Reflecting on Opening Weekend

This past weekend, Not My Revolution made it's Pittsburgh premier through Off The Wall Productions. The one-woman drama written and performed by Elizabeth Elias Huffman, is an hour and a half masterpiece that leaves its audience enthralled from beginning to end. I had the pleasure of watching the Sunday performance that featured a talkback afterwards. The production's first 15 minutes feature almost no dialogue accompanied by sound design that leaves your heart pounding. The audience is instantly brought into the story of the Displaced Woman while she creates her living space in front of them. For the rest of the show, the audience is brought along the parallel stories of the Displaced Woman and Marie Antionette as they talk about their lives, and final days, before war and civil unrest change their lives forever. After the show had concluded, I had the privilege of leading a talkback with amazing women, who were experts in their fields. I started the talkback by asking about a moment that resonated with them from the production.

"When Marie Antionette said, "I would like to appeal to the women," we know she was tried by men and sentenced to death. We are noticing that this has not changed. That women's voices are not always heard by other women."

"When the Displaced Women was

begging for help in different languages and no one would help her because it was not the 'right language.' We see so many people that speak four or five languages being judged by someone who only speaks one."

The amazing quotes and discussion topics were too many to list! The brilliant thing about this production is its ability to stay with you, to get you to think. It's most powerful quality is at the end of the production it had many members of our audience asking our panel one important question "What can I do to help?"

Photo Credit: Heather Mull Photography