The Memphis Flyer, February 12 - 18, 1998

Rites of Passage
Kimberly Barksdale makes her directorial debut with Our Own Voice's Rituals

by SHERI BANCROFT

Mention the word ritual and you may find your mind wandering over centuries-old, sacred acts of sacrifice or bravery, like a boy who leaps from a great height to prove to his village that he is a man. What springs into Kimberly Barksdale’s head, however, is certainly more modern-day and more ordinary, and it is the source for the Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe’s production, Rituals, a flowing collection of choreography, images, monologues, and live music showing February 13th and 14th at TheatreWorks.

Barksdale, who is directing Rituals, says she came up with the idea for this performance piece after realizing how dependent she’d become on e-mail and car phones. “Checking my voice mail was becoming part of my daily ritual,” she says, “and I realized how disconnected we have become from ourselves and nature.”

When Barksdale, a four-year member and choreographer of Our Own Voice, hooked up with members of this troupe, she found that everyone had their own ideas. “At our first rehearsal, we discussed ritual and discovered that no cast members had the same interpretation. Some saw ritual as a simple routine like brushing your teeth every morning or a peaceful action that brings comfort, while others saw ritual as a connection to the different elements of the natural world.

“In this production, cast members explore what the word ritual means to them on a personal level and in their relationship to the world,” Barksdale continues. “Our rehearsal process has included a lot of creative writing and construction of images based upon our writings. Sometimes I’ll begin a rehearsal ‘Write for five minutes nonstop about a childhood ritual,’ and we’ll spend the next two hours and 55 minutes creating these beautiful images.”

The result of the troupe’s teamwork, says Barksdale, is an amalgam of various art forms and different tones. “There’s a lot of humor and seriousness. Everything is interconnected,” says Barksdale. There is a “road rage” segment played for laughs, where cast members drive furiously to get to yoga class on time, and a piece in which the act of waking up is presented through dance.

And while Rituals serves as an outlet for the troupe members, it also marks a turning point for the seven-year-old company, in that artistic director Bill Baker will let company member and choreographer Kimberly Barksdale direct. Baker is all for evolving. In 1991, he created Our Own Voice for the Mid-South Mental Health Association as an outlet for mental-health consumers to express their concerns about the system and address the stigma of being “mentally ill.”

In 1995, Our Own Voice became independent of MMHA and also a resident company at the new Theatreworks. And in 1997, the troupe established itself as a nonprofit corporation. Baker says that in this, its seventh year, Our Own Voice still helps the mental-health consumers, but the troupe is no longer just limited to mental-health issues. It has expanded to include everyone. “Our Own Voice believes everybody has a voice that needs to be heard: children, the elderly, black and white, schizophrenics and ‘normals,’” says Baker.

Of Our Own Voice’s performance this weekend, Barksdale says, “I hope people who come to see Rituals will arrive with an open mind and allow themselves to become a part of the experience we have created for them.

“We also hope, after the performance, people leave with a sense of knowing the performers. We want them to leave the theatre with a feeling like they’ve met someone and had a good conversation,” Baker says. “In other words, we want the audience to know their presence was acknowledged and also feel connected to what we’re doing onstage.”

Rituals
TheatreWorks
Showing Feb. 13-14
2085 Monroe at Florence
(274-7139)

Members of the Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe rehearse their latest production, Rituals.
PHOTO BY DANIEL BALL