Your Faithful Reader

Directed by:

Miriam Wasmund

Genre / Type of Show:

Dance/Theatre

Language:

English

Duration:

02:30:00

Audience type:

General audience

Artists/Features

Performers: Carrie James, Priscilla Eugene Curtis, Robert Maisonett, Mercedes Vasquez, Sarah Sakita-Mozeson, Anita Daswani, Garrett Taylor, Sarah Peterson, Callie Short, Jessica Kelly, Liz Dutton. Carol Wei, Christine Bermudez, Kristo Donna Ng, Michaela Pandorf, Nicole Burdett, Charlotte Raines, Nicholas Disla, Miriam Wasmund.

Production Team: Carrie James, Rebekah Frank, Nick Pollifrone, Jake Primmerman.

Stage Manager: Colston Rienhoff

Assistant Director: Robert Maisonett

Choreography: Miriam Wasmund

Synopsis:

Developed by writer and performer Miriam Wasmund, “Your Faithful Reader” merges the worlds of acting and dance with real letters and takes you on a two-act adventure through the human experience. Interested participants are mailed writing prompts – suggestions of letters they may want to write to those they know and those they don’t; to themselves; life’s hardest and most beautiful moments; their most beloved objects; even the intangible. The response is pages of heartfelt words, ranging from romantic and fun to the most honest and brutal truths. Each of them unique and yet shows how universal it is to be a person in the world. Now a company of performers and creatives give the letters new life in “Your Faithful Reader”, proving that all stories matter.

We invite you to be a witness, help take these stories further by giving them another space to land, be heard and felt.

About the Company:

“Your Faithful Reader” began in 2019 after a serendipitous opportunity to make work coincided with the question all artists ask themselves at some point “what do I do now?” This question fell to director/producer Miriam Wasmund after the preceding years of navigating the loss of her brother and mother had derailed her life and creative process. Finding herself then a different person, who could not quietly tuck her grief away and missing sharing letters with her family, she began writing and in turn asked her community to join in by sharing their own stories shaped as letters. With that great gathering of letter writers and performers came a meaningful transformation, the ability to carry all these experiences and still cultivate joy and deepen connection. Thus, Your Faithful Reader was born.

With each show, through dance and theatre, you will witness stories, letters that could be yours or mine, fragments and tales that are so real and true and desperate to be told if only for one person to hear them and say “I see you. I know that feeling. Your story could be my story.” And for that we are all woven a little closer together.

Regarding the director or directors:

Miriam Wasmund: Director, Choreographer, Writer & Performer Miriam Wasmund is an Alvin Ailey trained, contemporary dancer living and creating work in NYC since 2001. She has had the great fortune to work with many inspiring choreographers, as well she works in the field of health and wellness, which has ultimately lead her to use her love for movement, creating and community as a choreographer and producer.

Miriam has found that making dance and theatre combined with working through grief have taught her lessons in life that she believes to be universal. One is how important it is to allow ourselves to feel without shame; another is the immeasurable value of being a witness to someone else’s experiences. As humans we are all connected through time and story. We find ways forward in moments both difficult and triumphant as a direct result of sharing and the acknowledgement that our experiences are valid. We benefit again by transforming them into moments of learning and teaching. Our moments can be someone else’s survival guide if we are brave enough to let them in and assure them, they are not alone.