I am so far behind my blogging. I don't have a computer of my own (first world problems) and I detest blogging when someone is awake. But, I'm afraid the month-gone visit to finish my season at Stratford will not have the exclamation point I was hoping it would.
Let me tell you about my friend, Mary. She and I, in the words of Anne of (won't you please call me Cordelia) Green Gables, is a bosom friend, in more than one sense. When we met, it was as if I had known her all my life. She just fit, you know what I mean? We met at the National Breastfeeding Conference in Toronto back in 2008 (hence, another meaning to 'bosom' friend, and I also spoke at that conference this year). We have been friends ever since. We are like 2 schoolgirls when we get together.
We don't see each other enough. Last year, the only time we saw each other was at - GASP - Camelot at Stratford, which just happened to be Cordelia's very first trip to Stratford. Otherwise, we have stolen a concert in Toronto together, gabbed away at other breastfeeding conferences, emailed, or texted.
Mary wrote her lactation consultant exam this summer, so she didn't have much time for relaxation while she was studying. I think I said something about needing a girl's day away as an award for finishing the exam. And, Stratford won our time away together.
But this day, it wasn't just the Festival we planned on enjoying - we intended to paint the town: find hidden bookshops, and resale stores...look for local stores which would steal our hearts...and eat.
These pursuits were accomplished and then some. We found gems everywhere we went - from the wonderful bookstores to quaint tea shops to a ... well, for lack of better word, a wiccan store (great place for Harry Potter type items), and inexpensive gifts for us and our children, an early start to Christmas shopping. shhhhh
Oh - the weather was sublime. Perfect. Late summer weather in October, but not too hot. We could not have scripted a more beautiful day away.
We, as human beings, need time away from everything. Women, especially, because we put ourselves on the bottom of life a lot of the time. We need time to charge our batteries, take stock in what happiness is to us and embrace it. It's healthy. We owe it to our families and ourselves to take that time just for us.
Our matinee was, "Much Ado About Nothing," which I was so happy I didn't miss (it closed just a couple of days later). It was so much fun. I adore Claire Lautier and Ben Carlson. It was a light play compared to Cymbeline and Henry V, but worth the wait. We had fun. [I actually had to check the birth day of Luke Humphrey because he, uh, knows how to dance, let's say. Eek. He's going to play Dartagnon next season (Three Muskateers). Hip hip hooray! That's a book I need to buy - next time I go to the Waterford Old Town Hall book sale.]
Miss Mary hadn't gotten her LC exam marks, as of that date. They came out earlier in the week. I tried to help her look it up during lunch, but we were missing the special code for her exam. She sent out some emails to people at work when the play started.
We sat in the very top row in the balcony and heard every word. It was a much quieter play than Henry - much less people walking in the background.
During intermission, out on the balcony with the sun streaming down on us, Mary received her code for the exam pass/fail. I knew how she felt - I was there last year...so many years of work, hours studying to write the exam, co-workers eager and hoping you passed...she was too nervous to check, so I did it for her.
I will never forget the ecstatic look on my dear friend's face when I told her she passed. Relief, happiness, peace, bliss...I'm so glad that I was a part of it. When I found out my marks, I was alone in my office and ran to the main midwives' office, jumping up and down to the point where my supervisor (whose office was directly above) came down to find out what the emergency was. Yes, I know how Mary felt...
With the feeling of imminent "what if" removed from us, we thoroughly (even more so?) enjoyed the second half.
Claire L helped Braeden to have an extremely happy birthday back in September, so he made her a special gift as thanks, which I gave her after the show. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of his final project. What he did was write her favourite Sonnet in Elvish. It was beautiful! He's got talent.
We found a great tea shop, and an olive oil place (chocolate olive oil, ladies!) before we headed to Down the Street for dinner. We had packed lunch, so we splurged a bit on dinner because Mary passed! And, we deserved it. If you haven't eaten there, go. Their menu is wonderful!
We gabbed and reminisced throughout dinner. She and I have never run out of things to discuss. But, I bet even silence would be great with her. It's been a while since I've had a close friend like her. We don't seem to have them like we do when we are children, do we? Why is that? Why do we let life get in the way?
Our evening show was, "The Matchmaker." I could have seen this show a dozen more times and I would have laughed as hard each time. Poor Mary, I think she ran out of kleenex. Our abs were sore from laughing so ferociously. If you missed this show, you really missed out. Stellar cast, hilarious script, clockwork comical timing, gorgeous costumes, men singing...(had to slip that in there). Oh - and I finally met the dashing Mike Shara. He was quite wonderful. He'll be a Muskateer, too (hint hint).
If anyone remembers, waaaay back in the summer, I wrote I felt badly about what I construed as laughing at Josh Epstein when he asked me if Boing Boing was my first play in New York. Anyone remember? I wrote that I'd make it up somehow. I let Braeden's talent make it for me (thank you, Braeden). He wrote, in Elvish, "Studio 58" "Hop the Twig" and "Wait for Rain" for him. That I have pictures of, but not here. I'll post them later. I'm glad I was able to give it to Josh after the show because I didn't know then that he wasn't going to come back the next season. Ack! Since I really 'got into' Stratford the past 2 seasons, Josh has been there in my most favourite shows (Titus, Cymbeline, Matchmaker).
I just didn't think about him not being here. And not only him, but others are gone, too - like Cara. Oh, Cordelia did NOT take that news well at all. Poor girl. I'm just going to have to bribe Miss Cara to come back and help Kids4Bard one day, when she's not busy. Her career is shooting straight up. We'll have to wait a bit. And Josh is back in BC, where Cordelia wants to be (she was born there and has a very deep yearning to see it, since we moved back to Ontario when she was 7 months).
I still have yet to hear about my other favourites...Sean and Claire mostly. I hate wait.
I think The Matchmaker is a show I will go to the archives to watch when I'm old., not just to laugh again, but to reminisce about the days when I saw it. The day with my lovely Cordelia, dressed up like a princess, being treated like a princess, meeting Sean, Cara, Marilou, wearing Peggy's head piece...a day of perfection for my daughter - watching her watch "We're in the Money," will be one of the highlights of my life.
Then, the heavenly day with my mom, which I thought I'd never feel again. The magic of theatre enveloping us, protecting us, binding us together like The Force...laughing with Cara, talking with Josh - having the light bulb go on that if it wasn't for my mom, I wouldn't have been in Stratford, then and there. The ride home where anything and nothing and everything was talked about with no regrets, no disillusionment, no hiding...I'll never forget that day.
Then, this day with Mary: making us a priority, giggling without a care in the world, finding treasures and treasures we had forgotten we had lost (resale stores will do that)...seeing her face, giving her the biggest hug in the world when I told her she passed...talking about life, boys, theatre, blessings, regrets...the perfect weather...It was the perfect day to end my season at Stratford.
Where will I be when I see it in the archives? Will my children be grown? What will they be doing? Will I be a grandma? What will I be doing, other than breasfeeding and midwifing? Will I feel peace and happiness in every aspect of my life? Will there be a Cornelius Hackl to my Irene Milloy? Will my children's dreams be fulfilled? Will mine be realised?
All I believe is that whatever we are all doing, where ever we go, we will all look back at this 60th season in Stratford and be grateful for those we shared it with, those we met, those emotions we felt. We will realise that this summer changed us, permanently, for the better.
And with this, I say good night...nya:weh for sharing this with me, whoever you are that reads this. Write me a word or two...
I will be back soon with my autumn reading (which is the reason I started the blog in the first place - literature)....stay tuned. xoxo
Tuesday 27 November 2012
Monday 5 November 2012
60 Things I learned during Stratford's 60th Season
Here I am, in Montreal on my computer. We did a quick walk of Old Montreal and my heart longs to go back. That will be done tomorrow, after the Indspire Conference is completed. http://indspire.ca/soaring Anyone want to volunteer to be a tour guide?
I still need to write a blog about my final trip to Stratford, with my friend, Mary. It was a perfect day in many ways. I finally say Much Ado, then cracked ribs laughing at The Matchmaker again. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow...or on the train back home on Wednesday.
60 Things I Learned This Season, in no particular order:
1 Buy early - I would have missed A Word or Two
2 There's enough on Stratfest's website to keep one happy over the winter.
3 Yes, one musical can change a life (Cordelia & 42nd Street).
4 Stratford employs wonderful people, on and off the stage, who almost always go that extra mile
5 Actors can improve a show over a matter of even a couple of weeks
6 Not enough praise goes to the costume designers or set designers or lighting designers or...
7 The look of the play can change dramatically from the first press shots to final stage production (ie - pictures of Sean Arbuckle as Pirate King, and Kyle Blair, are nothing like what ended up in the show).
8 Pay grade: Christopher Plummer is up here - everyone else is down here (Q&A with Sean A after 42nd Street)
9 Kids get Shakespeare when they see it better than when they read it (Luke at Cymbeline - 1st Shakespeare and he loved the entire 3 hours. He was 10 at the time).
10 Dressing kids up to see a play does help them to behave better.
11 Actors/actresses love knowing children are getting into the arts and will help them as much as they can with encouragement or answering questions
12 Dakota is the most shy child I have - he wouldn't go on camera for the Kids REact video.
13 If you don't ask, the answer is always no. Just ask!
14 A man should love and honour his girlfriend/wife as Cornelius Hackl does of Ms. Milloy
15 A good sword can be used in multiple plays and have a grand effect
16 Cymbeline - I doubt another Shakespeare play will ever attain this level of perfection again - but it will be fun trying
17 Bring kids to a beautiful spot to tell them news that may change their life forever. In that way, they will have a peaceful spot to remember the news (see blog on Hirsch)
18 Actors have an inner strength I can't understand (see Hirsch, but also Claire Lautier as Tamora in Titus from last year)
18 Everyone who works at Stratford makes it a success
19 Henry V- I didn't know one could ever miss a play, like a friend who moves away
20 Artists on Broadway help younglings reach for bigger dreams
21 Security on the Armouries is TIGHT but necessary!!
22 Question and answer moments on Stratfest's facebook helped us to learn a LOT
23 The Q&A's helped me to come up with Kids4Bard
24 One can act a really good French accent
25 Christopher Plummer can act, and has the best command of the English language I've witnessed
26 Going to a play alone is sometimes a good thing, but talking about a play with a child or friend afterwards may be necessary
27 Seeing other people's struggles onstage helps to bring my own solutions into focus (Wanderlust)
28 Hobbies for actors include: sewing, horse racing, and making perfumes (among others)
29 Happiness is reconnecting with a parent you thought you wouldn't feel close to again, ever
30 Stage Door meet & greets are always better when I'm with a child or a friend (I doubt I'll ever do one by myself, even if it was told me to I should - I'm too shy and would feel like a stalker)
31 Men who sing are fantazmazing.
32 Even the simplest of plays can be transformative (Charlie Brown)
33 I am completely jealous of women who sing (Ms. Peacock and Ms. Hutton)
34 Actors think Elvish is cool (Braeden feels like he found soulmates)
35 A man should do what you ask if they want to feel worthy of you (see Cornelius and Barnaby in Matchmaker)
36 Everyone remembers Cordelia.
37 Shirtless Wonders is a list which should grow every year.
38 Cara Ricketts is a wonderful human being - Cordelia wants to adopt her as a big sister she will never have
39 Closing night performances rip your heart out
40 I don't have a before/after theatre in my life - it's just always been there (thanks for helping me realize that, Josh)
41 building up A word or two to grandiose heights - and what I got out of it most was memories of my dad, and feeling like I was wrapped up in my favourite blanket
42 Tom Patterson Theatre is my favourite theatre
43 Backstage crew work long hours, after actors leave for drinks
44 Even a chorus girl can be a star
45 Nell and Pistol will stay with me forever - best love story of the season for me
46 I need Wanderlust on my ipod
47 Stratford Exhibition is one of my favourite places in the entire world - one day I'm going to retire there to volunteer
48 In first seasons, actors would stay with local families while the plays were going on (Sir Alec Guiness included)
49 It took around 14 hours to get costumes repaired and ready for 42nd Street's next performance
50 That look I saw in Cara's and Steve Ross' eyes... I got a glimpse into their hearts (see previous blogs)
51 Actors need to project at all times in case their microphones stop working
52 My kids really do love the theatre
54 I want someone to treat me like Cornelius wants to treat Ms. Milloy - every woman deserves that
55 Words are spectacular beings in their own right - how they are said, and how you receive are 2 different animals - domesticated or wild
56 We all need an adventure in our lives (I need to find that last monologue from Matchmaker and memorize it)
57 Introspection is rarely unfelt pain, but necessary to feel to get to where you want to be, or be who you want to become
58 Theatre creates safe zones for people (friends, strangers, family) to share their most intimate emotions, without fear of retaliation or of not being heard
59 Festival Theatre backstage is huge
60 Theatre can make you laugh as much as it can make you cry, but only if you open yourself up to your own emotions
I thought 60 would be hard to come up with, but I found I deleted some to add others. I may still have another 60 in my head...
I still need to write a blog about my final trip to Stratford, with my friend, Mary. It was a perfect day in many ways. I finally say Much Ado, then cracked ribs laughing at The Matchmaker again. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow...or on the train back home on Wednesday.
60 Things I Learned This Season, in no particular order:
1 Buy early - I would have missed A Word or Two
2 There's enough on Stratfest's website to keep one happy over the winter.
3 Yes, one musical can change a life (Cordelia & 42nd Street).
4 Stratford employs wonderful people, on and off the stage, who almost always go that extra mile
5 Actors can improve a show over a matter of even a couple of weeks
6 Not enough praise goes to the costume designers or set designers or lighting designers or...
7 The look of the play can change dramatically from the first press shots to final stage production (ie - pictures of Sean Arbuckle as Pirate King, and Kyle Blair, are nothing like what ended up in the show).
8 Pay grade: Christopher Plummer is up here - everyone else is down here (Q&A with Sean A after 42nd Street)
9 Kids get Shakespeare when they see it better than when they read it (Luke at Cymbeline - 1st Shakespeare and he loved the entire 3 hours. He was 10 at the time).
