Professional Trainings beginning this summer...

When I was fourteen years old, I discovered the joys and richness of being an actor. The gift revealed itself to me on a strange day. It was the day my grandfather died.

Despite the loss and grief my family was experiencing, I insisted that my mother drive me to the first of my Saturday classes in a funky old building on a side-street in Bethesda, Maryland. The place was the Maryland Academy for the Dramatic Arts....a fancy name for what looked like a rather run down and rather marginal place. My teacher there was Ralph Tabikin, a former Vaudevillian with a perpetual eye twitch who chewed on his pipe non stop.

This particular day, he handed me a piece of paper and said "look this over and meet us in by the stage." I looked down and there was a monologue on the page. It was the character Lucrece, from the Greeks, contemplating suicide in a rather Hamlet-esqe monologue.

Although I had not contemplated committing suicide, and although Lucrece's story was different from mine, I intuitively understood our human similarities of deep, painful feelings and the desire to be free.

When it was my turn to share my monologue with the class, I stood up on the tiny home-made stage and channelled all my passion, confusion and raw grief into Lucrece's words and allowed that impulse to lead me into her life.

I looked up and the small class of seven or eight people plus Ralph were wildly applauding. Intuitively, I understood something in that moment although it would be years and years before I would be able to put it into words and integrate the meaning of that experience. Fortunately, for me, I had discovered that in the act of sharing my vulnerability and emotional truth onstage, I had the power to move others and heal myself. An alchemical reaction happened that day. It was as if my own molecules had re-arranged themselves in the moment of self-revelation. When I walked out of the theater that day, there was a different quality to my grief. It was still fresh and raw, but it had transformed. I had transformed and I knew that I was bigger than when I walked in. There was more space inside of me. The grief wasn't so scary. It was just present.

And I knew that I was not alone in it. There was meaning in my grief and that was the ability to share it with others and allow us to all know, for a moment in time that none of us are alone.

This was a seminal experience for me that put me on the path of actor, storyteller and director for these last 32 years. It was a day of tremendous grace.

Holistic Theater

There is a great movement underway in the theater and simultaneously in the healing community. It has been a long time coming, yet in essence returns us to our deepest community roots from our ancestral egalitarian societies. We are reclaiming our roles as storytellers, as Hero’s on a journey home, as social justice commentators, as jesters and shamans. In the contemporary theater, we are doing this through the vehicle of “The Solo Show”.

The Solo Show that I am speaking of is the one person show that is conceived of, written by and performed by one man or one woman. It is a show that is the most holistic form of theater as it is born and manifested from one person’s deepest vision. It goes beyond conventional theater in terms of intimacy because the story, experience and perspective is created by the performer.

For me, it has been the richest and most empowering journey I have taken in my lifetime and I have devoted my lifetime to the exploration of this form. I have written and performed my own shows, directed and produced countless other solo shows and been a teacher and coach in the development of solo shows. There is no form that I have found that has the possibility of being a more powerful testament to the human spirit that the solo show. On a profound level, it is about the willingness to show up onstage and reveal our humanity to one another.

It's All About the Soul....

Tonight I was reading a post from the wonderful Los Angeles based writing and acting coach, Sea Glassman. Sea and I have a lot of crossovers in our work. We are both long time students of a Course in Miracles and we both approach our creative work as a devotion...as spiritual practice.

Here is what I want to ask of you, as you ponder creating your solo show: "What does your Soul want to say? What does it want to say to you? What does it want to say to Life? What does it want to say to this world, others, God? What story does your Soul need to tell for your awakening? Because following any other pass is a lesser path...Following your mind, ego, a clever concept without taking into account the Soul's longings is like fast food, temporarily satisfying but ultimately empty.

I have been pondering my own creative work lately. It has been several years since I have performed my own solo show. My time has been spent teaching others as well as directing and producing.

