Stories in Community

Spir-it. Noun. 1) A vital force that characterizes a living being as being alive. 2) A divine influence or inspiration. 3) Liveliness - animation and energy in action or expression. 4) Zeitgeist – the spirit of a time; the spirit characteristic of an age or generation.
Spir-it. Verb. 1) Infuse with energy and emotion, make lively.

Using her training as a theater artist, a storyteller, and a preacher’s daughter (listening to her elder’s stories), as well as her passion for history, Mary is well regarded for her ability to gather the oral histories of a family, an organization or a community and weave them together into an original production that retells the greater tale using the personal stories.

She has been project manager, story-gatherer, playwright and director, and performer for two community-based projects:

  • "If That Building Could Talk: the Willson Project” at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading, PA. Mary was project manager, playwright and performer in this one-woman show retelling the history of the 150 year old building through the stories of the people who worked there. It was funded partially through grants from the National Storytelling Network (NSN), the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council (PHC). (2005-07)
  • "The SouthSide Experience" – while a member of Touchstone Theater’s Ensemble, Mary was project director, playwright and director for a two-year oral history project that retold 100 years of history of the neighborhoods in the shadow of Bethlehem Steel through the personal stories of those who lived it. The project was supported in part by grants from the PCA and PHC. (Originally produced in 2002 and 2004)