10 Dressing kids up to see a play does help them to behave better.
11 Actors/actresses love knowing children are getting into the arts and will help them as much as they can with encouragement or answering questions
12 Dakota is the most shy child I have - he wouldn't go on camera for the Kids REact video.
13 If you don't ask, the answer is always no. Just ask!
14 A man should love and honour his girlfriend/wife as Cornelius Hackl does of Ms. Milloy
15 A good sword can be used in multiple plays and have a grand effect
16 Cymbeline - I doubt another Shakespeare play will ever attain this level of perfection again - but it will be fun trying
17 Bring kids to a beautiful spot to tell them news that may change their life forever. In that way, they will have a peaceful spot to remember the news (see blog on Hirsch)
18 Actors have an inner strength I can't understand (see Hirsch, but also Claire Lautier as Tamora in Titus from last year)
18 Everyone who works at Stratford makes it a success
19 Henry V- I didn't know one could ever miss a play, like a friend who moves away
20 Artists on Broadway help younglings reach for bigger dreams
21 Security on the Armouries is TIGHT but necessary!!
22 Question and answer moments on Stratfest's facebook helped us to learn a LOT
23 The Q&A's helped me to come up with Kids4Bard
24 One can act a really good French accent
25 Christopher Plummer can act, and has the best command of the English language I've witnessed
26 Going to a play alone is sometimes a good thing, but talking about a play with a child or friend afterwards may be necessary
27 Seeing other people's struggles onstage helps to bring my own solutions into focus (Wanderlust)
28 Hobbies for actors include: sewing, horse racing, and making perfumes (among others)
29 Happiness is reconnecting with a parent you thought you wouldn't feel close to again, ever
30 Stage Door meet & greets are always better when I'm with a child or a friend (I doubt I'll ever do one by myself, even if it was told me to I should - I'm too shy and would feel like a stalker)
31 Men who sing are fantazmazing.
32 Even the simplest of plays can be transformative (Charlie Brown)
33 I am completely jealous of women who sing (Ms. Peacock and Ms. Hutton)
34 Actors think Elvish is cool (Braeden feels like he found soulmates)
35 A man should do what you ask if they want to feel worthy of you (see Cornelius and Barnaby in Matchmaker)
36 Everyone remembers Cordelia.
37 Shirtless Wonders is a list which should grow every year.
38 Cara Ricketts is a wonderful human being - Cordelia wants to adopt her as a big sister she will never have
39 Closing night performances rip your heart out
40 I don't have a before/after theatre in my life - it's just always been there (thanks for helping me realize that, Josh)
41 building up A word or two to grandiose heights - and what I got out of it most was memories of my dad, and feeling like I was wrapped up in my favourite blanket
42 Tom Patterson Theatre is my favourite theatre
43 Backstage crew work long hours, after actors leave for drinks
44 Even a chorus girl can be a star
45 Nell and Pistol will stay with me forever - best love story of the season for me
46 I need Wanderlust on my ipod
47 Stratford Exhibition is one of my favourite places in the entire world - one day I'm going to retire there to volunteer
48 In first seasons, actors would stay with local families while the plays were going on (Sir Alec Guiness included)
49 It took around 14 hours to get costumes repaired and ready for 42nd Street's next performance
50 That look I saw in Cara's and Steve Ross' eyes... I got a glimpse into their hearts (see previous blogs)
51 Actors need to project at all times in case their microphones stop working
52 My kids really do love the theatre
54 I want someone to treat me like Cornelius wants to treat Ms. Milloy - every woman deserves that
55 Words are spectacular beings in their own right - how they are said, and how you receive are 2 different animals - domesticated or wild
56 We all need an adventure in our lives (I need to find that last monologue from Matchmaker and memorize it)
57 Introspection is rarely unfelt pain, but necessary to feel to get to where you want to be, or be who you want to become
58 Theatre creates safe zones for people (friends, strangers, family) to share their most intimate emotions, without fear of retaliation or of not being heard
59 Festival Theatre backstage is huge
60 Theatre can make you laugh as much as it can make you cry, but only if you open yourself up to your own emotions
I thought 60 would be hard to come up with, but I found I deleted some to add others. I may still have another 60 in my head...
Saturday 20 October 2012
Healing begins at home. Idle No More
I don't have time tonight to edit this properly. But, here is my presentation at the 22nd Annual Breastfeeding Conference. Toronto, ON 2012
I have the PowerPoint. Just let me know if interested.
This is about language - the power of language today which both hurts and hinders. And empowers. When one can speak the language of the medical and scientific literature, you can better explain stark realities in terms they can understand.
Sago, everyone.
Thank you to the organising committee for inviting me to give this presentation. I am honoured to be speaking with such distinguished scholars and breastfeeding advocates. I am also grateful to be speaking to a captive audience – you can’t run and hide much while I am speaking, unlike my family.
Let me say at the start, I am explaining realities from the other side of the fence. I was raised on this side, down in Windsor, knowing of my heritage, but not knowing the depth of my history.
On my community of Six Nations, the first question we hear from people we meet is, “Where are you from? And, who is your family?” Allow me to introduce myself:
My grandfather was born on Six Nations. He was a Mohawk speaker in the home. At the appropriate age, he was sent to Residential School. Discussing his experience in the Mush Hole, he didn’t mention to us physical or sexual abuse, but there are many other forms of abuse. Head trauma, not attended to by any medical practitioner left him with memory loss, a change in personality, and, as per the government wish to take the Indian out of the child, lost his language and culture. He and my grandmother, a non-native, produced 4 children. They were both heavy drinkers, pregnant or not. I believe my mom is the only child of their relationship who has not been in jail. I also believe they all suffer from FASD. They were raised in separate non-native homes. My mom doesn’t know where she was for the first 6 months of life. We all know about the importance of bonding in infancy. She didn’t get that. She was put into a permanent foster home when she was 6 months old, and left when she was 18. My mom didn’t know she was Mohawk until that time when CAS gave her a brief copy of her family history.
My dad is French Canadian, one of 13 children. He was a homebirth and he was breastfed. I say that is why at his age of 82, he only has high blood pressure issues. He was the stabilizing force in our home while we grew up.
My parents married, produced 3 children – myself and 2 older brothers. They divorced after 25 years and remarried each other 7 years ago. It’s not as romantic as it sounds. My mom’s mental illness, which I attribute to FASD and lack of bonding in infancy, led to many issues in their marriage, our childhood, and our adulthood. If my brothers and I didn’t work so hard to break the cycle, it could have had effects on our children as well.
I graduated with a joint degree from Trent University in Native Studies and History. A year later I became a very content stay at home mom for the next 10 years.
I have been studying and working on Six Nations for 9 years now. Cordelia was 7 months old when I started back to school. She weaned after she turned 3. I started schooling at the Birthing Centre to become an Aboriginal Midwife, graduating 5 years ago. I spent the following years as the Community Breastfeeding Coordinator, and studying for the IBCLC exam, passing it last year. As far as my networking has been able to find, I may be the only band member IBCLC working on their own community in Ontario. It does make a difference to how women listen to me. I am asked for advice on reserves an hour or 2 away because they don’t have anyone in their community with the knowledge or skill that I have or the health care providers women will trust.
I have been very blessed by support from the Director of Health and front line staff, because breastfeeding is strongly encouraged and supported. While I am still working with departments to follow the WHO Code and to get BFI ready, they are eager to send clients my way for prenatal breastfeeding classes because they and their clients believe it to be important, not just their families but our Community as a whole. When notified of the WHO Code for our Breastfeeding Day last year, one department took it to heart so much, I was asked if their very large basket of baby goods was permitted to include teething toys. Mentioning the WHO Code as a base for the event made a difference then, and I’m sure it’s continuing to make a difference in their offices today.
Here is part of a talk from Ruby Miller, Director of Health at our Breastfeeding Day this year. After listing the risks of formula feeding to mom and baby, she said this:
The Creator intended for babies to be breastfed, to be nurtured at their moms’ hearts for as long as mom and baby feel the need. Nothing man-made could ever have more advantage to our children’s health.
In our community, we are privileged to have an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, on call to help moms and families with breastfeeding education and proper breastfeeding support. Generations of our people have not breastfed and vital breastfeeding education, passed from our grandmothers, has been lost.
Let’s bring it back.
Let’s make this day the start of a community-wide commitment to bring back the normalcy of breastfeeding in our community. Together, we will promote the significant benefits of breastfeeding to everyone. Mothers, fathers, grandparents...let us all remember these benefits of breastfeeding not just for the baby or the mom, but to our families, and to our community as a whole.
Being a Registered Nurse, I know that our Best Practises for infant feeding begins with skin-to-skin to contact immediately after birth, baby-led breastfeeding, and having babies within mom’s reach so they can be fed when babies show signs of hunger.
I congratulate the moms who have breastfed their children. They will see how their health and the health of their children is stronger, not just in their infancy, but in the childhood and adulthood, as well.
As Pat Martens would say, this is an upstream approach to breastfeeding in our community. Buy-in from the big boss is always a good thing. The dissemination will take more time, but I’m determined, or just plain stubborn enough, to make that happen.
Other First Nations communities are not as fortunate. While speaking at the annual Best Start Conference in March about how to work and serve people on a reserve, or with Aboriginals who are clients, I was shocked and disheartened that women from fly-in communities asked me basic questions about breastfeeding. I was asked, “If breastfeeding hurts, how can I make the pain stop?” and “What is a tongue tie?” and “How can you tell if baby is getting enough breastmilk?” I wonder if they would have approached a non-native as freely as they approached, and shared a meal, with me.
For us in this conference, we realize how multi-faceted these answers are. I felt useless in answering. For example, for the “How can you tell if baby is getting enough breastmilk,” question, my answers started with: How old is baby? How many wet/dirty diapers? How is the weight loss/gain? Is mom in pain? Were there drugs used in her birth? My answers were vacant stares. The one woman thought I could help her client fully, right then and there – give her the knowledge she needed to return to her community and fix her right up.
We all know that can’t happen. I was astonished at the lack of breastfeeding knowledge these women had, especially working with healthy babies programme. These wonderful women attended that Best Start Conference to bring knowledge home. I know they went home knowing more research about breastfeeding teaching or why it’s healthy, but not the how-to’s. As an example, can you teach me to play a French horn, without teaching me first what an “A” should sound like, or how to vibrate my lips together properly in the mouth piece in order to make that A?
The women from the fly-in communities are caring, loving, and receptive to knowledge. They know their grandmothers were breastfed, maybe some were even breastfed themselves. But because of the residential schools, and the 60’s Scoop, it wasn’t just children that were taken out of their homes. Knowledge was also stolen from these children, knowledge about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and parenting.
I understand that there are some in Canadian society who take the stance that what happened to Aboriginals in the past, has no, or should have no, bearing on the present day. If you read comments after Canadian media articles regarding any First Nations’ issue, you will always read things like this, and I quote:
It's time to end the reservations completely. They've outlived any usefulness they ever had.
When you squish all the poverty, dysfunction, depression and limited opportunities you can into such a small geographic area, of course people turn to substance abuse as an escape
The parents of these youth have to start... parenting.
The problem isn't substance abuse; it's a lack of parenting. If I came home drunk or high on drugs when I was a youth, my parents would have take swift, corrective action. They wouldn't have turned to the government to solve the problem.
Lock the gas away, control the community, insure that drugs are not coming into the community and report the people who are bringing them in, community elders and youth know who they are. See that the kids go to and stay in school. Put some of the government $$ towards scholarships etc, towards the youth in terms of educational programs. Help build their confidence. Assimilate maybe?
Trans-generational trauma sounds like a convenient cop-out to avoid taking responsibility.
Other cultures managed to overcome such stigmas in much less time. some by immigrating, others through pulling themselves out of despair.
What do you do when no-one thinks they're responsible for themselves?
It's difficult to be partners with people who won't work.
I bring these comments (copy and pasted directly from media sites) into this talk because this is how some, hopefully only a loud-mouthed minority of, Canadians think. Some people with these opinions work not only on reserves, but in health care positions which have them work with First Nations people, through Friendship or Health Access Centres, hospital settings, or home visits. I have seen with my eyes, and heard with my ears comments like the ones I’ve mentioned said to my clients, or said to me (because I don’t look Mohawk).
I am not a spokesperson for my community. While researching for this presentation, I have been in contact with people on reserves coast to coast to coast and coast, if you include the Great Lakes. They have allowed me to share their wisdom with you. They all agreed on one vital point: The Residential School system is the turning point; the turning point of disconnectedness, of dysfunctional families, of a lot of addictions, and the loss of traditional parenting knowledge, including breastfeeding.
Why am I Poor: First Nations Child Poverty in Ontario, Best Start Resources 2012 SLIDES
In areas of the north, there is often a lack of local child mental health services
To deal with serious issues such as FASD, depression, autism, and behavioural problems...waiting list of 18 months to get a child diagnosed, after which, there was no local service provider available to work with the child and the family. The only alternative was to take the child outside of the community for critical services.
(Why Am I Poor?)
The majority of protection workers are straight out of university and are armed with the best intentions. They go into a First Nations home and see overcrowding for example, or that there may not be a lot of food in the home, and the worker immediately sees neglect. The worker is evaluating the situation from their own perspective and not from that of the family or culture. (WAIP)
Almost 30% of water in First Nations was potentially harmful.
22 % on reserve households lived in inadequate housing and were in core-housing need, compared 2.5% of Non-Aboriginal households.
Off-reserve, 21% of Aboriginal households had problems affording housing and were in core-housing need, compared to 14% of NAH (CMIHC, 2009)
Living in poverty over extended periods is linked to an increased risk of behaviour problems, depression, emotional problems and family dysfunction (AFN, 2006)
Education: Report from BC by Canadian Teachers Federation confirms that not only do Aboriginal students experience racism in schools, Aboriginal teachers experience it as well (St. Denis, 2010)
Food insecurity: 33% of Aboriginal households in Canada experienced food insecurity compared to 9% of NAH.
In areas of the north, there is often a lack of local child mental health services
To deal with serious issues such as FASD, depression, autism, and behavioural problems...waiting list of 18 months to get a child diagnosed, after which, there was no local service provider available to work with the child and the family. The only alternative was to take the child outside of the community for critical services.
Underpinning the approaches that are effective in working with First Nations families is the need to stabilize the family, strengthen the family unit and avoid focussing on the needs of the child separately from the needs of the family.
The First Nations approach is to consider the perspective of the family, not of the individuals in the family and to identify what the family needs to help them succeed. There needs to be recognition that there is a long history and current realities behind the immediate family problems and that it will take time and support for the family to change.
SLIDES on Social Determinants of Health
WHO
ANNEX A. RIO POLITICAL DECLARATION ON SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, 21 OCTOBER 2011
6. Health inequities arise from the societal conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, referred to as social determinants of health. These include early years’ experiences, education, economic status, employment and decent work, housing and environment, and effective systems of preventing and treating ill health. We are convinced that action on these determinants, both for vulnerable groups and the entire population, is essential to create inclusive, equitable, economically productive and healthy societies. Positioning human health and well-being as one of the key features of what constitutes a successful, inclusive and fair society in the 21st century is consistent with our commitment to human rights at national and international levels.
7. Good health requires a universal, comprehensive, equitable, effective, responsive and accessible quality health system. But it is also dependent on the involvement of and dialogue with other sectors and actors, as their performance has significant health impacts. Collaboration in coordinated and intersectoral policy actions has proven to be effective. Health in All Policies, together with intersectoral cooperation and action, is one promising approach to enhance accountability in other sectors for health, as well as the promotion of health equity and more inclusive and productive societies. As collective goals, good health and well-being for all should be given high priority at local, national, regional and international levels.
8. We recognize that we need to do more to accelerate progress in addressing the unequal distribution of health resources as well as conditions damaging to health at all levels. Based on the experiences shared at this Conference, we express our political will to make health equity a national, regional and global goal and to address current challenges, such as eradicating hunger and poverty, ensuring food and nutritional security, access to safe drinking water and sanitation, employment and decent work and social protection, protecting environments and delivering equitable economic growth, through resolute action on social determinants of health across all sectors and at all levels. We also acknowledge that by addressing social determinants we can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Let’s look at where Aboriginal Communities are today in relation to social determinants of health Native Women’s Association of Canada’s Submission to the WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, “Social Determinants of Health and Canada’s Aboriginal Women” June 4, 2007
“The vulnerable and marginalized in Canadian society, particularly Aboriginal women, are suffering from...lack of action, continuing to endure the poorest socioeconomic and health status of all Canadians.”
“The population health approach which is predominant today in Canada and internationally, recognizes that primary health care is a limited actor in human health outcomes. The population health approach is thus compatible with native ancestral laws and spiritual beliefs, in which interconnectedness and holism as keys to healing and health are central tenets...holistic approach incorporates physical, mental, emotional and spiritual factors with her personal situation, nature and the environment, as well as her family, community and other relationships and societal settings and interactions. However, the lived experiences of Aboriginal women in the 21st century often impose disconnection on Aboriginal women, isolation and marginalization in and from their own communities; due to a number of factors the population health approach now commonly labels the social determinants of health.”
It’s been 200 years of this dysfunctional, non-traditional model which has been pushed upon our communities. If we didn’t abide by the terms, we still had to abide by the terms. I have spoken with people whose family history includes women who hid in the bush with their children to stop the Federal Agents from taking their children to residential schools.
How many of us cried the first day we brought our children to school, even with the knowledge we would be getting them back at the end of the day.
What if we didn’t know if we were ever getting them back? [As an aside, the issue of not knowing if your child is coming back is still alive and unwell for fly-in communities. But, that is not the focus of my talk.]
SLIDES
Disconnect from traditions:
Namely roles of men and women, IPV/Child Abuse
Any lower socioeconomic group of people find themselves with this issue, as well.
Why Am I Poor? First Nations and Child Poverty in Ontario. Best Start Resource Centre, 2012
In some residential schools, the death rate was as high as 75% from disease, starvation and abuse.
