smile your face off!

Yesterday I went to Smile Off Your Face, a production at Giant Magnet (formerly Seattle International Children's Festival) by a Belgian group called ONTROEREND GOED.

I'm not even sure I can explain the experience. I can describe what happened to me, but I'm still parsing it. I know it was incredible. I was made totally vulnerable--blindfolded and in a wheelchair and completely at the mercy of the person pushing me around in the dark--but for the most part I wasn't afraid--or I wasn't afraid of what they were doing, I was nervous because I didn't know what was happening; but it was a good kind of nervous. It was intimacy by necessity. It was good to be reminded how open it's possible to be--which is the hardest part of theater, and the best part. I felt alone and taken care of at the same time, like I was special and also similar to everyone else. Because the people that do this--I didn't think about this until afterwards, but they do this with everyone who comes through, & that's part of why it's so amazing.

I'm still working through it--or maybe I won't...but it was really good.