Last year, my mind started pressuring me and I almost put up a show that just wasn't quite right. I knew that it was a viable concept. I knew that the script I had written was strong. But, something inside of me just didn't want to do it. In retrospect, I see that it wasn't a creative avoidance. It just wasn't what my Soul wanted me to have an attachment to and an association with at this time in my life. (It was called Scorpio Rising: a monologue of sex and death)...Nothing at all wrong with that and those are not topics I shy away from. It just wasn't the right timing and the energy behind it was murky.

Now my Soul is rested and emerging with a new personal vision for me in my personal art. It is a 7 year project with one performance a year. The performances will be monologues that are much more improvisational in nature (terrifying to my ego) and freer than the tightly written scripts that were hallmarks of my style in my younger years.

I am 46 years old. My memory is not razor sharp as it was. I cannot live my life with as much "pushing" intensity and my performance...my Soul's performance would like me to reflect this...And so, I move into a new time in my work, letting go of lots of character driven pieces, sharp and sometimes biting humor, perfectionism around every scripted word... into a new realm. A softer story wants to be told that, yes, will include sex and death...but also the quieter realms that I used to have no patience to explore. And a new kindness that I never used to show myself will be embodied.

Also, I am looking to develop a new, inclusive relationship with my audience as we go on a journey together..one that will, if my vision unfolds, be different every night. As I open to trust my body, Soul, memory and the poetry that lives inside my every cell to show up new, fresh each night, a once only show has the opportunity to unfold....

What is your Soul calling you to share? Go deep....deeper still.....Find it in Silence....and bring it back to this world as a story....

Training Therapeutic Monologue Facilitators and Solo Performance Coaches

Wow! It has been such a long time since I've been on this blog that I almost forgot that it existed.

I just wrapped up several shows, including working with Deb Heikes on her one woman show "White Trash Monologues. It was a humorous and poignant look at growing up in a very wounded family. It was the classic "Hero's Journey" as Deb opened that world for us to have a look inside. As she embodies her racist father who was also a WW 2 Vet, who helped free the prisoners at Aushwitz, and her Bible thumping mother who beat the kids but also( we learn in the show) had to dance on the table as "entertainment" for her step-father when she was 4 years old we learn about the emotional complexity of the world she grew up in. When she speaks in first person monologues we were able to see through the eyes of a girl growing up in a factory town with-out much hope or vision. Deb herself broke free from the family story and left factory work at age 30 first, got sober and then become a therapist herself who helps recovering addicts here in Santa Fe. (www.TheWhiteTrashMonologue.com)

Currently, I am about to embark on an entirely new journey to support others in becoming facilitators and coaches/directors. This summer, I will be beginning offering trainings for others to learn to make a living through Professional Therapeutic Monologue Facilitation and in Solo Performance Coaching and Directing. This process has been a long time coming for me and I am thrilled and excited. Since I performed my first one woman show, and then directed others in the first performance of "The Cancer Monologues", I have known that it was my destiny to support others in taking this process to other communities to serve growth, passion, expression, vision and love....

Launching a Solo Performance Festival

Well, the time has come for me to produce the first Santa Fe Solo Performance Festival. 4 days this December...Wow. This is a culmination of a dream...and the beginning of a new dream. For years I have said that my mission is to make Santa Fe the Performance Capital of the World..San Francisco may laugh at me. NYC may shake their heads in pity and Edinburough may not have even heard of Santa Fe..but mark my words...they will! All in good time.

I don't simply want to produce shows here in quantity, but in quality. And, continue to explore ways that monologues can serve a greater purpose for healing on the planet. I intend to continue to facilitate and train others in working as solo performance coaches, directors and performers in their communities and the world at large.

Additionally, I want to engage with more mainstream organizations such as cancer centers, hospitals, woman's and children's organizations, organizations dealing with peacemaking as well as those on the front lines of trauma. In my experience with all of these populations, writing and performing one's story in an authentic and engaging way can be one of the most empowering, life changing experiences for audience and performer alike.

This rocks the foundations of the world. It is shaman's work, therapist's work, artist's work, human's work.