The children who survived often had low literacy rates and did not have parenting or life skills.
35% of First Nations adults believed that their parents’ attendance at residential schools negatively affected the parenting they received as children. Additionally, 67% of the adults surveyed believed that their grandparents’ attendance at residential schools affected their parenting skills. (Chiefs of Ontario, 2003)
Considering population size, Aboriginal children in Canada were 5 times more likely to be substantiated for neglect than non-Aboriginal children (Trocmé et al, 2005). In contrast, maltreatment of non-Aboriginal children is most often in the categories of domestic violence, physical abuse or neglect, each occurring in about a third of cases (Trocmé et al, 2006).
A study of 3 sample provinces found 10.23% of status First Nations children in out-of-home care, versus 3.31% of Métis children and 0.67% of other children (Blackstock et al., 2005).
Another study found that Aboriginal children represent 40% of the children in out-of-home care in Canada (Farris Manning & Zandstra, 2003). There are 3 times as many Aboriginal children in child welfare care today than were in residential schools at their peak (Blackstock, 2003).
The high rate of poverty today is linked to the traumas experienced by current and past generations brought about by efforts to colonize and assimilate Aboriginal people in Canada through damaging government policies...it is clear that service providers who understand the impact of these past traumas are more likely to be effective in providing culturally sensitive and appropriate services to their clients.
Dr. Kathleen Kendall-Tackett SLIDE
In a sample of primary care of 35 patients, those who experienced childhood abuse or partner violence in adolescence or adulthood reported twice as many symptoms on a review of systems than their age-matched, non-abused counterparts. They were also more likely to abuse substances and report a wide variety of chronic pain syndromes.
SLIDE
...we do know that women experiencing past or current VAW are at increased risk for depression, PTSD and physical health consequences antenatally and postpartum…Not all women who have experienced past abuse become depressed, end up in unsupportive or abusive relationships, or have difficult relationships with their children. These hopeful signs offer us at least a glimpse of what the perinatal experiences of all abuse survivors could be like. And improving the antenatal and postpartum experiences of women with a history of violence is a goal worth pursuing.
Dr. Karleen Gribble
Breastfeeding requires frequent close physical contact between mother and child and some research has found that breastfeeding women seek greater proximity to their babies. Breastfeeding involves infant-mother skin-to-skin contact which both increases a mother's desire to be with her baby and her sensitivity to her infant. Research has found that the more that babies and mothers are kept together, the greater the impact on the mother in terms of exhibition of responsive caregiving and security of attachment in the child.
Children with a history of relational trauma may experience lifelong difficulties with feeling empathy, trusting others and developing intimate relationships as their internal model of relationships tells them, "Do not let us care too much for anyone. At all costs let us avoid any risk of allowing our hearts to be broken again...”
Therefore, mothers who wish to breastfeed their adopted child are advised to instigate caregiving strategies that will build trust and attachment.
Breastfeeding has the potential to promote the development of the child-maternal attachment relationship in vulnerable adoptive dyads...
SLIDE
However, the impact of breastfeeding as observed in cases of adoption has relevance to all breastfeeding situations and this deserves further investigation. In particular, there may be applicability of the experience of adoptive breastfeeding to other at risk dyads, such as intact families with a history of intergenerational relationship trauma.
SLIDE
The Health Effects of Childhood Abuse: Four Pathways by Which Abuse Can Influence Health. Dr. Kendall-Tackett Child Abuse & Neglect, 6/7, 715-730
Results: Childhood abuse puts people at risk of depression, PTSD, participating in harmful activities, having difficulties in relationships, and having negative and attitudes towards others. Each of these increases the likelihood of health problems, and they are highly related to each other.
Conclusions: Childhood abuse is related to health via a complex of matrix of behavioural, emotional, social and cognitive factors. Health outcomes for adults survivors are unlikely to improve until each of these factors is addressed.
To improve health outcomes for adult survivors, clinicians must consider and address each of the ways by which victimization can influence health. For example, admonitions to abstain from smoking or substance abuse are likely to be unsuccessful until the traumatic past events that are driving these harmful activities are addressed and resolved. Admonitions to exercise will not be helpful if the patient believes that nothing she does makes any difference. Telling a patient to “lose weight” is likely to fail if he has no ability to make and keep friends, and eats when he is lonely or stressed. Recognizing the complexity of the forces that lead to health, clinicians and researchers must strive for an approach that addresses all these pathways. Health outcomes are unlikely to improve if professionals in the child maltreatment field continue in the current mindset of treating mental health and physical health sequelae separately. Only by recognizing, and addressing, all of these underlying factors can we hope to improve the health of adult survivors of childhood abuse.
SLIDE
Children who are breast fed may be more resilient to the stress associated with parental divorce.
Breast feeding may be associated with a variety of exposures and family characteristics that confer
resilience against stress related to parental divorce. Montgomery, S. M., Ehlin, A., & Sacker, A. (2006). Breast feeding and resilience against psychosocial stress. Archives of Diseases of Childhood, 91, 990-994
GAS Slide
George Albert Smith: “You cannot drive people to do things which are right, but you can love them into doing them, if your example is of such a character that they can see you mean what you say.”
Breastfeeding is the original traditional medicine. Help people to trust that. I recently met a family, who has never had a generation that has not been breastfed. Wouldn’t researchers love to study those women! In this day, in these past decades of the media and medical machine of formula marketing, there is a family that has not succumbed to it.
I asked the great-grandmother about how they breastfed in her day. (She is close to 80). She said – I just let the babies tell me when they were hungry. I kept the baby as close as possible at all times. Grandmas, and, aunties and sisters would come over to take care of the new mom so she could take care of the baby. Long term breastfeeding problems were unheard of because moms, and aunties and sisters and grandmas were there to help. Women also grew up always seeing babies at the breast. Men didn’t ask to feed the babies because it wasn’t their role. If men were meant to feed babies, they would have working breasts, too. Breastfeeding also meant babies knew where they were safe, where their centre was. They knew mom was there to take care of them first and foremost.
NEW SLIDE
“Breastfeeding had a positive impact with parenting behaviours regardless of marital status or income level. However, it appeared to be particularly important for single and lower-income mothers, continuing to have a positive effect for these groups when their children were 5 years of age, but not for married and higher-income mothers, or for the sample overall. Conversely, not breastfeeding seemed to have particularly negative consequences for the parenting behaviours of single and lower-income mothers.”
Here are a couple of other quotes, directly from the paper:
P 39,
Breastfeeding is often difficult for new mothers, and in some communities it may be such a rare practice that mothers lack role models or the support of peers. In addition, Bolling et al. (2007) found that while reasons for stopping breastfeeding included insufficient milk, rejection of the breast and pain or discomfort in the first 2 weeks, in later months, return to work became a factor.
Parenting programmes, for example, that focus on skills such as awareness of the needs and feelings of others, including the child, may be particularly useful, especially for those mothers without support of a partner.
40
...parenting of lower income mothers is more vulnerable when they feel less control over their lives, targeting resources at these mothers may be particularly beneficial.
41
Our findings indicate that both who you are and what you do are important in terms of parenting—personal characteristics such as interpersonal sensitivity and education and behaviours such as breastfeeding are significant predictors. Socio-demographics perhaps have less influence than we might expect (only education has independent significance)—the other socio-demographic factors are mediated by the processes such as social networks and post-natal depression. Given this, we can see that there is room for intervention – “what you do” and even personal characteristics are amenable to support if appropriately and sensitively offered.
SLIDE
Maternal Child Health Program
At the September 13 2004 Special Meeting of First Ministers and National Aboriginal Leaders, the Prime Minister announced additional funding for programs that promote the health status of Aboriginal people - one of these programs is the Maternal Child Health program in First Nations communities, on-reserve.
Why are Maternal Child Health Programs important, and how do they differ from other approaches?
In the past, health services in First Nations communities have focussed on treatment and crisis response. MCH takes a more proactive, preventative and strategic approach to promoting good health and preventing disease.
Early experiences are the foundation on which an individual’s life is built. In Canadian and international health systems, MCH programs have been shown to have a positive effect on the participating mother and child’s physical and mental health. In fact, effective MCH programs enhance the physical, psychological, cognitive, and social development of all family members.
Home visiting by nurses and family visitors – a key element of MCH programs – has been linked with improved parenting skills and quality of home environment, improved cognitive development of infants and young children, and the decreased incidence of unintentional injury. These visits have also improved detection and management of postpartum depression, improved rates of breast-feeding, and enhanced quality of social supports to mothers.
Cost-benefit analysis of two long-term home visiting studies, conducted by David Olds of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and his colleagues, indicate that the social and economic benefits of home visiting programs outweigh the costs by a ratio of more than five to one.
Interventions like MCH, that focus on improved reproductive health, prenatal and postpartum services, and early childhood development, present an opportunity to break the cycle of persistent gaps in life chances between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. These kind of approaches are referred to as making strategic ‘upstream’ investments early in a child’s life.
In sum, the MCH program will be community-based, community-driven and community-involving. By building on community-specific cultural knowledge and ways of doing things, it will deliver the culturally appropriate services and supports that community members need, and that they will appreciate and accept.
Case Studies
I have the PowerPoint. Just let me know if interested.
This is about language - the power of language today which both hurts and hinders. And empowers. When one can speak the language of the medical and scientific literature, you can better explain stark realities in terms they can understand.
Sago, everyone.
Thank you to the organising committee for inviting me to give this presentation. I am honoured to be speaking with such distinguished scholars and breastfeeding advocates. I am also grateful to be speaking to a captive audience – you can’t run and hide much while I am speaking, unlike my family.
Let me say at the start, I am explaining realities from the other side of the fence. I was raised on this side, down in Windsor, knowing of my heritage, but not knowing the depth of my history.
On my community of Six Nations, the first question we hear from people we meet is, “Where are you from? And, who is your family?” Allow me to introduce myself:
My grandfather was born on Six Nations. He was a Mohawk speaker in the home. At the appropriate age, he was sent to Residential School. Discussing his experience in the Mush Hole, he didn’t mention to us physical or sexual abuse, but there are many other forms of abuse. Head trauma, not attended to by any medical practitioner left him with memory loss, a change in personality, and, as per the government wish to take the Indian out of the child, lost his language and culture. He and my grandmother, a non-native, produced 4 children. They were both heavy drinkers, pregnant or not. I believe my mom is the only child of their relationship who has not been in jail. I also believe they all suffer from FASD. They were raised in separate non-native homes. My mom doesn’t know where she was for the first 6 months of life. We all know about the importance of bonding in infancy. She didn’t get that. She was put into a permanent foster home when she was 6 months old, and left when she was 18. My mom didn’t know she was Mohawk until that time when CAS gave her a brief copy of her family history.
My dad is French Canadian, one of 13 children. He was a homebirth and he was breastfed. I say that is why at his age of 82, he only has high blood pressure issues. He was the stabilizing force in our home while we grew up.
My parents married, produced 3 children – myself and 2 older brothers. They divorced after 25 years and remarried each other 7 years ago. It’s not as romantic as it sounds. My mom’s mental illness, which I attribute to FASD and lack of bonding in infancy, led to many issues in their marriage, our childhood, and our adulthood. If my brothers and I didn’t work so hard to break the cycle, it could have had effects on our children as well.
I graduated with a joint degree from Trent University in Native Studies and History. A year later I became a very content stay at home mom for the next 10 years.
I have been studying and working on Six Nations for 9 years now. Cordelia was 7 months old when I started back to school. She weaned after she turned 3. I started schooling at the Birthing Centre to become an Aboriginal Midwife, graduating 5 years ago. I spent the following years as the Community Breastfeeding Coordinator, and studying for the IBCLC exam, passing it last year. As far as my networking has been able to find, I may be the only band member IBCLC working on their own community in Ontario. It does make a difference to how women listen to me. I am asked for advice on reserves an hour or 2 away because they don’t have anyone in their community with the knowledge or skill that I have or the health care providers women will trust.
I have been very blessed by support from the Director of Health and front line staff, because breastfeeding is strongly encouraged and supported. While I am still working with departments to follow the WHO Code and to get BFI ready, they are eager to send clients my way for prenatal breastfeeding classes because they and their clients believe it to be important, not just their families but our Community as a whole. When notified of the WHO Code for our Breastfeeding Day last year, one department took it to heart so much, I was asked if their very large basket of baby goods was permitted to include teething toys. Mentioning the WHO Code as a base for the event made a difference then, and I’m sure it’s continuing to make a difference in their offices today.
Here is part of a talk from Ruby Miller, Director of Health at our Breastfeeding Day this year. After listing the risks of formula feeding to mom and baby, she said this:
The Creator intended for babies to be breastfed, to be nurtured at their moms’ hearts for as long as mom and baby feel the need. Nothing man-made could ever have more advantage to our children’s health.
In our community, we are privileged to have an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, on call to help moms and families with breastfeeding education and proper breastfeeding support. Generations of our people have not breastfed and vital breastfeeding education, passed from our grandmothers, has been lost.
Let’s bring it back.
Let’s make this day the start of a community-wide commitment to bring back the normalcy of breastfeeding in our community. Together, we will promote the significant benefits of breastfeeding to everyone. Mothers, fathers, grandparents...let us all remember these benefits of breastfeeding not just for the baby or the mom, but to our families, and to our community as a whole.
Being a Registered Nurse, I know that our Best Practises for infant feeding begins with skin-to-skin to contact immediately after birth, baby-led breastfeeding, and having babies within mom’s reach so they can be fed when babies show signs of hunger.
I congratulate the moms who have breastfed their children. They will see how their health and the health of their children is stronger, not just in their infancy, but in the childhood and adulthood, as well.
As Pat Martens would say, this is an upstream approach to breastfeeding in our community. Buy-in from the big boss is always a good thing. The dissemination will take more time, but I’m determined, or just plain stubborn enough, to make that happen.
Other First Nations communities are not as fortunate. While speaking at the annual Best Start Conference in March about how to work and serve people on a reserve, or with Aboriginals who are clients, I was shocked and disheartened that women from fly-in communities asked me basic questions about breastfeeding. I was asked, “If breastfeeding hurts, how can I make the pain stop?” and “What is a tongue tie?” and “How can you tell if baby is getting enough breastmilk?” I wonder if they would have approached a non-native as freely as they approached, and shared a meal, with me.
For us in this conference, we realize how multi-faceted these answers are. I felt useless in answering. For example, for the “How can you tell if baby is getting enough breastmilk,” question, my answers started with: How old is baby? How many wet/dirty diapers? How is the weight loss/gain? Is mom in pain? Were there drugs used in her birth? My answers were vacant stares. The one woman thought I could help her client fully, right then and there – give her the knowledge she needed to return to her community and fix her right up.
We all know that can’t happen. I was astonished at the lack of breastfeeding knowledge these women had, especially working with healthy babies programme. These wonderful women attended that Best Start Conference to bring knowledge home. I know they went home knowing more research about breastfeeding teaching or why it’s healthy, but not the how-to’s. As an example, can you teach me to play a French horn, without teaching me first what an “A” should sound like, or how to vibrate my lips together properly in the mouth piece in order to make that A?
The women from the fly-in communities are caring, loving, and receptive to knowledge. They know their grandmothers were breastfed, maybe some were even breastfed themselves. But because of the residential schools, and the 60’s Scoop, it wasn’t just children that were taken out of their homes. Knowledge was also stolen from these children, knowledge about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and parenting.
I understand that there are some in Canadian society who take the stance that what happened to Aboriginals in the past, has no, or should have no, bearing on the present day. If you read comments after Canadian media articles regarding any First Nations’ issue, you will always read things like this, and I quote:
It's time to end the reservations completely. They've outlived any usefulness they ever had.
When you squish all the poverty, dysfunction, depression and limited opportunities you can into such a small geographic area, of course people turn to substance abuse as an escape
The parents of these youth have to start... parenting.
The problem isn't substance abuse; it's a lack of parenting. If I came home drunk or high on drugs when I was a youth, my parents would have take swift, corrective action. They wouldn't have turned to the government to solve the problem.
