and ready to dive back into creative collaboration here at common art.

First up is the kickoff meeting for our Easter Play! My plan is to start with a warm-up activity to break the ice and get everyone engaged before we do a read-through of the script, written by our beloved community member Richie Berman.  Since this script is shorter than our December play, I’m hoping we can spend more time having fun with it rather than getting too caught up in staging logistics.

Over the next few weeks, I’d love to incorporate more character work and acting exercises (with a therapeutic lens, of course), which you might see in a traditional theatre group.

Beyond that, I’m still continuing with the superhero interviews; and people are coming up with some truly creative responses. Last time, we had one superhero whose power came from sandwiches and another whose strength was fueled by friendship bracelets.  I loved seeing how much fun everyone was having with it.

That’s all for this week.  I’m excited to see where these projects take us!

Spectrogram

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Last Wednesday, I decided to do a performance-based workshop with my common art poetry group, using Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. We mixed things up with some acting exercises, which had everyone laughing and really brought the poem to life. It was such a great reminder of how performance can transform poetry into something so dynamic and engaging. The energy in the room was contagious! Continue reading →

Interviews with Superheros

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Last week, I had the chance to try out my superhero interviews, and I’m happy to report that they went really well! I ended up conducting four interviews, which felt like a great way to explore and practice my therapeutic skills in this setting. Since each person interprets the questions differently this format really gives me an opportunity to guide them through the conversation. It’s a mix of reflecting back what they’ve shared, offering new words or ways to summarize their experiences, and asking for clarification or digging deeper into certain themes. It feels like a collaborative process in which we’re both learning and discovering.

One of the things I loved most was that every superhero I spoke to had a power that was rooted in helping or healing others—whether through music, seeing people’s truths, transforming darkness into light, or offering protection through faith.  Considering how much passion, kindness, and community-mindedness I’ve witnessed in this space, I’m not surprised but still find myself awed and inspired.

Since I find the superhero theme naturally lends itself to storytelling,  I can’t help but feel creative potentials percolating in my mind. Imagine an Avengers-style crossover of common art superheroes, here to bring the world towards healing and wholeness. That’s a story I could get invested in.

As for this week, I’m diving back into my poetry group. While it’s not superhero-themed, I’m hoping some of the creative energy from the interviews will carry over. I’ve planned some fun acting exercises to incorporate.  I’m excited to see whether they spark creativity and engagement in the group.

This Friday is Boston Warm’s first movie day of the year!  I’ll be leading a discussion after we watch “West Side Story”, which offers  so much to unpack.  I’m looking forward to exploring themes that feel especially relevant to our community, such as division and unity, discrimination and belonging, hope and despair, and more. The movie will begin at 9:00am, so feel free to join us if you can!

-– Mary Schwabenland, 26 Feb. 2025

Superheroic Personae

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This week, in addition to my poetry group, I’m announcing a new project I’m starting with common art. I was inspired by our play last December, “Fix the Damn Sidewalk,” written by our beloved Richie Berman, to do something with superheroes. I’ve never been a superhero person, but I realized that there’s something about superheroes that makes for a great analogous tool when one tries to get to know people.  What are your strengths, your superhuman abilities, your weaknesses, your kryptonite? In drama therapy we would call this a projective device, something fictional or separate from oneself, which allows one to discover aspects of oneself within it.

Since I wanted to bring more intention to my one-to-one conversations with common art members this semester, I thought I would add some structure and creativity to it. So I decided to start a project wherein I would interview members as if they were superheroes. My goal is to have this be a long-term thing, where members would hopefully get inspired to create their own superhero personas and create art around them. There are lots of different directions we could take it, depending on how people respond. For now, I’m just testing the waters to see who’s interested. I may begin asking people some of my questions. I don’t think it would be hard to identify the superpowers in this community. Excuse my corniness, but I am blown away by their powers and talents every week. I have no idea how they would feel about this idea, but maybe that’s my superpower: trying things and finding out. Stay tuned!

Poetry Exercises

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Update on last week’s poetry group: it went well, although not exactly as I had expected.  I started the group off with a warm-up exercise called a locogram. This activity is like a multiple-choice question, but you have to physically move to a spot in the room that represents your answer. I started off with four words taken from Mary Oliver’s poem “The Journey.” These words were house, mend, stones, and voice. I placed the words on the floor in a large circle and asked the participants to move to whatever word they felt most drawn to and then explain why. Then I repeated the exercise with whole stanzas from “The Journey”. Continue reading →

Talkback after “Fix the Damned Sidewalk”

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Last week was my first week back with common art and Boston Warm; and it felt great to be back. Everyone was still buzzing over our production of Richard Berman’s play, “Fix the Damn Sidewalk”, which was a huge success. I was immensely proud of the cast and crew for putting it all together. We got lots of laughs! At the end of the play, I led a talkback/interview session with the performers to give them the space to share something about their experience. Continue reading →

Happy holidays!

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I’m keeping it short and sweet this week, as this will be my last week with common cathedral until the New Year.  It also happens to be common art’s premier of Richard Berman’s play, “Fix the Damn Sidewalk!” I cannot wait to see these performers give it their all. I have learned a great deal as an intern this semester, but what keeps inspiring me is the creativity and passion I witness in this community.

My experience here has only strengthened my conviction that everyone is a creative soul at heart and that creativity truly holds the power to heal. I know there is so much more to come and so much more for me to learn and witness. Until then, I plan to use my time off to rest, reflect, and eat a whole bunch of cookies.

—Mary Swabenland

Haiku

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As we approach the end of the year and the end of my first semester with common cathedral, I am feeling reflective on my experience with this community and everything they have taught me. I decided for this week’s post I would challenge myself to write a collection of haikus about my experience thus far. Haiku is not my go-to poetry format, but I find it helpful when I want to condense a lot of feelings and ideas into a succinct space.

Continue reading →

Happy Thanksgiving!

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I just got back from visiting my family for the holiday and am preparing myself to step back into my “intern” role at common cathedral tomorrow. It’s about to be what I would call “crunch time” in regard to preparation for our upcoming holiday play. This is the first time I have been in the role of director/producer for something like this, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t stress me out a little. The problem is not a lack of belief in the talent and capabilities of the community members involved;  in that I have no doubts.  I worry about my ability to provide the needed structure and containment to allow these talented artists to be seen and for their work to reach its potential. I have to remind myself that it’s not about the product but the process and the experience. Allowing people the space to enjoy and express themselves authentically is most important. I should also enjoy and express myself authentically, which means I should probably chill out a little and turn the stress down a notch. I will take this mindset of authentic presence and enjoyment into our rehearsal tomorrow. Continue reading →