Another common art production in the books: the Easter Play was a huge success. I am so proud of all my cast members for their hard work. I think the most gratifying part was not the performance itself, but the process: getting to see everyone become more comfortable being expressive and dramatic, and seeing the unique ways in which they each related to their characters. I did a “talkback” after the play, where I asked each cast member to share something they had learned from the experience. It was beautiful to hear everyone’s unique take-aways. Whether it was about sharing a message of stopping violence, appreciating small joys, embracing skepticism, making oneself heard, or having faith, it seems as if everyone got what they needed out of it. That’s the whole point of drama therapy: that people will project the healing experience they need into the dramatic work. Continue reading
Musings from the Margins
Happy Easter!
This week is our Easter Play! Woohoo! It has been such an honor to lead its rehearsal sessions and watch these cast members bloom into dedicated actors. I am sure the performance will be a hit; but regardless of the outcome, I am immensely proud of all of them for showing up, investing their beautiful creative energy, and humoring my weird, drama-therapy, acting exercises. Continue reading
Rehearsing Our Easter Play
Over the past couple weeks, our Easter Play rehearsals have taken on a new rhythm. It’s been such a joy to watch the group grow more connected—to each other and to the characters they’re embodying.
We’ve been starting each session with playful physical warm-ups to get everyone moving and loosened up. Prompts like “walk as if you’re being chased by bees” or “walk in slow motion” usually get a few laughs, but they also help folks get out of their heads and into their bodies. From there, we transition into “walk as your character,” which invites people to begin stepping into their roles in a physical, intuitive way. Continue reading
Improvisation
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
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
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
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
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
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”
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