Lock the gas away, control the community, insure that drugs are not coming into the community and report the people who are bringing them in, community elders and youth know who they are. See that the kids go to and stay in school. Put some of the government $$ towards scholarships etc, towards the youth in terms of educational programs. Help build their confidence. Assimilate maybe?
Trans-generational trauma sounds like a convenient cop-out to avoid taking responsibility.
Other cultures managed to overcome such stigmas in much less time. some by immigrating, others through pulling themselves out of despair.
What do you do when no-one thinks they're responsible for themselves?
It's difficult to be partners with people who won't work.
I bring these comments (copy and pasted directly from media sites) into this talk because this is how some, hopefully only a loud-mouthed minority of, Canadians think. Some people with these opinions work not only on reserves, but in health care positions which have them work with First Nations people, through Friendship or Health Access Centres, hospital settings, or home visits. I have seen with my eyes, and heard with my ears comments like the ones I’ve mentioned said to my clients, or said to me (because I don’t look Mohawk).
I am not a spokesperson for my community. While researching for this presentation, I have been in contact with people on reserves coast to coast to coast and coast, if you include the Great Lakes. They have allowed me to share their wisdom with you. They all agreed on one vital point: The Residential School system is the turning point; the turning point of disconnectedness, of dysfunctional families, of a lot of addictions, and the loss of traditional parenting knowledge, including breastfeeding.
Why am I Poor: First Nations Child Poverty in Ontario, Best Start Resources 2012 SLIDES
In areas of the north, there is often a lack of local child mental health services
To deal with serious issues such as FASD, depression, autism, and behavioural problems...waiting list of 18 months to get a child diagnosed, after which, there was no local service provider available to work with the child and the family. The only alternative was to take the child outside of the community for critical services.
(Why Am I Poor?)
The majority of protection workers are straight out of university and are armed with the best intentions. They go into a First Nations home and see overcrowding for example, or that there may not be a lot of food in the home, and the worker immediately sees neglect. The worker is evaluating the situation from their own perspective and not from that of the family or culture. (WAIP)
Almost 30% of water in First Nations was potentially harmful.
22 % on reserve households lived in inadequate housing and were in core-housing need, compared 2.5% of Non-Aboriginal households.
Off-reserve, 21% of Aboriginal households had problems affording housing and were in core-housing need, compared to 14% of NAH (CMIHC, 2009)
Living in poverty over extended periods is linked to an increased risk of behaviour problems, depression, emotional problems and family dysfunction (AFN, 2006)
Education: Report from BC by Canadian Teachers Federation confirms that not only do Aboriginal students experience racism in schools, Aboriginal teachers experience it as well (St. Denis, 2010)
Food insecurity: 33% of Aboriginal households in Canada experienced food insecurity compared to 9% of NAH.
In areas of the north, there is often a lack of local child mental health services
To deal with serious issues such as FASD, depression, autism, and behavioural problems...waiting list of 18 months to get a child diagnosed, after which, there was no local service provider available to work with the child and the family. The only alternative was to take the child outside of the community for critical services.
Underpinning the approaches that are effective in working with First Nations families is the need to stabilize the family, strengthen the family unit and avoid focussing on the needs of the child separately from the needs of the family.
The First Nations approach is to consider the perspective of the family, not of the individuals in the family and to identify what the family needs to help them succeed. There needs to be recognition that there is a long history and current realities behind the immediate family problems and that it will take time and support for the family to change.
SLIDES on Social Determinants of Health
WHO
ANNEX A. RIO POLITICAL DECLARATION ON SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, 21 OCTOBER 2011
6. Health inequities arise from the societal conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, referred to as social determinants of health. These include early years’ experiences, education, economic status, employment and decent work, housing and environment, and effective systems of preventing and treating ill health. We are convinced that action on these determinants, both for vulnerable groups and the entire population, is essential to create inclusive, equitable, economically productive and healthy societies. Positioning human health and well-being as one of the key features of what constitutes a successful, inclusive and fair society in the 21st century is consistent with our commitment to human rights at national and international levels.
7. Good health requires a universal, comprehensive, equitable, effective, responsive and accessible quality health system. But it is also dependent on the involvement of and dialogue with other sectors and actors, as their performance has significant health impacts. Collaboration in coordinated and intersectoral policy actions has proven to be effective. Health in All Policies, together with intersectoral cooperation and action, is one promising approach to enhance accountability in other sectors for health, as well as the promotion of health equity and more inclusive and productive societies. As collective goals, good health and well-being for all should be given high priority at local, national, regional and international levels.
8. We recognize that we need to do more to accelerate progress in addressing the unequal distribution of health resources as well as conditions damaging to health at all levels. Based on the experiences shared at this Conference, we express our political will to make health equity a national, regional and global goal and to address current challenges, such as eradicating hunger and poverty, ensuring food and nutritional security, access to safe drinking water and sanitation, employment and decent work and social protection, protecting environments and delivering equitable economic growth, through resolute action on social determinants of health across all sectors and at all levels. We also acknowledge that by addressing social determinants we can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Let’s look at where Aboriginal Communities are today in relation to social determinants of health Native Women’s Association of Canada’s Submission to the WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, “Social Determinants of Health and Canada’s Aboriginal Women” June 4, 2007
“The vulnerable and marginalized in Canadian society, particularly Aboriginal women, are suffering from...lack of action, continuing to endure the poorest socioeconomic and health status of all Canadians.”
“The population health approach which is predominant today in Canada and internationally, recognizes that primary health care is a limited actor in human health outcomes. The population health approach is thus compatible with native ancestral laws and spiritual beliefs, in which interconnectedness and holism as keys to healing and health are central tenets...holistic approach incorporates physical, mental, emotional and spiritual factors with her personal situation, nature and the environment, as well as her family, community and other relationships and societal settings and interactions. However, the lived experiences of Aboriginal women in the 21st century often impose disconnection on Aboriginal women, isolation and marginalization in and from their own communities; due to a number of factors the population health approach now commonly labels the social determinants of health.”
It’s been 200 years of this dysfunctional, non-traditional model which has been pushed upon our communities. If we didn’t abide by the terms, we still had to abide by the terms. I have spoken with people whose family history includes women who hid in the bush with their children to stop the Federal Agents from taking their children to residential schools.
How many of us cried the first day we brought our children to school, even with the knowledge we would be getting them back at the end of the day.
What if we didn’t know if we were ever getting them back? [As an aside, the issue of not knowing if your child is coming back is still alive and unwell for fly-in communities. But, that is not the focus of my talk.]
SLIDES
Disconnect from traditions:
Namely roles of men and women, IPV/Child Abuse
Any lower socioeconomic group of people find themselves with this issue, as well.
Why Am I Poor? First Nations and Child Poverty in Ontario. Best Start Resource Centre, 2012
In some residential schools, the death rate was as high as 75% from disease, starvation and abuse.
The children who survived often had low literacy rates and did not have parenting or life skills.
35% of First Nations adults believed that their parents’ attendance at residential schools negatively affected the parenting they received as children. Additionally, 67% of the adults surveyed believed that their grandparents’ attendance at residential schools affected their parenting skills. (Chiefs of Ontario, 2003)
Considering population size, Aboriginal children in Canada were 5 times more likely to be substantiated for neglect than non-Aboriginal children (Trocmé et al, 2005). In contrast, maltreatment of non-Aboriginal children is most often in the categories of domestic violence, physical abuse or neglect, each occurring in about a third of cases (Trocmé et al, 2006).
A study of 3 sample provinces found 10.23% of status First Nations children in out-of-home care, versus 3.31% of Métis children and 0.67% of other children (Blackstock et al., 2005).
Another study found that Aboriginal children represent 40% of the children in out-of-home care in Canada (Farris Manning & Zandstra, 2003). There are 3 times as many Aboriginal children in child welfare care today than were in residential schools at their peak (Blackstock, 2003).
The high rate of poverty today is linked to the traumas experienced by current and past generations brought about by efforts to colonize and assimilate Aboriginal people in Canada through damaging government policies...it is clear that service providers who understand the impact of these past traumas are more likely to be effective in providing culturally sensitive and appropriate services to their clients.
Dr. Kathleen Kendall-Tackett SLIDE
In a sample of primary care of 35 patients, those who experienced childhood abuse or partner violence in adolescence or adulthood reported twice as many symptoms on a review of systems than their age-matched, non-abused counterparts. They were also more likely to abuse substances and report a wide variety of chronic pain syndromes.
SLIDE
...we do know that women experiencing past or current VAW are at increased risk for depression, PTSD and physical health consequences antenatally and postpartum…Not all women who have experienced past abuse become depressed, end up in unsupportive or abusive relationships, or have difficult relationships with their children. These hopeful signs offer us at least a glimpse of what the perinatal experiences of all abuse survivors could be like. And improving the antenatal and postpartum experiences of women with a history of violence is a goal worth pursuing.
Dr. Karleen Gribble
Breastfeeding requires frequent close physical contact between mother and child and some research has found that breastfeeding women seek greater proximity to their babies. Breastfeeding involves infant-mother skin-to-skin contact which both increases a mother's desire to be with her baby and her sensitivity to her infant. Research has found that the more that babies and mothers are kept together, the greater the impact on the mother in terms of exhibition of responsive caregiving and security of attachment in the child.
Children with a history of relational trauma may experience lifelong difficulties with feeling empathy, trusting others and developing intimate relationships as their internal model of relationships tells them, "Do not let us care too much for anyone. At all costs let us avoid any risk of allowing our hearts to be broken again...”
Therefore, mothers who wish to breastfeed their adopted child are advised to instigate caregiving strategies that will build trust and attachment.
Breastfeeding has the potential to promote the development of the child-maternal attachment relationship in vulnerable adoptive dyads...
SLIDE
However, the impact of breastfeeding as observed in cases of adoption has relevance to all breastfeeding situations and this deserves further investigation. In particular, there may be applicability of the experience of adoptive breastfeeding to other at risk dyads, such as intact families with a history of intergenerational relationship trauma.
SLIDE
The Health Effects of Childhood Abuse: Four Pathways by Which Abuse Can Influence Health. Dr. Kendall-Tackett Child Abuse & Neglect, 6/7, 715-730
Results: Childhood abuse puts people at risk of depression, PTSD, participating in harmful activities, having difficulties in relationships, and having negative and attitudes towards others. Each of these increases the likelihood of health problems, and they are highly related to each other.
Conclusions: Childhood abuse is related to health via a complex of matrix of behavioural, emotional, social and cognitive factors. Health outcomes for adults survivors are unlikely to improve until each of these factors is addressed.
To improve health outcomes for adult survivors, clinicians must consider and address each of the ways by which victimization can influence health. For example, admonitions to abstain from smoking or substance abuse are likely to be unsuccessful until the traumatic past events that are driving these harmful activities are addressed and resolved. Admonitions to exercise will not be helpful if the patient believes that nothing she does makes any difference. Telling a patient to “lose weight” is likely to fail if he has no ability to make and keep friends, and eats when he is lonely or stressed. Recognizing the complexity of the forces that lead to health, clinicians and researchers must strive for an approach that addresses all these pathways. Health outcomes are unlikely to improve if professionals in the child maltreatment field continue in the current mindset of treating mental health and physical health sequelae separately. Only by recognizing, and addressing, all of these underlying factors can we hope to improve the health of adult survivors of childhood abuse.
SLIDE
Children who are breast fed may be more resilient to the stress associated with parental divorce.
Breast feeding may be associated with a variety of exposures and family characteristics that confer
resilience against stress related to parental divorce. Montgomery, S. M., Ehlin, A., & Sacker, A. (2006). Breast feeding and resilience against psychosocial stress. Archives of Diseases of Childhood, 91, 990-994
GAS Slide
George Albert Smith: “You cannot drive people to do things which are right, but you can love them into doing them, if your example is of such a character that they can see you mean what you say.”
Breastfeeding is the original traditional medicine. Help people to trust that. I recently met a family, who has never had a generation that has not been breastfed. Wouldn’t researchers love to study those women! In this day, in these past decades of the media and medical machine of formula marketing, there is a family that has not succumbed to it.
I asked the great-grandmother about how they breastfed in her day. (She is close to 80). She said – I just let the babies tell me when they were hungry. I kept the baby as close as possible at all times. Grandmas, and, aunties and sisters would come over to take care of the new mom so she could take care of the baby. Long term breastfeeding problems were unheard of because moms, and aunties and sisters and grandmas were there to help. Women also grew up always seeing babies at the breast. Men didn’t ask to feed the babies because it wasn’t their role. If men were meant to feed babies, they would have working breasts, too. Breastfeeding also meant babies knew where they were safe, where their centre was. They knew mom was there to take care of them first and foremost.
NEW SLIDE
“Breastfeeding had a positive impact with parenting behaviours regardless of marital status or income level. However, it appeared to be particularly important for single and lower-income mothers, continuing to have a positive effect for these groups when their children were 5 years of age, but not for married and higher-income mothers, or for the sample overall. Conversely, not breastfeeding seemed to have particularly negative consequences for the parenting behaviours of single and lower-income mothers.”
Here are a couple of other quotes, directly from the paper:
P 39,
Breastfeeding is often difficult for new mothers, and in some communities it may be such a rare practice that mothers lack role models or the support of peers. In addition, Bolling et al. (2007) found that while reasons for stopping breastfeeding included insufficient milk, rejection of the breast and pain or discomfort in the first 2 weeks, in later months, return to work became a factor.
Parenting programmes, for example, that focus on skills such as awareness of the needs and feelings of others, including the child, may be particularly useful, especially for those mothers without support of a partner.
40
...parenting of lower income mothers is more vulnerable when they feel less control over their lives, targeting resources at these mothers may be particularly beneficial.
41
Our findings indicate that both who you are and what you do are important in terms of parenting—personal characteristics such as interpersonal sensitivity and education and behaviours such as breastfeeding are significant predictors. Socio-demographics perhaps have less influence than we might expect (only education has independent significance)—the other socio-demographic factors are mediated by the processes such as social networks and post-natal depression. Given this, we can see that there is room for intervention – “what you do” and even personal characteristics are amenable to support if appropriately and sensitively offered.
SLIDE
Maternal Child Health Program
At the September 13 2004 Special Meeting of First Ministers and National Aboriginal Leaders, the Prime Minister announced additional funding for programs that promote the health status of Aboriginal people - one of these programs is the Maternal Child Health program in First Nations communities, on-reserve.
Why are Maternal Child Health Programs important, and how do they differ from other approaches?
In the past, health services in First Nations communities have focussed on treatment and crisis response. MCH takes a more proactive, preventative and strategic approach to promoting good health and preventing disease.
Early experiences are the foundation on which an individual’s life is built. In Canadian and international health systems, MCH programs have been shown to have a positive effect on the participating mother and child’s physical and mental health. In fact, effective MCH programs enhance the physical, psychological, cognitive, and social development of all family members.
Home visiting by nurses and family visitors – a key element of MCH programs – has been linked with improved parenting skills and quality of home environment, improved cognitive development of infants and young children, and the decreased incidence of unintentional injury. These visits have also improved detection and management of postpartum depression, improved rates of breast-feeding, and enhanced quality of social supports to mothers.
Cost-benefit analysis of two long-term home visiting studies, conducted by David Olds of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and his colleagues, indicate that the social and economic benefits of home visiting programs outweigh the costs by a ratio of more than five to one.
Interventions like MCH, that focus on improved reproductive health, prenatal and postpartum services, and early childhood development, present an opportunity to break the cycle of persistent gaps in life chances between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. These kind of approaches are referred to as making strategic ‘upstream’ investments early in a child’s life.
In sum, the MCH program will be community-based, community-driven and community-involving. By building on community-specific cultural knowledge and ways of doing things, it will deliver the culturally appropriate services and supports that community members need, and that they will appreciate and accept.
Case Studies
Monday 8 October 2012
A Day with Braeden, Pirates, and Cymbeline
Braeden loves swords. He has loved swords since before he could walk. He used to sword fight our Malamute's tail when he meandered by him. No one else could do that with Nanuq. Just Braeden.
