2016-450-E Arts - Sheila Kerrigan - Spring 2016 Arts Grant Agreement

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DocuSign Envelope ID:645F21AA-AAD3-4FC9-BD8D-42EC7135B722 Sheila Kerrigan The Mime Who Talks! Narrative A Proposal for Two Community-Building Residencies in Four Parts in Partnership with The Orange County Department on Aging, The Seymour Center, and the Passmore Center Proposed Project What We Will Do, Where It Will Be Performed, When, With What Partner We propose to conduct two residencies in the fall of 2016, (September-October) in partnership with the Orange County Department on Aging, in two Orange County Senior Centers—The Robert and Pearl Seymour Center in Chapel Hill and the Jerry M. Passmore Center in Hillsborough. Each residency consists of four parts. Each residency starts with Mime Explains String Theory, a performance by Sheila Kerrigan, for the community at large. The performance is followed by workshops in the Senior Center meeting rooms for willing audience members, including a story circle, a writing session, and an open mic performance, open to the public. Part One: Mime Explains String Theory is a public performance for older adults that will take place in the Seymour and Passmore Center theaters. It starts before birth and ends after death, exploring the cycle of life as the mime experiences it. During middle age she has an epiphany in which she understands the meaning of life. She struggles against invisible forces to communicate it to the audience, and eventually gets it across to them. In Part Two, we invite members of the audience to return to the Senior Centers to participate in a story circle about epiphanies that the tellers have experienced in their lives. Ms. Kerrigan will facilitate the story circle. The story circle process is simple: each person gets a few minutes to tell their epiphany story while everyone else listens fully, without interruption. At the end of the story-telling, there is time for conversation. The process enables deep listening and elicits empathy. People who have known each other for years discover new things about each other that don't come up in quotidian conversation, and that open up further dialogue and strengthen friendships. Part Three brings the story tellers together again in the Senior Centers with Ms. Kerrigan to write their epiphany stories down, with guidance if needed. In Part Four, we invite the larger community to an open mic session to take place in the Senior Center theaters. Story-circle participants read or tell their epiphany stories to their fellow community members. If needed, we can also schedule a rehearsal before