[NEohioPAL] "I Hate This" (guest blog by David Hansen)

Valerie Schumacher via NEohioPAL neohiopal at lists.neohiopal.org
Thu Sep 11 07:22:14 PDT 2014


"I Hate This" (guest blog by David Hansen)
Posted September 02, 2014


When my wife and I lost our first child due to preeclampsia, I took what
solace I could in writing. My journals of that time express the sorrow,
anxiety and anger which came from discovering how incapable we are as a
society to talk about child loss, especially men. These writings soon
after became the source material for my solo performance ³I Hate This (a
play without the baby)². Because I am a theater artist, creating this
work was simply the most obvious way for me to communicate my grief, by
telling our story on a stage, as a play, to be produced for a theater
audience.

Attracting that audience proved harder than I had imagined, though I
should not have been surprised. If there is a recurrent theme through the
work it is that people do not want to talk about dead children. Why would
they want to attend a play on that subject? But many did attend, and
through word of mouth and some very strong press, I began to be invited
to present and perform "I Hate This" in surprising, new places.
Since its debut at Cleveland Public Theatre in 2003, I have been invited
to perform ³I Hate This² for nurses, midwives, doctors and other medical
professionals in Cleveland, Akron and Columbus, in Chicago and
Louisville, at theater festivals in Minnesota and New York City, and a
seven-date  tour of Great Britain. Employing notable Cleveland actors, the
play was  adapted for radio on WCPN 90.3 ideastream. And most recently and
for the first time, a theater company (Freerange Theater Co. in
Manchester, UK) is  going to independently produce ³I Hate This². Someone
other than David Hansen will be playing David Hansen, and telling our
story...

READ MORE (AND VIEW CLIPS OF THE PERFORMANCE) AT:
http://cultureforward.org/News-and-Events/CultureForward-Blog/I-Hate-This-g
uest-blog-by-David-Hansen


Valerie Schumacher
Program Coordinator

Community Partnership for Arts and Culture
1900 Superior Avenue, Suite 130, Cleveland, OH 44114
p: 216.575.0331, x128
f: 216.575.0332




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