Performance

Performance

Performance

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When I first started memorizing and planning Bodies Unbound, my one-woman show, I invited four friends to come to my basement to give me feed-back. As the time came for their arrival I realized I couldn’t sit down because of my fear. Finally I forced myself to sit and feel the rushes of fear inside me. I sat there until I had made friends with those horrible feelings that had stopped me from moving forward all my life. I can’t honestly say I made friends with those feelings, but I got used to them. I got used to feeling them and not allowing them to stop me.

I was going to therapy with a Buddhist man. I told him my fear
of the audience kept me tense. I couldn’t do my show without
feeling stiff and awkward. He said, “Then do it stiff and awkward.
Just use the fear and stiffness authentically and everyone will
have sympathy for your courage.”

I was going to therapy with a Buddhist man. I told him my fear of the audience kept me tense. I couldn’t do my show without feeling stiff and awkward. He said, “Then do it stiff and awkward. Just use the fear and stiffness authentically and everyone will have sympathy for your courage.”

The night I first performed before an audience, I told the woman introducing me to tell all the people in the audience to go home.  I couldn’t do it. She was not amused. She said, “You go out there and tell them yourself.” I walked out on stage and saw friends who had made the effort to come and I decided to see if I could remember the first few lines. I said them perfectly and the audience laughed.

The five months of working on my show for hours every day took over. The lines were lined up inside me. They needed to come out. It was like giving birth. Before I knew it the show was over. Eighty people jumped to their feet to give me a standing ovation. The elation was overwhelming. It turned out that the woman I was on stage was not the person who walked around on the street and had relationships.

I jumped off the cliff by going on stage, and angels came to my aid. I have had to do my show again and again to become acquainted with the persona I am on stage. She only shows up with the first words of my show. I open my mouth and I am transformed. That woman, that persona, laughs at fear. Fear lifts her up to greater feats of outrageousness.

What I am telling you is that there is something your soul is longing
to do and your ego is using your fear to try to keep you safe. You can’t
take a risk and be safe. It is impossible.

What I am telling you is that there is something your soul is longing to do and your ego is using your fear to try to keep you safe. You can’t take a risk and be safe. It is impossible.

  • “I have seen several of Cynthia’s performances and I am continually amazed how she’s able to mine the depths of human emotion through her life experiences. Her passion is contagious making us laugh and tear up from her sensitive take on the challenges of life.”Linda Powers
  • “The play moves seamlessly through time, pausing alternately for episodes of laughter and grit. I loved the way her literary cruise-control moved the story so effortlessly. There are childhood flashbacks so vivid the stage seemed to vibrate, and discoveries revealed that are so original they break new ground.”Shalom Joshua, Retired Social Worker
  • “Bravo to Cynthia who is too modest. This was the best solo performance I’ve seen. it was bold and brave and raw. It had humor and it had sorrow. It was mesmerizing and now and then a little dangerous. It was directed exceptionally well and performed with vulnerability and strength. If you haven’t see it be sure to go the next time she performs.”Christine Golden, City of Ojai Arts Commissioner
  • “The play brought me to experience every emotion. I was deeply touched by Cynthia’s work. At this time in my life, I enjoy embracing “the authentic”., and that is what I felt throughout the play. Another amazing example that when we use our profession to heal ourselves, comes a time when the healing turns to self-actualization and reward. It showed me once more that if we overcome our fears and adhere to “our true path”, life as it should manifests itself organically. Cynthia’s work demonstrates exactly that… An amazing woman with a beautiful story to tell!”Gaylaine Therrien
  • “I really appreciated the obvious time, energy and effort that went into your performance. Each segment was so perfectly laid out, the hand gestures, the use of scarves, music and glasses, the times you chose to lay on the table and the way you moved from each part with confidence and grace. I appreciated the staging, choreography, (for lack of a better word) and all the thought and preparation that went into each moment. That is above and beyond what it takes to share your story. The use of laughter and tears kept it from being on one level, so we were always engaged without going too deep into despair or making it light. All your years of doing the show have placed it firmly in your bones, so you can now move forward with complete confidence, minus the nerves that always arrive to keep it sharp and spot-on. Bravo to both you and Jill.”KB
  • “The play brought me to experience every emotion. I was deeply touched by Cynthia’s work. At this time in my life, I enjoy embracing “the authentic”., and that is what I felt throughout the play. Another amazing example that when we use our profession to heal ourselves, comes a time when the healing turns to self-actualization and reward. It showed me once more that if we overcome our fears and adhere to “our true path”, life as it should manifests itself organically. Cynthia’s work demonstrates exactly that… An amazing woman with a beautiful story to tell!”Anonymous
  • “Cynthia, when I saw your performance May of last year, it cracked me open and gave me permission to start releasing a part of my path I had not yet dealt with. Through your performance, you have been a integral part of the healing which took place with me in the past year and a half. Your courage and your bravery has served as an incredible inspiration to allow me to access information my subconscious had not yet released. Through the sharing of your experiences, I experienced some incredible breakthroughs with my own work and have freed myself of shackles I had carried for too long. In other words, I experienced my own Bodies Unbound and as a result, I have re-claimed my own body.
    Much love to you beautiful woman”Anonymous

Upcoming Performances

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Upcoming Performances

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, AT 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM

Center Stage Theater

751 Paseo Nuevo, Paseo Nuevo Santa Barbara, CA 93101

TICKETS: $23 general

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“This is a book about hands: hands that break us, hands that heal us. And so we are touched as we open to both the grief and vitality of Cynthia’s story and, within it, the compelling stories that were triggered and eased by her healing hands.”Deena Metzger, Writing For Your Life

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