When I saw Cymbeline with Luke earlier this season, I knew this was a production Braeden had to see. This was not a Braeden would just get a kick out of it production. He needed to see the fight scene.
My mom wanted to help this day be special to us, so she gave us money for rush seats to a matinee. Braeden had to chose between, "Much Ado About Nothing" (which I still have to see) or "Pirates of Penzance." I fell off of my seat when he chose Pirates. I didn't complain, mind you, but I would have bet money that he would have chosen anything but a musical.
I'm a sucker for a man who can...oh nevermind, I repeat myself.
I repeat myself.
I think Braeden eventually enjoyed the show. He didn's sleep much the night before. Do teens ever get enough sleep? To be honest, he did start to nod off, but the Major General song woke him up for good. He was quite impressed with the extra verses regarding Stratfest's 60 years. It was a great moment in the show.
True to form, the men and women sang their hearts out. Amy Wallis is devine. Kyle Blaire gorgeous and perfect as the Slave to Duty Frederick. Sean Arbuckle is quite the sexy Pirate King (up there with the Dread Pirate Roberts and Jack Sparrow). Gabrielle Jones, in my opinion, steals the show, as she does with 42nd Street. She is a force to be reckoned with. Amazing job. What I would give to be able to sing like that - or even closer to that!
The family who sat around us were great. They had 2 small children. The grandmother played Nell in a production (and her husband was a stage hand) in Pirates when they were younger. She sang as we were all leaving and I complimented her. She apologized for it. I have been told far too many times these past years to stop singing - no one will ever be told to stop around me, only complimented. She had a gorgeous voice.
We went to the stage door and talked with new people, Mark Cassius and Kyle Blaire. Mark was in Jesus Christ Superstar. Look him up on twitter - his tweets are always positive influences on my day, without fail. I'm glad I told him so. Life is too short to not give sincere compliments to people.
Kyle Blaire was ever so much taller than I thought he would be. He was so kind to Braeden and I. I made sure to tell him about how much 42nd Street influenced Cordelia with her tap dancing (she now practices her math flash cards, with her tap shoes on...she has me play Stratford's 42nd Street videos off of youtube...when she gets a question correct, she taps to the music....I really need to tape her doing it). I hadn't realized how dreamy Kyle Blaire was before. Perhaps I need to look at and stop just listening?
I will admit that I was high on men singing Saturday afternoon. I remember myself talking about 'men who can sing' ad nauseum...poor people who were listening to me - and Braeden. We made a quick stop at the Exhibition again. The woman working was the same woman from Braeden's birthday trip there. I really have loved, and continue to love, every Stratford employee I have met, on or off the stage. How do they find such treasures?
We meandered around the Festival Theatre Store for a while, where I picked up last year's programme (which Cordelia feasted on, picking out anyone she knew, figuring out what else they were in, finding her favourites - Cara Ricketts and Stephen Patterson). I didn't realize how many shows I missed last year, and how lucky I was this year to see so many. I am so blessed to be in the twitter club, and have generous parents, and win a contest or two. I'm glad my gas is cheap on the rez.
Now, Cymbeline has been built up by me to Braeden since June 9. I'm sure Braeden became sick of me telling him how great it was and how he needed to see this fight scene. I hoped I didn't build it up too high.
It turned out, I didn't build it up enough.
Here's my boy ready for the show:
If you look up "mytimeatlast" on youtube, you will find 2 videos of Braeden from last season, when we saw Titus. My son grew up. He loves to wear suits. He wears one to school every Friday (he sings Barney Stinson's song, too, "Nothing suits me like a suit.")
I'm not sure how to write about my experience at Cymbeline. The production had morphed these past 3 months into a new show. It was the same actors and actresses, but it was a new show to me.
And I, even I who am a sucker for men who can sing, honestly could only say after Cymbeline, "Sean who?" Men singing seemed trivial compared to what I experienced with Cymbeline that night. It was extraordinary. I love musical theatre, I grew up on musical theatre, but that night, it was the beauty and strength of words, of full-hearted acting...I'm not sure how to explain it...
If Christopher Plummer wrote A Word or Two for people to 'get' into language again, to learn and fall in love with words, to expand our minds away from the digital age...this is what he meant. We were all changed by it that night.
I've never experienced anything equal to it. We had the lovely Monique Lund beside us, and hearing her gasp, clap and laugh was great. But it wasn't just her...it was all of us...
All of us in the theatre that night had an experience I wonder if it will ever be repeated. I felt the energy of the audience move up and down...be dangled by a string, and crunched like a bug. Maybe people who go to the theatre more than I have felt it before, but to me, this was a singular experience.
It was magic.
Being the final show, they gave it their all. Cara was phenomenal (a description even the new AD, Antoni Cimolino agreed with when we spoke after the show). I saw a new attack on the language in the play from her, a new power I haven't seen from from her before. She was, like Gabrielle Jones, a force to be reckoned with. I was completely floored. Comparing this to previous Cymbeline and to The Matchmaker - her Innogen was a stunning transformation. She had us all eating out of her hand. I gave her such a huge hug afterwards...
We also spoke with the awesome Josh Epstein. He is a great guy (have I mentioned he can sing, too?). I enjoy talking with him. I can't wait to see "The Matchmaker" again. I forgot his promised treat from me (that's if he reads my blog, if he hasn't read my blog, I owe him nothing teehee). I'll try to remember for my final show of the year on the 25th (Thank you, Mary!). He has great eyes.
I was able to introduce Braeden to a few others that night, too. They were so nice, even with the closing of, not just Cymbeline, but of the Tom Patterson this season. Graham Abbey was great and excited about Braeden getting a part in a local play -
WAIT ! I haven't mentioned that yet!? I'm a terrible mother!!
Braeden and Dakota have parts in a local production, Christmas Truce - 1914, about the peace treaty of Christmas Eve on No Man's Land. They are playing soldiers. I am SO excited and happy for them. I can't wait to see them on stage together.
We also spoke to the ever-incredible John Vickery (who I discussed Art of Time's War of the Worlds as a staged radio play later this month). He's so laid back.
I still have to officially meet Mike Shara. Dang, he is one talented human being.
Plus, when I conjured up enough nerve to introduce myself to Antoni Cimolino, he recognized me from the "Family Experience" videos I was in. I almost fell over. Like I said almost 2 years ago when I was retweeted by Mr. C, I feel as giddy as I was when Bon Jovi retweeted me. I will never meet Jon Bon Jovi, thought, so Mr. C wins.
Braeden was able to keep his hands off of my eyes so I could enjoy the Shirtless Wonders one more time (thank you all). What does it say when shirtless men is at the bottom of the list of my favourite things of the day? It means the actors, director, stage crew, lighting, music melted together into the most perfect night in the theatre I have ever experienced.
While all the shows I saw this season left an impression on me, this was the pinnacle of what theatre should be, at least, should strive to be. While it did not help me see life in a new way (like Wanderlust) nor make me cry because of pure talent (like 42nd Street), nor have me gaga over singing (take your pick), it was the most powerful 3 hours I have seen on stage. Ever.
Nya:weh to everyone involved in this night. As Braeden and I left the Patterson Theatre, coincidentally walking behind the last remaining cast member, Graham Abbey (because our vehicles were parked next to each other), I saw the behind-the-stage crew, who couldn't show up at the bar anytime soon for the drinks. I saw wonderful Marilu (Master Tailor and Cara Rickett's dresser) and her compatriots lugging arms-full of clothes to be washed, hung, packed up (what DO they do with the wardrobe after the closing night? How long will it take to put the into the costume warehouse?).
After the fight scene, I shook Braeden's shoulders like an excited schoolgirl. I dare say the look on his face after that scene was equal to Cordelia's eyes during, "We're in the Money." And I was blessed to experience them with my children.
There were 2 moments on stage which moved me to put my head on Braeden's shoulders in awe of the play, and in love with my son. If those 2 moments are the last I get to snuggle Braeden before he becomes too cool to snuggle his mom, I will be a very happy and content mom. Those moments of love are memories intertwined with our love of theatre and the magic of that night. If this is a taste of what is the future holds for Stratfest under the direction of Mr. Cimolino, it is in very good hands.
THIS is what theatre is about. It made me forget...everything. I was a clean slate coming out, with my heart intact, my head on straight, but together, my soul has been permanently expanded.
When I saw Cymbeline with Luke earlier this season, I knew this was a production Braeden had to see. This was not a Braeden would just get a kick out of it production. He needed to see the fight scene.
My mom wanted to help this day be special to us, so she gave us money for rush seats to a matinee. Braeden had to chose between, "Much Ado About Nothing" (which I still have to see) or "Pirates of Penzance." I fell off of my seat when he chose Pirates. I didn't complain, mind you, but I would have bet money that he would have chosen anything but a musical.
I'm a sucker for a man who can...oh nevermind, I repeat myself.
I repeat myself.
I think Braeden eventually enjoyed the show. He didn's sleep much the night before. Do teens ever get enough sleep? To be honest, he did start to nod off, but the Major General song woke him up for good. He was quite impressed with the extra verses regarding Stratfest's 60 years. It was a great moment in the show.
True to form, the men and women sang their hearts out. Amy Wallis is devine. Kyle Blaire gorgeous and perfect as the Slave to Duty Frederick. Sean Arbuckle is quite the sexy Pirate King (up there with the Dread Pirate Roberts and Jack Sparrow). Gabrielle Jones, in my opinion, steals the show, as she does with 42nd Street. She is a force to be reckoned with. Amazing job. What I would give to be able to sing like that - or even closer to that!
The family who sat around us were great. They had 2 small children. The grandmother played Nell in a production (and her husband was a stage hand) in Pirates when they were younger. She sang as we were all leaving and I complimented her. She apologized for it. I have been told far too many times these past years to stop singing - no one will ever be told to stop around me, only complimented. She had a gorgeous voice.
We went to the stage door and talked with new people, Mark Cassius and Kyle Blaire. Mark was in Jesus Christ Superstar. Look him up on twitter - his tweets are always positive influences on my day, without fail. I'm glad I told him so. Life is too short to not give sincere compliments to people.
Kyle Blaire was ever so much taller than I thought he would be. He was so kind to Braeden and I. I made sure to tell him about how much 42nd Street influenced Cordelia with her tap dancing (she now practices her math flash cards, with her tap shoes on...she has me play Stratford's 42nd Street videos off of youtube...when she gets a question correct, she taps to the music....I really need to tape her doing it). I hadn't realized how dreamy Kyle Blaire was before. Perhaps I need to look at and stop just listening?
I will admit that I was high on men singing Saturday afternoon. I remember myself talking about 'men who can sing' ad nauseum...poor people who were listening to me - and Braeden. We made a quick stop at the Exhibition again. The woman working was the same woman from Braeden's birthday trip there. I really have loved, and continue to love, every Stratford employee I have met, on or off the stage. How do they find such treasures?
We meandered around the Festival Theatre Store for a while, where I picked up last year's programme (which Cordelia feasted on, picking out anyone she knew, figuring out what else they were in, finding her favourites - Cara Ricketts and Stephen Patterson). I didn't realize how many shows I missed last year, and how lucky I was this year to see so many. I am so blessed to be in the twitter club, and have generous parents, and win a contest or two. I'm glad my gas is cheap on the rez.
Now, Cymbeline has been built up by me to Braeden since June 9. I'm sure Braeden became sick of me telling him how great it was and how he needed to see this fight scene. I hoped I didn't build it up too high.
It turned out, I didn't build it up enough.
Here's my boy ready for the show:
If you look up "mytimeatlast" on youtube, you will find 2 videos of Braeden from last season, when we saw Titus. My son grew up. He loves to wear suits. He wears one to school every Friday (he sings Barney Stinson's song, too, "Nothing suits me like a suit.")
I'm not sure how to write about my experience at Cymbeline. The production had morphed these past 3 months into a new show. It was the same actors and actresses, but it was a new show to me.
And I, even I who am a sucker for men who can sing, honestly could only say after Cymbeline, "Sean who?" Men singing seemed trivial compared to what I experienced with Cymbeline that night. It was extraordinary. I love musical theatre, I grew up on musical theatre, but that night, it was the beauty and strength of words, of full-hearted acting...I'm not sure how to explain it...
If Christopher Plummer wrote A Word or Two for people to 'get' into language again, to learn and fall in love with words, to expand our minds away from the digital age...this is what he meant. We were all changed by it that night.
I've never experienced anything equal to it. We had the lovely Monique Lund beside us, and hearing her gasp, clap and laugh was great. But it wasn't just her...it was all of us...
All of us in the theatre that night had an experience I wonder if it will ever be repeated. I felt the energy of the audience move up and down...be dangled by a string, and crunched like a bug. Maybe people who go to the theatre more than I have felt it before, but to me, this was a singular experience.
It was magic.
Being the final show, they gave it their all. Cara was phenomenal (a description even the new AD, Antoni Cimolino agreed with when we spoke after the show). I saw a new attack on the language in the play from her, a new power I haven't seen from from her before. She was, like Gabrielle Jones, a force to be reckoned with. I was completely floored. Comparing this to previous Cymbeline and to The Matchmaker - her Innogen was a stunning transformation. She had us all eating out of her hand. I gave her such a huge hug afterwards...
We also spoke with the awesome Josh Epstein. He is a great guy (have I mentioned he can sing, too?). I enjoy talking with him. I can't wait to see "The Matchmaker" again. I forgot his promised treat from me (that's if he reads my blog, if he hasn't read my blog, I owe him nothing teehee). I'll try to remember for my final show of the year on the 25th (Thank you, Mary!). He has great eyes.
I was able to introduce Braeden to a few others that night, too. They were so nice, even with the closing of, not just Cymbeline, but of the Tom Patterson this season. Graham Abbey was great and excited about Braeden getting a part in a local play -
WAIT ! I haven't mentioned that yet!? I'm a terrible mother!!
Braeden and Dakota have parts in a local production, Christmas Truce - 1914, about the peace treaty of Christmas Eve on No Man's Land. They are playing soldiers. I am SO excited and happy for them. I can't wait to see them on stage together.
We also spoke to the ever-incredible John Vickery (who I discussed Art of Time's War of the Worlds as a staged radio play later this month). He's so laid back.
I still have to officially meet Mike Shara. Dang, he is one talented human being.
Plus, when I conjured up enough nerve to introduce myself to Antoni Cimolino, he recognized me from the "Family Experience" videos I was in. I almost fell over. Like I said almost 2 years ago when I was retweeted by Mr. C, I feel as giddy as I was when Bon Jovi retweeted me. I will never meet Jon Bon Jovi, thought, so Mr. C wins.
Braeden was able to keep his hands off of my eyes so I could enjoy the Shirtless Wonders one more time (thank you all). What does it say when shirtless men is at the bottom of the list of my favourite things of the day? It means the actors, director, stage crew, lighting, music melted together into the most perfect night in the theatre I have ever experienced.
While all the shows I saw this season left an impression on me, this was the pinnacle of what theatre should be, at least, should strive to be. While it did not help me see life in a new way (like Wanderlust) nor make me cry because of pure talent (like 42nd Street), nor have me gaga over singing (take your pick), it was the most powerful 3 hours I have seen on stage. Ever.
Nya:weh to everyone involved in this night. As Braeden and I left the Patterson Theatre, coincidentally walking behind the last remaining cast member, Graham Abbey (because our vehicles were parked next to each other), I saw the behind-the-stage crew, who couldn't show up at the bar anytime soon for the drinks. I saw wonderful Marilu (Master Tailor and Cara Rickett's dresser) and her compatriots lugging arms-full of clothes to be washed, hung, packed up (what DO they do with the wardrobe after the closing night? How long will it take to put the into the costume warehouse?).
After the fight scene, I shook Braeden's shoulders like an excited schoolgirl. I dare say the look on his face after that scene was equal to Cordelia's eyes during, "We're in the Money." And I was blessed to experience them with my children.
