Saturday, November 21, 2009

Itchy again

After a long absence, it seems the RASH is returning! Where did it go? Well after I performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2007, I returned to NY to discover that I was to become the Acting Executive Director at WITNESS. It was an exciting opportunity, it was all consuming and it lasted 9 months. The same time it took me to grow a beautiful wee baby! I actually did perform RASH in June 2008 when I was over 5 months pregnant at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. What an amazing space. I performed RASH as part of the PUSH Conference in a very original format suggested by its Founder and Director Cecily Sommers. Each day of the conference, I performed a segment of the play which was weaved into the conference program. It worked and I was so moved to get a standing ovation from a full house. This year I also received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Strathclyde for both my human rights and arts work, but the seed was planted when someone from the University saw RASH at the Edinburgh Fringe. That's it in a nutshell. Now Ashley Patterson (RASH manager), Jen Nails (RASH director) and myself are getting RASH back up on its feet for 2010 so stay tuned for details, and do join our mailing list. And if you have any ideas for some interesting venues for RASH, let us know.