Hello Friends, Family and Colleagues,
As many of you know, I have a deep passion for the arts. I would like to tell you a story of the play Sick. Hopefully, this story will inspire you and move you to support the creation of this work.
Last spring, I went to a workshop of Sick, a play by Elizabeth Kenny. Elizabeth is a talented, authentic writer and performer, and her story is one that touched a nerve in the audience. It was visceral. You could literally feel people opening up to this story and living it along with her throughout the performance.
Sick explores Elizabeth’s journey inside the most advanced healthcare system in the world–a journey that almost killed her–and how treatment by well-meaning, sophisticated practitioners for a common gynecological issue led her on a 2 year downward spiral of misdiagnosis through the complex medical & mental health establishments. In Elizabeth’s own words,
Some days the story in Sick is about my Mom and how fiercely she fought.
Some days it’s about everything I didn’t know about the pharmaceutical industry.
Some days it’s about friends: my old ones, who along with me, abandoned everything I’d been for 30 years and my new ones on the psych ward of Cahill 4.
Some days it’s about knives and voices and static.
Some days it’s about dogs, cocaine and strangers who can see through you.
Sick is always about resilience.
Sick is always about the unimaginable, the unexpected and just getting dressed.
Sometimes it feels like I made the whole thing up.
Sick is about doctors who don’t know how to listen and doctors who do.
Sick is sometimes about telling lies.
Sick is always about knowing and not knowing yourself.
Elizabeth’s story is also deeply personal for me. She is not just an actor, not just a writer. She’s one of my oldest and dearest friends. I was so moved by how her experience came to life and how it spoke to the audience on that spring night. It was in that moment that I decided to play an active role in helping to bring it to life.
I’d like to ask you to support the creation of this work. This is a powerful, authentic work and by supporting its creation, you’ll be participating in the brave act of creating live theatre.
Our goal is $25,000. This story and the experience Elizabeth creates with it for the theatre means so much to me and to Jos that we have donated 10% of that goal. Please join us in supporting this play – all size donations make a difference. You can donate online by going to our Shady Lane PayPal page or by sending a check to:
Shady Lane Productions
1703 25th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
*Shady Lane Productions is a 501(c)3 non-profit, and all donations to Sick are tax deductible.
The show will be presented in April in Seattle – the Shady Lane site will have ticket information as we get closer. Please consider starting off your 2011 contributions with a contribution to Sick. Everyone I know who has come in contact with this work, and with Elizabeth, has been pulled into her story. I would love to share this experience with you!
Thank you for considering this.
Best,
Jenn