There were 2 moments on stage which moved me to put my head on Braeden's shoulders in awe of the play, and in love with my son. If those 2 moments are the last I get to snuggle Braeden before he becomes too cool to snuggle his mom, I will be a very happy and content mom. Those moments of love are memories intertwined with our love of theatre and the magic of that night. If this is a taste of what is the future holds for Stratfest under the direction of Mr. Cimolino, it is in very good hands.
THIS is what theatre is about. It made me forget...everything. I was a clean slate coming out, with my heart intact, my head on straight, but together, my soul has been permanently expanded.
Once more, unto the breach....
I really think this blog is buggered for me. This is try number 3 of writing. I don't like participants in the process of writing - reading after is fine, just don't read over my shoulder, ok?
Because of the last 2-3 weeks, I feel my outlook has been altered for the better. Life tends to do that...theatre as well.
Back on February 29, Stratford had a big ticket deal - $29 for any show playing on the 29th of the month. I bought 2 tickets for the intention of bringing Braeden for a late birthday present. I had no idea it was the closing night (thanks for the heads up, Lisa!).
In the past month, the twitter club also had tickets for Cymbeline, closing night. That was the show I knew Braeden had to see. He had already seen Henry this season, so I gave the ticket to Dakota.
The 29th of September was a busy day for me/us. It was the Breastfeeding Challenge which Lisa Dietrich and I planned for 2 months. It is a day to celebbrate breastfeeding, and take part in a friendly 'challenge' to see how many women can nurse their babies at the same time, 11:00 sharp. We had a magician, Mr Fantastic, booked, my favourite Toronto musician (and great human being) Brian MacMillan play - plus, he brought his wife's cookies (www.newmoonkitchen.com). We had a diaper derby, food, cake...it was to be a full day of speeches about the importance of breastfeeding.
Five minutes before we started, I was told a well-respected, honoured and beloved elder on our reserve died during the night. She was like a grandmother to me - to many of us. She never questioned me if I 'belonged' for which I will always love her. I lost all train of thought, and any itinerary we had kind of went out the window. The magic, music, and breastfeeding were great, but my mind just couldn't keep track of things. While it was a success, I'd say, the end result wasn't what I envisioned. We did have a lively group of 11 moms/babies happily nurse away at 11 sharp. We even had a mom travel from London to take part (her husband said he'd clean house while she and baby were gone - what a great guy!).
We packed up early, so the family and I came home to change and get ready for the rest of the day in Stratford.
Dakota and I arrived nice and early for the show. He forgot his coat, and it was a chilly, drizzly day, so we stuck to the Festival Theatre, which was fine because there was a craft fair going on. We learned about where to buy chain mail for Braeden from a woman who made beautiful glass and gold jewellry.
We bought a sample pack of perfumes made by Claire Lautier - she is so talented, gorgeous, and giving. (www.grasseroots.com) Her perfumes are 100% natural and botanical perfumes. They smell divine, and don't lead to headaches due to scent irritation. So far, Geisha is my favourite, but she has one that smells like chocolate, too. And, she can custom make a perfume for you or your loved one, or as a wedding present (that's what the midwives and I are doing for a 4th year midwifery student who is getting married in December).
While speaking with Claire at her booth, Sean Arbuckle stopped by to say hi to her. I had no idea they went to Julliard and Duke together. I'm glad I didn't say or do anything stupid before I knew that (roll eyes). He really does have such lovely blue eyes, though...
After talking with Claire, we spoke for a long time with a local Stratford photographer, whose husband does the IT for Stratfest. I can't locate her card right now. I hope Dakota still has it. She sold beautiful wildlife photos. They were so lifelike. We all spoke about Dakota being the photographer for his high school football team, and that he was thinking about taking journalism and photography in post-secondary.
While we were sharing stories, the most incredible sites came into view...
Have you ever seen the exact end of a rainbow, of a double rainbow? There was no gold at the end. It was the Stratford Festival Theatre. Good enough for me.
Walking up to the lounge, and past the box office, I took a quick double look and stopped in my tracks. I couldn't believe who I was seeing. After a year or so of emailing with questions from the kids and I, Dakota and I finally met the gorgeous Dion Johnstone. It was like finally meeting a penpal for me. But for Dakota, he was excited to meet Dion because he was on Stargate. Dak now has some celebrity status (again) at school for this picture:
Dakota's eyes, like Braeden's in a previous post, just pop - especially with that shirt. What a picture of two beautiful men. Dakota actually got a text, a post, and an email from a girl that said over and over, "I hate you." She was slightly jealous. Teenage girls...
One last time to Henry V ... and it was fabulous. It's funny that I could see staging changes in the show (I liked it best when Nell and Pistol said good-bye in the aisle).
Permit me this joke, once more - a breach means something very different to a midwife...
This was the first time I had seen a Stratfest play 4 times. Reading and tweeting the funny Reid Vanier (distant relative to THE Vanier's - look up the Vanier Institute) made the show (and the Olympics) enjoyable throughout the season. But, there was something more about this play. Something which I still haven't been able to explain why or what.
During intermission, we ran into Ken James Stewart again. He is so sweet. I thanked him again for being so nice to Braeden on his birthday, with regards to the programme. I gave him the prize Kevin Yee won (naming the musical where "I enjoy being a girl" is from - Flower Drum Song). Kevin was at the show, but I didn't feel like stalking anyone.
The prize, which I regret not taking a picture of, was a single ceramic tile which I painted yellow and black, like Charlie Brown's shirt. The first time we saw Charlie Brown was way back in May, while I was working as part of a traditional teaching about puberty camp, held at a Tim Horton's Camp. Painting the tiles was an activity we did on Saturday, after I got back from seeing Charlie Brown with the kids. I knew I was going to give it away when I made it, I just didn't know to whom until a few days before we saw Henry. It seemed like a perfect gift for Kevin. I'm glad he liked it.
Our seats for Henry were 4th row, very stage left. It was a new perspective of the show, to say the least. We missed Falstaff in bed. Dak missed Pistol's (Swooney Rooney) finger pointing at Fluellen - a very funny spot in the show. Explaining it to Dakota took the funny out of it. And, as a mom, our seat location meant he did not see any of the naked Kate (a fact his girlfriend was quite happy for, as well).
I'll miss the gorgeous flags...
Sitting there, we also heard the roof of the Festival Theatre make strange new noises. It turned out to be crew members moving up there, getting the rigging ready for Bardolph's hanging (which is a site I won't be missing).
Leaving the theatre that night, I felt odd, out of sorts. I realized that I was missing the play. Missing the play like I missed a friend who moved away. The play will be back at some point, I'm sure, but it won't be the same.
I still miss it. I miss Ben Carlson's Fluellan - he spoke in such an accent, at such speed, that I had to look up his lines at home. I now find it increasingly difficult to read any Shakespeare and not hear Ben C speak. I miss Claire's Queen Isobel of France. Dang, Claire can play a witch really well. It's such the opposite to the woman I spoke with. I really miss the love between Pistol and Nell, the broken French/English between Kate and Henry.
I saw Lucy Peacock after Pirates yesterday and told her my feelings. I really am going to miss Nell. Lucy played a great Nell.
I know I'll see Henry V at some point in the future. An honest question: what will I have to do to watch a new production and not compare it to this one? I'm at a loss. May it be years and years away...
Because of the last 2-3 weeks, I feel my outlook has been altered for the better. Life tends to do that...theatre as well.
Back on February 29, Stratford had a big ticket deal - $29 for any show playing on the 29th of the month. I bought 2 tickets for the intention of bringing Braeden for a late birthday present. I had no idea it was the closing night (thanks for the heads up, Lisa!).
In the past month, the twitter club also had tickets for Cymbeline, closing night. That was the show I knew Braeden had to see. He had already seen Henry this season, so I gave the ticket to Dakota.
The 29th of September was a busy day for me/us. It was the Breastfeeding Challenge which Lisa Dietrich and I planned for 2 months. It is a day to celebbrate breastfeeding, and take part in a friendly 'challenge' to see how many women can nurse their babies at the same time, 11:00 sharp. We had a magician, Mr Fantastic, booked, my favourite Toronto musician (and great human being) Brian MacMillan play - plus, he brought his wife's cookies (www.newmoonkitchen.com). We had a diaper derby, food, cake...it was to be a full day of speeches about the importance of breastfeeding.
Five minutes before we started, I was told a well-respected, honoured and beloved elder on our reserve died during the night. She was like a grandmother to me - to many of us. She never questioned me if I 'belonged' for which I will always love her. I lost all train of thought, and any itinerary we had kind of went out the window. The magic, music, and breastfeeding were great, but my mind just couldn't keep track of things. While it was a success, I'd say, the end result wasn't what I envisioned. We did have a lively group of 11 moms/babies happily nurse away at 11 sharp. We even had a mom travel from London to take part (her husband said he'd clean house while she and baby were gone - what a great guy!).
We packed up early, so the family and I came home to change and get ready for the rest of the day in Stratford.
Dakota and I arrived nice and early for the show. He forgot his coat, and it was a chilly, drizzly day, so we stuck to the Festival Theatre, which was fine because there was a craft fair going on. We learned about where to buy chain mail for Braeden from a woman who made beautiful glass and gold jewellry.
We bought a sample pack of perfumes made by Claire Lautier - she is so talented, gorgeous, and giving. (www.grasseroots.com) Her perfumes are 100% natural and botanical perfumes. They smell divine, and don't lead to headaches due to scent irritation. So far, Geisha is my favourite, but she has one that smells like chocolate, too. And, she can custom make a perfume for you or your loved one, or as a wedding present (that's what the midwives and I are doing for a 4th year midwifery student who is getting married in December).
While speaking with Claire at her booth, Sean Arbuckle stopped by to say hi to her. I had no idea they went to Julliard and Duke together. I'm glad I didn't say or do anything stupid before I knew that (roll eyes). He really does have such lovely blue eyes, though...
After talking with Claire, we spoke for a long time with a local Stratford photographer, whose husband does the IT for Stratfest. I can't locate her card right now. I hope Dakota still has it. She sold beautiful wildlife photos. They were so lifelike. We all spoke about Dakota being the photographer for his high school football team, and that he was thinking about taking journalism and photography in post-secondary.
While we were sharing stories, the most incredible sites came into view...
Have you ever seen the exact end of a rainbow, of a double rainbow? There was no gold at the end. It was the Stratford Festival Theatre. Good enough for me.
Walking up to the lounge, and past the box office, I took a quick double look and stopped in my tracks. I couldn't believe who I was seeing. After a year or so of emailing with questions from the kids and I, Dakota and I finally met the gorgeous Dion Johnstone. It was like finally meeting a penpal for me. But for Dakota, he was excited to meet Dion because he was on Stargate. Dak now has some celebrity status (again) at school for this picture:
One last time to Henry V ... and it was fabulous. It's funny that I could see staging changes in the show (I liked it best when Nell and Pistol said good-bye in the aisle).
Permit me this joke, once more - a breach means something very different to a midwife...
This was the first time I had seen a Stratfest play 4 times. Reading and tweeting the funny Reid Vanier (distant relative to THE Vanier's - look up the Vanier Institute) made the show (and the Olympics) enjoyable throughout the season. But, there was something more about this play. Something which I still haven't been able to explain why or what.
During intermission, we ran into Ken James Stewart again. He is so sweet. I thanked him again for being so nice to Braeden on his birthday, with regards to the programme. I gave him the prize Kevin Yee won (naming the musical where "I enjoy being a girl" is from - Flower Drum Song). Kevin was at the show, but I didn't feel like stalking anyone.
The prize, which I regret not taking a picture of, was a single ceramic tile which I painted yellow and black, like Charlie Brown's shirt. The first time we saw Charlie Brown was way back in May, while I was working as part of a traditional teaching about puberty camp, held at a Tim Horton's Camp. Painting the tiles was an activity we did on Saturday, after I got back from seeing Charlie Brown with the kids. I knew I was going to give it away when I made it, I just didn't know to whom until a few days before we saw Henry. It seemed like a perfect gift for Kevin. I'm glad he liked it.
Our seats for Henry were 4th row, very stage left. It was a new perspective of the show, to say the least. We missed Falstaff in bed. Dak missed Pistol's (Swooney Rooney) finger pointing at Fluellen - a very funny spot in the show. Explaining it to Dakota took the funny out of it. And, as a mom, our seat location meant he did not see any of the naked Kate (a fact his girlfriend was quite happy for, as well).
I'll miss the gorgeous flags...
Sitting there, we also heard the roof of the Festival Theatre make strange new noises. It turned out to be crew members moving up there, getting the rigging ready for Bardolph's hanging (which is a site I won't be missing).
Leaving the theatre that night, I felt odd, out of sorts. I realized that I was missing the play. Missing the play like I missed a friend who moved away. The play will be back at some point, I'm sure, but it won't be the same.
I still miss it. I miss Ben Carlson's Fluellan - he spoke in such an accent, at such speed, that I had to look up his lines at home. I now find it increasingly difficult to read any Shakespeare and not hear Ben C speak. I miss Claire's Queen Isobel of France. Dang, Claire can play a witch really well. It's such the opposite to the woman I spoke with. I really miss the love between Pistol and Nell, the broken French/English between Kate and Henry.
I saw Lucy Peacock after Pirates yesterday and told her my feelings. I really am going to miss Nell. Lucy played a great Nell.
I know I'll see Henry V at some point in the future. An honest question: what will I have to do to watch a new production and not compare it to this one? I'm at a loss. May it be years and years away...
Tuesday 25 September 2012
Walls of our choosing, or built by someone else?
Say what you will, but I went to Stratford without my family knowing on Friday. It wasn't really that I meant it as a secret. The eldest were at a dance in Brampton and the younglings were being taken care of at home. I was in London (Ontario) for a 4 day birth and breastfeeding conference (another tale for a different blog) and had a great night to myself.
As per usual, and I know most moms would agree, all hell broke loose at home the first night of the conference. Why do families do that to those who are out of the home? I'm sure it isn't on purpose, but what is a mom to do 100 kms away, run home to fix it?!
Theatre therapy couldn't have come at a better moment for me.
The show of choice was Wanderlust. http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16136&prodid=41239 I loved it, thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm sure if it didn't kick me so hard in the gut, I would be singing its praise even louder. There are only 2 shows left. I'm kind of glad I only saw it once.
Leaving my personal reasoning behind, this show is exceptionally well done - from the men AND women singing, to the gorgeous costumes, lighting design (I love the flying bird and the snow), and choreography - it was damn near perfect. Hmmm I'm not quite sure what would have made it perfect. More Lucy Peacock perhaps? I don't know...
It probably was perfect...
To get it out now - at one point, there were 7 men singing on stage. Happy Snoopy Dance...
Then, there was Robin Hutton (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16287&prodid=41239&id2=6367) and Lucy Peacock . They have distinctly different voices. Robin, and perhaps it was just because of her character, sings like an angel. Lucy Peacock sings like she should be singing the really good old jazz - singing from her soul. I think she stole the show. She was sexy, provocative, made a great drunk, and SINGS! I know I've posted this link before, but here is a quick mix of the songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbnmMB_LUwc These 2 incredibly talented women are why I don't want a woman to sing to me on my birthday next year. I'm far too jealous.
Tom Rooney made me swoon...maybe I'll nickname him Swooney Rooney? [bad joke, sorry]
Now, the part of the story I want to talk about, the one that kicked me in the gut, was a scene between Lou and Robert. Their discussion was whether living in a 'cage' is palatable since if it was chosen by the person, compared to having someone else build one for you. Lou was deciding on whom to marry, fully understanding the consequences of it.
This made me reflect on an article written by Kevin Yee (Linus in Charlie Brown, and in the male chorus, I guess you could say, in Wanderlust).
Before I go further, read this article Kevin wrote: Boy, band, bust. My heart broke/breaks when I read this article, mostly this part:
But music was not the main concern for the group’s management; marketability was, and I was their main target. One day our manager walked me into the offices of our record label for a closed-door meeting with the head executives. I was told that if I wanted to be a star I would have to do a few things. Translation: change everything.
