How did it feel to inhabit/embody/become these characters (who were, of course a real people)?
Heart wrenching, fascinating and challenging. In this time of national and global inhumanity the questions that arose for me centered the violent acts of oppression that are currently taking place all over the world. There was so much for me to understand and try to empathize with when reading about Mary Gould Almy. When trying to inhabit her words and her world. My first reaction was that I, personally, would have been on the side of her husband the Patriot, fighting off the British Occupation and fighting for freedom. Slowly, I began to understand her fear for her children and neighbors, her anger at the war outside her home, and her indominable strength. That is where I ended up living; in Mary Gould Almy's defiance, in her strength, in her anger at war, in her love for her husband and children, in her brilliant writing, in her secrecy and in her humor.
Claudia Traub
Mrs. Mary Gould Almy
What did you learn from the person you played?
Every night that I questioned the audience, " Do you feel the memories of war? When you are walking safely down the streets that my neighbors and I fled, bullets whizzing over our heads, covering our children's bodies on the ground......." I thought of ICE, Sudan, Middle East, Congo, Nigeria, America. I thought of our bubbles and all the ways we keep out the pain of others. Our apathy. And I fell in love with Mary Gould Almy. Something I did not think I could do. Because on every side of war people suffer and somehow in the silence of the night, she found the words to write down what it felt like to be "like a creature I ran violently till I overtook my children". Somehow she found the "will and creativity" to resist. What I know is that resistance happens one person at a time. Mary Gould Almy reminded me that there are multiple pathways to resistance; just pick one and do it with every fiber of your being.
All photos by Dominique Sindayiganza @sindayiganza