COMMUNITY
“It is worse to stay where one does not belong at all than to wander about lost for a while and looking for the psychic and soulful kinship one requires.”
- Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
THE PLAYWRIGHT
About the playwright: Clare Barron is a playwright and actor from Wenatchee, Washington. Her most well-known plays include Baby Screams Miracle, I'll Never Love Again, You Got Older, and of course, Dance Nation.
Words from the playwright...
"There’s something kind of tricky in this play about pain and self-destruction leading to power. Like normally we think about self-destruction as something that makes us less powerful. But there’s something in this play where pain and the desire to hurt yourself is a way of burrowing deeper into something, to a place of more primal power. I think that’s what the fangs are about."
- Clare Barron
"And also I am a very sexual person and also a very bodily person…like in my body. And my parents are like these chill, crazy people who go hiking in western China and paint their house hot pink and are super adventurous and curious, but I grew up in a community that was conservative and pretty Christian. And a lot of my friends and I wanted to save our virginities for marriage. So there was definitely some intense repression going on in terms of having sexual feelings but feeling like I couldn’t act on them."
- Clare Barron
"I mean, the answer for me is that I always write a play out of a huge well of emotion. Like in almost an embarrassing way. I don’t really write a play until I emotionally need to write a play. And then I do. And I’m sort of profoundly uninterested in writing a play that I don’t emotionally need to write. I do think that as I’ve written more plays, my sense of dramatic structure has just naturally increased. So I’m more unconsciously able to build the scaffoldings and the world around the emotional core."
- Clare Barron
" And then, I think it also really grounds the play in the sense that this really is a play about women. It’s not a play about little girls. And we are embracing and celebrating our actual actresses wherever they’re at in their lives, as adults. And then also, for me, I’m just very interested in desexualizing female nudity. Here they’re all in a locker room, changing, and there’s something quotidian about it."
- Clare Barron
"Of the word pussy? I mean, it’s really complicated. A lot of people have shared with me, both in the cast and in the audience, that they don’t like that word. It makes them uncomfortable. I love the word. I really like it. I would have never used the word “pussy” growing up, or like even in college or anything. So there’s something, for me, about being able to use that word now as an adult that feels empowering. "
- Clare Barron
MEDIA EXPLORATION
LITERATURE
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Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
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Circe by Madeline Miller
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The Good Body by Eve Ensler
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The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
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FILM
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Jennifer's Body (2009) directed by Karyn Kusama
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Suspiria (1977) directed by Luca Guadagnino
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Suspiria (2017) directed by Dario Argento
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A Ballerina's Tale (2015) directed by Nelson George
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Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004) directed by Sara Sugarman
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Black Swan (2010) directed by Darren Aronofsky
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TELEVISION
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Pen15
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Dance Moms
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Shake it Up
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MUSIC
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MOON SPELL
Note: This spell can be done by anyone, spiritual or religious affiliations aside. The purpose of the spell is to connect oneself with the energy of the moon and step into a fuller, higher power.
Materials:
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An object that is sacred to you.
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A source of light, preferably a candle.
Preparation:
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Research what phase the moon is currently in. This will affect what kind of energy the moon is evoking and therefore change the spell. A recommended website.
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Gather your items and take them to a quiet place that you feel safe in.
Instructions:
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Start up your light source and bring in close to you.
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Close your eyes and take three deep breaths. Use this time as a way of cleansing all of the old energy from the day and starting fresh. Ask yourself “what is it that makes me feel powerful?” Do not think too much about what your answer is. It will come in time.
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Take your sacred object in your hands. Think about what part of yourself you see in this object; what part of yourself feels sacred?
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Set your sacred object down next to the light source. Think of your light source as a symbol of the moon.
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In order to allow your sacred object to absorb the energy of the moon, repeat the following phrase:
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As this object is sacred, so am I.
I am a divine, powerful being with the ability to change my reality.
I call upon my highest power in alignment with the moon.
No longer will I allow myself to be a part of anything that takes me off of my highest path.
I am one with the moon, the moon is one with me.
And so it may be.
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Turn off your light source as you take a deep breath, allowing the energy you just evoked to be set into place.
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Set your sacred object in a place that you will see often, reminding you of the power you possess.