“You’re coming off gay. It’s okay if you are, but we’re selling this band to teenaged girls. They’re the ones spending money. The success of this group is contingent on these girls having a crush on you, so you have to act like you like them.” What does it mean to act more straight? “Well, let’s start with the way you walk. You walk very gay, and we need to fix that.” So the lessons began. We would walk up and down the aisles of a grocery store practising my “straight walk.” Said “straight walk” is best described as a slow lurching limp, a far cry from my superb balletic posture.
“We need to make you look . . . well . . . not so . . . you.” With that I was sent off to get my hair spiked and bleached white. A few piercings and a fake tan and I no longer looked like me; I looked like a rebellious sea monkey.
Kevin was 15 when this happened. FIFTEEN! What a horrendous thing to say to a child, to a teenager who just by being a teen boy means feeling ill-equipped to fit into an ever changing body and mentality. Add to that, being a 15 year old gay teenager, who had to look like a 'rebellious sea monkey" to be in the band.
How does one begin to wrap their head around that?
What I was thinking was whether it was Kevin's choice to be okay to 'straight walk' in order to be in the band (his walls), or it was it the record company's force which built the walls? I know I'm harping on his age (I have a 15 year old son), but can a 15 year old boy really understand the consequences? Either way, it must have been horrible to act as someone/something you are not.
It was deplorable of the record company to demand such a life change of Kevin.
As a straight female I can say Kevin Yee was a sexy beast on stage in Wanderlust. Learning to "act straight" paid off for him here, but at what consequence to those years between 15 and 18?
The day he came out must have been the most liberating moments of his life. He said:
When the band ended three years later, the first thing I did was come out of the closet. I was sick of pretending to be someone else and wanted to be happy. I gave up on the music industry. If they couldn’t appreciate who I was, then I wasn’t interested.
As for me, I have walls, a full cage, built up around me - but not of my own choosing, at first. It wiggled, and slithered around me over the past 15 or so years until it started to choke the life, my inner-voice, the essence of 'me', out of me. There have been parts of me locked away. I know that I have agreed to a wall or two in order to keep the peace, but others were slowly built around me like slow-drying cement (if there is such a thing).
I've worked hard over the past couple of years to be heard. The cage, once sound proof and double locked, now has dozens of holes which were kicked, punched, and head-butted out by me. Plus, I found the keys. These breathing holes mean the world to me.
What made these holes? Stratford, my kids' theatre productions, Art of Time Ensemble, art galleries, the Barenaked Ladies cruise, old time jazz, counselling, prayer...
It took Wanderlust to smack me in the head and yell, "WAKE UP, STUPID!"
Although I'm not dealing with homosexuality, I'm dealing with the constraints of a life where patience and hope have been demanded and expected of me. I have done things, agreed to some things, not to others, which some people have told me to do to keep status quo to allow others time to heal. I'm at the point in my life where I know this must stop. I want to be happy with my choices, like Kevin was/is with his.
And if I will still have walls, they will be built by me. Good luck to whoever tries to break them down.
I've been thinking about this seriously for the past 2 or 3 months, a much shorter time than others may think.
Hearing Lou and Robert speak of her decision, about agreeing and therefore being in control of her own borders, or about relinquishing and giving the control to others - even though the physical outcome may be the same was hard for me to swallow. What she says is so true. The decision to speak up for your own heart comes at a cost...but what a pay-off!
Going against your intuition is self-defeating.
Time to burst out of my cage.
As per usual, and I know most moms would agree, all hell broke loose at home the first night of the conference. Why do families do that to those who are out of the home? I'm sure it isn't on purpose, but what is a mom to do 100 kms away, run home to fix it?!
Theatre therapy couldn't have come at a better moment for me.
The show of choice was Wanderlust. http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16136&prodid=41239 I loved it, thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm sure if it didn't kick me so hard in the gut, I would be singing its praise even louder. There are only 2 shows left. I'm kind of glad I only saw it once.
Leaving my personal reasoning behind, this show is exceptionally well done - from the men AND women singing, to the gorgeous costumes, lighting design (I love the flying bird and the snow), and choreography - it was damn near perfect. Hmmm I'm not quite sure what would have made it perfect. More Lucy Peacock perhaps? I don't know...
It probably was perfect...
To get it out now - at one point, there were 7 men singing on stage. Happy Snoopy Dance...
Then, there was Robin Hutton (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16287&prodid=41239&id2=6367) and Lucy Peacock . They have distinctly different voices. Robin, and perhaps it was just because of her character, sings like an angel. Lucy Peacock sings like she should be singing the really good old jazz - singing from her soul. I think she stole the show. She was sexy, provocative, made a great drunk, and SINGS! I know I've posted this link before, but here is a quick mix of the songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbnmMB_LUwc These 2 incredibly talented women are why I don't want a woman to sing to me on my birthday next year. I'm far too jealous.
Tom Rooney made me swoon...maybe I'll nickname him Swooney Rooney? [bad joke, sorry]
Now, the part of the story I want to talk about, the one that kicked me in the gut, was a scene between Lou and Robert. Their discussion was whether living in a 'cage' is palatable since if it was chosen by the person, compared to having someone else build one for you. Lou was deciding on whom to marry, fully understanding the consequences of it.
This made me reflect on an article written by Kevin Yee (Linus in Charlie Brown, and in the male chorus, I guess you could say, in Wanderlust).
Before I go further, read this article Kevin wrote: Boy, band, bust. My heart broke/breaks when I read this article, mostly this part:
But music was not the main concern for the group’s management; marketability was, and I was their main target. One day our manager walked me into the offices of our record label for a closed-door meeting with the head executives. I was told that if I wanted to be a star I would have to do a few things. Translation: change everything.
“You’re coming off gay. It’s okay if you are, but we’re selling this band to teenaged girls. They’re the ones spending money. The success of this group is contingent on these girls having a crush on you, so you have to act like you like them.” What does it mean to act more straight? “Well, let’s start with the way you walk. You walk very gay, and we need to fix that.” So the lessons began. We would walk up and down the aisles of a grocery store practising my “straight walk.” Said “straight walk” is best described as a slow lurching limp, a far cry from my superb balletic posture.
“We need to make you look . . . well . . . not so . . . you.” With that I was sent off to get my hair spiked and bleached white. A few piercings and a fake tan and I no longer looked like me; I looked like a rebellious sea monkey.
Kevin was 15 when this happened. FIFTEEN! What a horrendous thing to say to a child, to a teenager who just by being a teen boy means feeling ill-equipped to fit into an ever changing body and mentality. Add to that, being a 15 year old gay teenager, who had to look like a 'rebellious sea monkey" to be in the band.
How does one begin to wrap their head around that?
What I was thinking was whether it was Kevin's choice to be okay to 'straight walk' in order to be in the band (his walls), or it was it the record company's force which built the walls? I know I'm harping on his age (I have a 15 year old son), but can a 15 year old boy really understand the consequences? Either way, it must have been horrible to act as someone/something you are not.
It was deplorable of the record company to demand such a life change of Kevin.
As a straight female I can say Kevin Yee was a sexy beast on stage in Wanderlust. Learning to "act straight" paid off for him here, but at what consequence to those years between 15 and 18?
The day he came out must have been the most liberating moments of his life. He said:
When the band ended three years later, the first thing I did was come out of the closet. I was sick of pretending to be someone else and wanted to be happy. I gave up on the music industry. If they couldn’t appreciate who I was, then I wasn’t interested.
As for me, I have walls, a full cage, built up around me - but not of my own choosing, at first. It wiggled, and slithered around me over the past 15 or so years until it started to choke the life, my inner-voice, the essence of 'me', out of me. There have been parts of me locked away. I know that I have agreed to a wall or two in order to keep the peace, but others were slowly built around me like slow-drying cement (if there is such a thing).
I've worked hard over the past couple of years to be heard. The cage, once sound proof and double locked, now has dozens of holes which were kicked, punched, and head-butted out by me. Plus, I found the keys. These breathing holes mean the world to me.
What made these holes? Stratford, my kids' theatre productions, Art of Time Ensemble, art galleries, the Barenaked Ladies cruise, old time jazz, counselling, prayer...
It took Wanderlust to smack me in the head and yell, "WAKE UP, STUPID!"
Although I'm not dealing with homosexuality, I'm dealing with the constraints of a life where patience and hope have been demanded and expected of me. I have done things, agreed to some things, not to others, which some people have told me to do to keep status quo to allow others time to heal. I'm at the point in my life where I know this must stop. I want to be happy with my choices, like Kevin was/is with his.
And if I will still have walls, they will be built by me. Good luck to whoever tries to break them down.
I've been thinking about this seriously for the past 2 or 3 months, a much shorter time than others may think.
Hearing Lou and Robert speak of her decision, about agreeing and therefore being in control of her own borders, or about relinquishing and giving the control to others - even though the physical outcome may be the same was hard for me to swallow. What she says is so true. The decision to speak up for your own heart comes at a cost...but what a pay-off!
Going against your intuition is self-defeating.
Time to burst out of my cage.
Saturday 15 September 2012
Happiness is....
I've been ruminating about this post for a while. Not that today was fully planned, but because of what this time of year represents. Maybe I'll go back in time, and glaze over what has happened in the 12 months (longer than that, but 12 will do). I think with this backstory, you will be able to understand what today meant to my Braeden. I am not looking for sympathy. I'm not asking for pity. It's part of the fabric of our lives. Probably a seminal event in our lives. I've re-written the beginning of this blog more than any other.
To start:
Happy birthday, Braeden! He turns 15 today, September 15.
I don't remember last year's birthday too well. We were still working out back to school routines. The younglings and I went for walks along the river/creek in Waterford. I took LOTS of pictures.
It's not one of my best, but it is a beautiful pond in Waterford. We love that place.
The younglings had just finished "Star Wars." Luke was Luke Skywalker and Cordelia was R2-D2. Around this time last year, the ever wonderful Artistic Director of Town Hall Kids Claire Senko wrote to ask if they would like to come back and to a couple of shows for the local schools. They were quite excited to relive the experience.
There was a member of Jeff's family who was on the waiting list for hospice care. Out of respect for his family, I won't delve into details. It was a painful time for everyone.
There were also mental health issues, but again, I won't go into details. To say we were living off adrenaline and prayers would be accurate.
On a gorgeous September 28th morning, with fall starting to show and fragrant the air, my status that morning was a line from Bon Jovi's Lost Highway CD; a song called `Whole Lot of Leaving,` ... It`s pretty cool for late September. The autumn wind is creeping in. The summer sun packed up, it`s long gone. There`s a whole lot of leaving going on.`
On September 28, our lives changed due to a house fire. We lost 99% of what we owned - clothes, furniture, appliances, toys, books, you name it. Luckily, our neighbour across the street was a retired firefighter. He broke in and saved our bunny and dog. That night, Stratfest posted a pic of a rainbow for us on their twitter account (I was supposed to see Twelfth Night 2 days from then, and let them know I had to give my tickets away).
I know we gained more from the fire than we lost. I cried more from the compassion people showed us than anything. What we lost, mostly, are just physical, tangible objects which would trigger memories. Those memories are always with us...we just need to dig deeper to find them now. Everyone was able to save at least 1 important item, maybe 2, from the house (me: Christopher Plummer book inscribed to Cordelia, but mouldy and smoky, plus a treasure box from out west).
What Cordelia worried about, after her bunny, was her shoes. I said we would buy more. She said, "NO! Not my R2-D2 shoes!" My little girl who lost all her stuffies (and have been replaced and them some by the kindness of friends, neighbours, co-workers, strangers) was worried that the show, her part of the show, wouldn't go on because her R2D2 shoes were gone. She told Firefighter Scott about her feelings. Firefighter Scott had a hard time keeping himself together, probably as much as we all did.
You see, Firefighter Scott has been in the kids' school as long as they have been there for fire safety week. Firefighter Scott is also Claire Senko's husband. He really knew our younglings. [He gave Cordelia a big stuffy bear, with whom Cordelia is still sleeping every night.]
I don't want to dwell here - just know that we were taken care of by angels - physical, actual angels, whether we felt worthy or not. I don't know who all were praying for us to be 'ok' and be taken care of, but thank you. Your prayers were answered. We were blessed 10-fold compared to what we lost. I am ever grateful, and will never be able to repay the donations, the hugs, the smiles, the...the love and compassion was beyond anything I have ever experienced. To this day, I cry more over this than anything else.
A certain passage kept coming into my head in the days after. I learned it in grade 9 english. It's from A Merchant of Venice: "The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest. It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes."
Takes. I hadn't had much experience in the 'taking' side of the equation before. My mom, then my dad, gave hours and hours, years really, of volunteer service. I try my best to follow in their footsteps.
You don't know how deep a thank you goes until you see, and take, love in various forms after an incident like this. I understood what saying, "thank you from the bottom of my heart" meant - because I was truly "at" the bottom of my heart. They were the ones who filled my heart back up. And, I thank you. Nya:weh. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the donations (including money, the house to sleep in/eat in/find comfort and love in, food to eat, clothes to wear, favourite stuffies as gifts, furniture, appliances...) thank you for filling my heart, and eventually my home, up again.
You're a good man...and woman...(there's a reason I use this line, so forgive me for not using plurals)
It's funny how after the worst day of your life, an "ok" day seems like heaven, an "ok" mood is fantastic! Never take an ok or an off day for granted. Be happy and excited for life, because it could be ever so much worse.
Focusing on the Star Wars play was what the kids needed. Theatre really is family. We found shoes acceptable for Cordelia to wear, and a new Jedi costume for Luke. Walmart had given the kids new toys - the boys received light-up polycarbonate lightsabers - which looked AWESOME on stage for the play. And they work great as nightlights, too.
Then, there was Stratford. After hearing about the fire, they offered tickets for a show to us. We chose Camelot. It was perfect - it helped us escape our (if possible) worst week, the first week of October.
If you have read my blog before, you'll know that I find solace in theatre. That night, my kids all learned the same lesson. Camelot brought us out of our suffering, and our "oh, YOU'RE the family who had the fire". We went to Stratford and no one knew us. We could just be us again. I don't remember any fighting. [It was a first date for Dakota and Amanda, seeing as we found ourselves with a spare ticket.]
I cried so much during that show. I needed to get out the emotions, yes. But it wasn't that at all. It was seeing my children's faces light up, their eyes actually light up with happiness again. The magic of theatre and Camelot changed them before my own eyes. I didn't think I'd see them like that again for a long, long time.
Lisa arranged for us to meet a cast member at the stage door. We were quite excited! Not only did we meet Sir Lancelot (the wonderful human being named Jonathan Winsby) but we were given a backstage tour of the Festival Theatre, too. I nearly passed out - I never dreamed of ever getting backstage there in my life. Dakota will never be able to surpass this first date. Ever.
That night was a turning point for us. I think we all purged our negativity because of our friend, our new friend, and the magic of theatre. It bonded us, gave us hope, and made us feel loved.
A few weeks later, a dear friend, who was like a sister to me (and that's saying something because I don't have a sister), died suddenly from sepsis. Three hours later, Jeff's dad finally was able to enter the next life, pain-free at last. Our new place flooded. Twice. And, we had to buy a new car. Last autumn was tough.
But, the kids and I had Camelot to escape to. It was our happy place. We could dig in our brains, and hearts, and remember a time when we felt no pain, even if for a few hours. I changed my twitter avatar pic to the lights along the sidewalk of the Festival Theatre. It still is.
And people ask me why I go to Stratford....
Sitting here typing, I see Luke, Luke in Star Wars play and I hear Princess Leia say, "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You're our only hope." Sir Alec Guinness as Obi Wan...Alec Guinness at Richard III - opening season of Stratford...back to 2012.
That's what he wore in Richard III.
Life is one big circle, isn't it?
The night I started this blog was September 15, 2012. Braeden's 15th birthday. We hadn't ordered a cake, so I made my secret recipe, from scratch, vanilla chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.
After his pan-birthday cake, we left for Stratford. It's funny - Braeden turned 15, on the 15th, and tickets for Charlie Brown were $15. The stars lined up for us today, I guess.