Inviting others in from all over the globe creates an energy and sets a stage for us to ground the work here in Santa Fe...and let it lead itself wherever it can serve.

Sure hope you will be here with us participating in the festival and beyond! All love, Tanya

website coming soon!

I worked on 18 shows last year!

I worked on 18 solo shows in 2009!

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2009 One Person Shows in Conjunction with Project Life StoriesI worked with 18 people on their solo shows in 2009 (whew!) Some came out of a year long solo performance class with me, some flew in for script consultation from out of state and with a few people we created the scripts one on one from the ground up. Some were re-writes of previously performed work. They are all amazingly heroic people, some seasoned professional actors, some first time performers......all dreamers, visionaries and creators offering their lives in service to this great art-form of solo performance. Some notable shows that I worked on were: "Maternal Dreamer", written and performed by Ramona King, directed by Tanya Taylor Rubinstein, performed in Santa Fe (at Wise Fool) and in Albuquerque at South Broadway Cultural Center and at the New Mexico Conference on Domestic Violence," MobiusTrip" written and performed by Linda Durham at the Railyard performance space in Santa Fe, developed with and directed by Tanya Taylor Rubinstein "Even if the Mountains Burn", written and performed by James Koskinas at the Railyard Performance Space in Santa Fe and The Filling Station in Albuquerque "Other Arrangements" written and performed by Maida Rogerson, developed with and directed by Tanya Taylor Rubinstein, performed at Santa Fe Center for Spiritual Living and on Prince Edward Island, Canada "Swimming With the Polar Bears," written and performed by Mel England, directed by Jill Andre, dramaturge; Tanya Taylor Rubinstein, performed Off Broadway at the Bleeker Street Playhouse and in Copenhagen at the first International Conference on Climate Change,"Digging Up Dad," written and performed by Cris D'Annunzio at the Ruskin Theater Group in Los Angeles, script consulting with Tanya Taylor Rubinstein," BURST", written and performed by Shannon deJong, developed with and directed by Tanya Taylor Rubinstein, performed at the Railyard Performance Space in Santa Fe and in Phoenix and "Sole Survivors" written and performed by Michelle Vest, in 2008 and 2009 it had two runs in NYC at Stage Left Theater, performed at Armory for the Arts in Santa Fe and South Broadway Cultural Center in Alb.

Material for a One Person Show

Material for a One Person Show!

This year, I have worked with many actors and other creative people developing their one person shows for performance.

One of the stories was about a man who grew up with a small time Mafioso for a father and the mystery that surrounded his death. One was a woman who interviewed a friend who had a stroke and created her character based on her friend’s experience. One was a Vietnam Veteran who went back forty years to create his show which was ultimately as much a coming of age story as a story about war. Another is of a woman who was given up to a foster family....there was domestic abuse and mental illness throughout her lineage and she used her story and the story of her ancestors as the basis for her show....Michelle, a former student, based her show on an interview she did with a Mexican housekeeper. I had given her solo performance class an assignment to interview someone who they knew as an acquaintance and find out about their life. They were to turn the interview into a monologue and embody the character for the class. Michelle embodied her character, Rosa to a tee...chomping away on a breakfast burrito and telling us the intimate and heartbreaking story of a woman who had left her life and child inMexico to reach for a better life across the border. She spoke of almost dying in the desert and having to take water from the bag of a dead man....This interview with a woman who knew uncovered a powerful story and unearthed an unspoken story in our culture. Who are these new immigrants who work in our kitchens and in the back of restaurants and live among us? This powerful uncovering set Michelle on a journey of interviewing others who had crossed the border into this country, some legally and some illegally to share, in her show, the contemporary immigrants journey..

So where is your show hiding? Where is your material? I would say, it’s in plain site. Look a little closer at your own life, your own stories, the people who live among you. There are stories everywhere, waiting to be told. Waiting for you to tell them… Pay attention today to your life. It's where your themes, topics, passions, dramas, possibilities already exist.