When Dakota and I were at Hirsch, Ken James Stewart sat in the row in front of us. He plays Charlie Brown (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232&id2=16449). I, of course being the ...ummmm outgoing (some may say annoying) person that I am, talked with him about how much we loved the show and Stratford. I mentioned that Braeden picked Charlie Brown as a birthday gift, and asked if we could see him at the stage door after. He was kind enough to say yes. I also wrote the most excellent Kevin Yee, who plays Linus (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232&id2=16462) to ask if he wouldn't mind meeting us, too. He said yes.
Before the show, we went to the Stratford Exhibition. I've mentioned before how much I love this place, right? Being a history major and lover of all things Stratfest, this place is heaven for me. All I need is a baby to deliver or a mom to help breastfeed, and it would be perfect. [There was birth and breastfeeding in Grapes of Wrath....]
We had a fantastic new tour guide, Marlene. She told us the Stratfest story in a whole new light. I learned so much! She was great with the kids, and the adults...just a wealth of knowledge. We all loved it.
That's the birthday boy, ready to audition for Elder Price in the Book of Mormon. Look at those eyes! They are just popping-out blue! This is the son who loves swords. And writes in Elvish. He's very cool like that.
We meandered through the Exhibits, learning and relearning stories of the past and future. I hope the future of theatre does not include the doing-away of the maquettes. That would be a crime.
Dakota, who has taken drama and been in a few productions in his high school, finally decided what he wants to learn about - the tech side, lighting especially. I guess it's time for me to meet some of them now and get Dakota informed.
We had incredible talks with Dr. Francesca Marini, the Archives Director. I love her! And there was an incredible man we spoke to, but I failed to get his name. Someone please let me know? He was in the band "X" in the 80's. He was quite amazing. Plus, he knows someone from Lord of the Rings... I thought that would make Braeden's day, but no. I even had a surprise...
We ran into dear, wonderful Bruce at the Avon Theatre Store. He makes the store such a happy place. We didn't get a chance to speak long, but it was nice while it lasted.
Cordelia finally was given a Shakespeare finger puppet. So, while waiting for the doors to open, she put on a show for the birthday boy:
I also love these pictures of Dakota and Luke:
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown was even better this time around. I don't know how actors do it, keep improving a show. That's why they are the actors and I am in the seats, I suppose. But I like it! That's my new philosophy. [< a song from the show]
I wish Stratford would let me take pictures of the kids during a show. I'll be good, I promise! [I know it won't happen lol] The looks on their faces - that extra brightness in their eyes... It was like Camelot all over again. Maybe we should just nickname Stratford Camelot?
I cried in my usual places (little red headed girl, Happiness is...) plus, opening number. That was new. I can't recall the line right now, though...very near the beginning, said by Charlie Brown.
Snoopy, Stephen Patterson (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232&id2=6378) and "Suppertime" still steals the show. Holy moly! I know a few kids read this, but dang - who knew Snoopy could be sexy? I'm probably old enough to almost be most of the cast's mother (or aunt?), but .... wait for it .... I love a man who can sing! sigh... Stephen Patterson is a very nice man, too. We have spoken with him before. He and his wife make a beautiful couple (and can she SING, too!)
[By the way, I'm serious - I would love a man to sing to me on my birthday in April. A man, because hearing a woman sing would make me far too jealous of her talent. Last year, I had to settle for youtubing my favourite male singers, including Stratford people. Singing over the phone is quite acceptable. Or facetiming. Song is your choice :-)]
After the show, we made our way to the stage door:
Aren't they beautiful? I'm kind of biased...
It was pure joy to finally meet Kevin Yee. He is someone to follow on twitter, or facebook, or youtube. He puts a smile on my face. He was so sweet to the padawans and younglings and me. He didn't call me annoying. Yay! Or is he that good of an actor? Uh oh...
When Ken James Stewart came out, Braeden was in for a big surprise: The cast signed a programme for him! LOOK!!!
I had mentioned to both Kevin and Ken that Braeden was the boy in the kids REact video who says "fantazmazing". Have you seen it? Kids REact Video Braeden loves suits. He wears them every Friday to school. His principal had to borrow his tie for the yearbook photo.
Honestly, Braeden's eyes were as if he touched a LoTR sword. He is still ecstatic. Nya:weh to Ken for thinking of doing this and following it through with the rest of the cast. I owe ya!
To start:
Happy birthday, Braeden! He turns 15 today, September 15.
I don't remember last year's birthday too well. We were still working out back to school routines. The younglings and I went for walks along the river/creek in Waterford. I took LOTS of pictures.
The younglings had just finished "Star Wars." Luke was Luke Skywalker and Cordelia was R2-D2. Around this time last year, the ever wonderful Artistic Director of Town Hall Kids Claire Senko wrote to ask if they would like to come back and to a couple of shows for the local schools. They were quite excited to relive the experience.
There was a member of Jeff's family who was on the waiting list for hospice care. Out of respect for his family, I won't delve into details. It was a painful time for everyone.
There were also mental health issues, but again, I won't go into details. To say we were living off adrenaline and prayers would be accurate.
On a gorgeous September 28th morning, with fall starting to show and fragrant the air, my status that morning was a line from Bon Jovi's Lost Highway CD; a song called `Whole Lot of Leaving,` ... It`s pretty cool for late September. The autumn wind is creeping in. The summer sun packed up, it`s long gone. There`s a whole lot of leaving going on.`
On September 28, our lives changed due to a house fire. We lost 99% of what we owned - clothes, furniture, appliances, toys, books, you name it. Luckily, our neighbour across the street was a retired firefighter. He broke in and saved our bunny and dog. That night, Stratfest posted a pic of a rainbow for us on their twitter account (I was supposed to see Twelfth Night 2 days from then, and let them know I had to give my tickets away).
I know we gained more from the fire than we lost. I cried more from the compassion people showed us than anything. What we lost, mostly, are just physical, tangible objects which would trigger memories. Those memories are always with us...we just need to dig deeper to find them now. Everyone was able to save at least 1 important item, maybe 2, from the house (me: Christopher Plummer book inscribed to Cordelia, but mouldy and smoky, plus a treasure box from out west).
What Cordelia worried about, after her bunny, was her shoes. I said we would buy more. She said, "NO! Not my R2-D2 shoes!" My little girl who lost all her stuffies (and have been replaced and them some by the kindness of friends, neighbours, co-workers, strangers) was worried that the show, her part of the show, wouldn't go on because her R2D2 shoes were gone. She told Firefighter Scott about her feelings. Firefighter Scott had a hard time keeping himself together, probably as much as we all did.
You see, Firefighter Scott has been in the kids' school as long as they have been there for fire safety week. Firefighter Scott is also Claire Senko's husband. He really knew our younglings. [He gave Cordelia a big stuffy bear, with whom Cordelia is still sleeping every night.]
I don't want to dwell here - just know that we were taken care of by angels - physical, actual angels, whether we felt worthy or not. I don't know who all were praying for us to be 'ok' and be taken care of, but thank you. Your prayers were answered. We were blessed 10-fold compared to what we lost. I am ever grateful, and will never be able to repay the donations, the hugs, the smiles, the...the love and compassion was beyond anything I have ever experienced. To this day, I cry more over this than anything else.
A certain passage kept coming into my head in the days after. I learned it in grade 9 english. It's from A Merchant of Venice: "The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest. It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes."
Takes. I hadn't had much experience in the 'taking' side of the equation before. My mom, then my dad, gave hours and hours, years really, of volunteer service. I try my best to follow in their footsteps.
You don't know how deep a thank you goes until you see, and take, love in various forms after an incident like this. I understood what saying, "thank you from the bottom of my heart" meant - because I was truly "at" the bottom of my heart. They were the ones who filled my heart back up. And, I thank you. Nya:weh. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the donations (including money, the house to sleep in/eat in/find comfort and love in, food to eat, clothes to wear, favourite stuffies as gifts, furniture, appliances...) thank you for filling my heart, and eventually my home, up again.
You're a good man...and woman...(there's a reason I use this line, so forgive me for not using plurals)
It's funny how after the worst day of your life, an "ok" day seems like heaven, an "ok" mood is fantastic! Never take an ok or an off day for granted. Be happy and excited for life, because it could be ever so much worse.
Focusing on the Star Wars play was what the kids needed. Theatre really is family. We found shoes acceptable for Cordelia to wear, and a new Jedi costume for Luke. Walmart had given the kids new toys - the boys received light-up polycarbonate lightsabers - which looked AWESOME on stage for the play. And they work great as nightlights, too.
Then, there was Stratford. After hearing about the fire, they offered tickets for a show to us. We chose Camelot. It was perfect - it helped us escape our (if possible) worst week, the first week of October.
If you have read my blog before, you'll know that I find solace in theatre. That night, my kids all learned the same lesson. Camelot brought us out of our suffering, and our "oh, YOU'RE the family who had the fire". We went to Stratford and no one knew us. We could just be us again. I don't remember any fighting. [It was a first date for Dakota and Amanda, seeing as we found ourselves with a spare ticket.]
I cried so much during that show. I needed to get out the emotions, yes. But it wasn't that at all. It was seeing my children's faces light up, their eyes actually light up with happiness again. The magic of theatre and Camelot changed them before my own eyes. I didn't think I'd see them like that again for a long, long time.
Lisa arranged for us to meet a cast member at the stage door. We were quite excited! Not only did we meet Sir Lancelot (the wonderful human being named Jonathan Winsby) but we were given a backstage tour of the Festival Theatre, too. I nearly passed out - I never dreamed of ever getting backstage there in my life. Dakota will never be able to surpass this first date. Ever.
That night was a turning point for us. I think we all purged our negativity because of our friend, our new friend, and the magic of theatre. It bonded us, gave us hope, and made us feel loved.
A few weeks later, a dear friend, who was like a sister to me (and that's saying something because I don't have a sister), died suddenly from sepsis. Three hours later, Jeff's dad finally was able to enter the next life, pain-free at last. Our new place flooded. Twice. And, we had to buy a new car. Last autumn was tough.
But, the kids and I had Camelot to escape to. It was our happy place. We could dig in our brains, and hearts, and remember a time when we felt no pain, even if for a few hours. I changed my twitter avatar pic to the lights along the sidewalk of the Festival Theatre. It still is.
And people ask me why I go to Stratford....
Sitting here typing, I see Luke, Luke in Star Wars play and I hear Princess Leia say, "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You're our only hope." Sir Alec Guinness as Obi Wan...Alec Guinness at Richard III - opening season of Stratford...back to 2012.
Life is one big circle, isn't it?
The night I started this blog was September 15, 2012. Braeden's 15th birthday. We hadn't ordered a cake, so I made my secret recipe, from scratch, vanilla chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.
After his pan-birthday cake, we left for Stratford. It's funny - Braeden turned 15, on the 15th, and tickets for Charlie Brown were $15. The stars lined up for us today, I guess.
When Dakota and I were at Hirsch, Ken James Stewart sat in the row in front of us. He plays Charlie Brown (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232&id2=16449). I, of course being the ...ummmm outgoing (some may say annoying) person that I am, talked with him about how much we loved the show and Stratford. I mentioned that Braeden picked Charlie Brown as a birthday gift, and asked if we could see him at the stage door after. He was kind enough to say yes. I also wrote the most excellent Kevin Yee, who plays Linus (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232&id2=16462) to ask if he wouldn't mind meeting us, too. He said yes.
Before the show, we went to the Stratford Exhibition. I've mentioned before how much I love this place, right? Being a history major and lover of all things Stratfest, this place is heaven for me. All I need is a baby to deliver or a mom to help breastfeed, and it would be perfect. [There was birth and breastfeeding in Grapes of Wrath....]
We had a fantastic new tour guide, Marlene. She told us the Stratfest story in a whole new light. I learned so much! She was great with the kids, and the adults...just a wealth of knowledge. We all loved it.
We meandered through the Exhibits, learning and relearning stories of the past and future. I hope the future of theatre does not include the doing-away of the maquettes. That would be a crime.
Dakota, who has taken drama and been in a few productions in his high school, finally decided what he wants to learn about - the tech side, lighting especially. I guess it's time for me to meet some of them now and get Dakota informed.
We had incredible talks with Dr. Francesca Marini, the Archives Director. I love her! And there was an incredible man we spoke to, but I failed to get his name. Someone please let me know? He was in the band "X" in the 80's. He was quite amazing. Plus, he knows someone from Lord of the Rings... I thought that would make Braeden's day, but no. I even had a surprise...
We ran into dear, wonderful Bruce at the Avon Theatre Store. He makes the store such a happy place. We didn't get a chance to speak long, but it was nice while it lasted.
Cordelia finally was given a Shakespeare finger puppet. So, while waiting for the doors to open, she put on a show for the birthday boy:
I also love these pictures of Dakota and Luke:
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown was even better this time around. I don't know how actors do it, keep improving a show. That's why they are the actors and I am in the seats, I suppose. But I like it! That's my new philosophy. [< a song from the show]
I wish Stratford would let me take pictures of the kids during a show. I'll be good, I promise! [I know it won't happen lol] The looks on their faces - that extra brightness in their eyes... It was like Camelot all over again. Maybe we should just nickname Stratford Camelot?
I cried in my usual places (little red headed girl, Happiness is...) plus, opening number. That was new. I can't recall the line right now, though...very near the beginning, said by Charlie Brown.
Snoopy, Stephen Patterson (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232&id2=6378) and "Suppertime" still steals the show. Holy moly! I know a few kids read this, but dang - who knew Snoopy could be sexy? I'm probably old enough to almost be most of the cast's mother (or aunt?), but .... wait for it .... I love a man who can sing! sigh... Stephen Patterson is a very nice man, too. We have spoken with him before. He and his wife make a beautiful couple (and can she SING, too!)
[By the way, I'm serious - I would love a man to sing to me on my birthday in April. A man, because hearing a woman sing would make me far too jealous of her talent. Last year, I had to settle for youtubing my favourite male singers, including Stratford people. Singing over the phone is quite acceptable. Or facetiming. Song is your choice :-)]
After the show, we made our way to the stage door:
Aren't they beautiful? I'm kind of biased...
It was pure joy to finally meet Kevin Yee. He is someone to follow on twitter, or facebook, or youtube. He puts a smile on my face. He was so sweet to the padawans and younglings and me. He didn't call me annoying. Yay! Or is he that good of an actor? Uh oh...
When Ken James Stewart came out, Braeden was in for a big surprise: The cast signed a programme for him! LOOK!!!
I had mentioned to both Kevin and Ken that Braeden was the boy in the kids REact video who says "fantazmazing". Have you seen it? Kids REact Video Braeden loves suits. He wears them every Friday to school. His principal had to borrow his tie for the yearbook photo.
Honestly, Braeden's eyes were as if he touched a LoTR sword. He is still ecstatic. Nya:weh to Ken for thinking of doing this and following it through with the rest of the cast. I owe ya!
The other man in the picture is Andrew Broderick, who plays an excellent Schroeder (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232&id2=16408). Braeden is so happy. What a gorgeous bunch of boys!
I do believe Braeden was hugged by a woman, too, if I remember correctly. The incredibly talented Erica Peck, who plays Lucy (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232). When she spoke to him, she said, "Oh, you're the birthday boy!" Even if she didn't hug him, a 15 year old boy having a woman know his birthday is pretty awesome.
Sally also said happy birthday. I heard this woman sing in Pirates and was completely floored by her voice: Amy Wallis (http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/OnStage/productions.aspx?id=16333&prodid=41232&id2=16452). Wow, can she sing as Mabel in Pirates.
And here's Stephen Patterson:
It was a wonderful 15th birthday for Braeden. He said it was his best ever! We are getting the programme framed as a reminder of the constant love and kindness of Stratford.
Because of the magic of theatre and the good people who share their gifts and hearts with us.
Happiness is feeling loved and of worth, and hearing my kids sing Charlie Brown when going to sleep...and seeing compassion...having an ok day...going to Stratford...
What is happiness to you?
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