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Authentic Emotional Response

By Jennifer BlaineJanuary 5, 20190 Comments2 min read1.7K views

Authentic emotional response by Jennifer Blaine

I was standing in the kitchen this morning reflecting on the somewhat predictable weekend routine: get my kid to do her homework, do the dishes, get the food shopping done. I noticed this did not inspire me. I also noticed that I was already seeing this as a stale day. With this awareness I grabbed a hold of myself and said, “today could be really awesome.” I interrupted the predictable pattern that was stifling me and I planted this sparkling intention. A half hour later I got a text from Jess Noel asking if Lily was available to do some choreography she had just made. “I want to see it on two bodies,” she said. “We can be there in 42 minutes!” I said. I just had to find my car… another story for another day.

Reunited from their project this summer, Paprika Plains, in which they danced and were body painted by Jess’ sister Natalie Fletcher, Lily and Jess pledged to find a way to collaborate again on a project in 2019. For today they just warmed up and worked through some steps for an upcoming audition Jess would be holding this week. Although it had been 4 months since Lily and Jess danced, they moved to the latest LSD song “Mountains” and marked through their motions and dance vocabulary, picking up the dance dialogue they last had in September.

Afterward we chatted about our creative hopes and dreams for the new year. For this year Jess shared she wants to make art and connect deeply and in meaningful ways. Lily wants to do some professional theatre work. And I want to create a new show to explore anti-semitism which will somehow not be depressing, and possibly funny. We talked about the magic of the Paprika Plains project, how so many in the audience shared with us that they were moved. I recounted how each and every audience member I spoke with shared about their own lives, and felt that the piece spoke directly to them. “That’s what I am looking for,” Jess said. I want an “Authentic Emotional Reaction” from the audience. I want to make art that does that.” “You should write about that,” I told her. “No,” she said, “but feel free to write about it if you want to,” she told me.

So here I am, embracing the start of another magical year of creating work. And I’m now embodying the purpose to evoke an authentic emotional reaction, a connecting thread that envelops more and more people into a community for dialogue, trust and change. I asked for an awesome day, and I got it. I am asking for an authentic emotional reaction with my creations and am curious what will happen. By the way, I still haven’t done the food shopping and I am just fine about that. Making the art and writing about making the art is a bigger priority. The joy that results from that is now fueling my day.

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Here’s the press release for the new show I will be performing at FRINGEARTS: “THE VICISSITUDES OF TRAVEL”

By Jennifer BlaineAugust 3, 20170 Comments4 min read1.3K views

VicissitudesJ&Kcredit

Jennifer Blaine, Philadelphia’s acclaimed solo performer, “whose comic genius is like Lily Tomlin and Tracey Ullman,” (Philadelphia Daily News) and Karen Getz whose direction has been called “truly a transcendent experience” (City Paper) will present the world premiere of the one-woman work, The Vicissitudes of Travel, as part of the 2017 Fringe Festival presented by FringeArts.

Jennifer is a Philadelphia Fringe Festival favorite, creating original works for 14 previous festivals—including, most recently, a sold-out run of her show Dirty Joke in 2013. Jennifer collaborated on her new show The Vicissitudes of Travel with Barrymore award winning Philadelphia theater artist Karen Getz, who served as director and co-writer. Getz is known to Live Arts and Fringe audiences for her comic-actor’s ballets: Suburban Love Songs (2006) and Disco Descending (2008) and as an improvisor with Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical… and Lunch Lady Doris. Jennifer and Karen have been working on The Vicissitudes of Travel over the past two years and have been awarded a Jilline Ringle Solo Residency @ 1812 Productions, to further develop the piece, this July.

WHEN: September 10 at 3 p.m.; Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m.; Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. & at 10 p.m.

WHERE: Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA

TICKETS: $20. For info and tickets, please visit www.jenniferblaine.com

SHOW DESCRIPTION: The Vicissitudes of Travel is a multi-character solo performance and gently interactive adventure through memory, time, art, and the bonds of family. Desperate to hold onto the brother she loves, “Sister” charters a guided tour bus through his brain surgery to ‘capture” him before it’s too late. The audience is invited to join in on an evocative journey through tangled neurons, misplaced memories and imagined artistic masterpieces as “Sister” tries to find and hold on to the ephemeral ties of love that bind us all.

Jennifer Blaine plays multiple characters to bring the journey to life, including Sister, Mother, Father, Child, Uncle, Guide, Brain Tumor, and Brother, himself. Getz marvels “I think Jennifer might be some sort of hysterically funny, benevolent alien. That’s just my deeply scientific theory- but it is astonishing to watch her seamlessly morph from one, disparate character to the next.”

According to Jennifer, “This new show is about traveling through memories, personalities, and perceptions, and exploring how we define ourselves based on our relationships with whomever we love. When someone close to us has a compromised brain or any issue where their personality changes, our universe shifts- so much can feel tenuous. This show explores what it’s like to go beyond personalities to reach the person. It is emotionally the most intimate work I have ever created, and probably my most dramatic solo show to date.”

After the performance, attendees are invited to hang out and “gently decompress” and connect, exploring their own journeys through unpressured art making and informal conversation. Getz underscores the critical value of this post-performance period; “I am continually, happily surprised by how the piece acts as an individualized catalyst- allowing audiences to see their own journeys with loved ones who have moved beyond or away from their original selves.” The Vicissitudes of Travel is an instant-community event, intended to nurture our ability to

communicate, connect, and share experiences related to illness, mortality, family, memory and loss. It does NOT aim to be heavy. Just human.

ABOUT JENNIFER BLAINE

Jennifer Blaine has been performing one-woman multi-character shows for 22 years. Her original writing, performing, and comedy connect audiences through humor, socially relevant issues, and dialogue. She has performed with the likes of Chris Rock, George Carlin, and Joe Piscopo, and been featured at premier venues and festivals nationwide. Highlights include: Broadway, The Kimmel Center, The Annenberg Center for the Arts, The Open Stage of Harrisburg, Wesleyan University, and The Samuel Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row. She is the resident theater artist and playwright of the Showstoppers program at the Kimmel Center, which provides free musical theatre classes and mentorship for Philadelphia high school students. She is the founder and producer for 5,000 Women which supports and launches original work of women performance artists. For more information, visit www.jenniferblaine.com.

ABOUT KAREN GETZ

Karen Getz is a Philadelphia-based theater maker: a writer, choreographer, director, actor, dancer, and creative collaborator. She is the recipient of two Philadelphia Theatre Initiative Grants and an Independence Foundation Fellowship in support of her original, comic-actor’s ballets. She has received three Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theater. Karen is the co-guide and co-creator of The Gorgeousity, an ongoing mission to bring playfully immersive, original works of theater to gathered strangers in casual environments, to create instant communities and remind adults of the joy, power, and spiritual necessity of imagination and play. Based in Philadelphia, she’s worked with Azuka Theatre, Virginia Rep, University of the Arts, Bristol Riverside Theatre, Pig Iron, The Lantern Theater, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, Act II Playhouse, Flashpoint Theater, Theater Ariel, 1812 Productions, SwimPony and Tapestry Theater. She previously worked in Los Angeles for almost a decade, appearing in over 20 major films and television shows. You can watch her dance and chew a lot of gum in the film Dirty Dancing.

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“I could be righteous and take the high road, but it doesn’t get me anywhere.”

By Jennifer BlaineJune 30, 20161 Comment1 min read1.5K views

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I was coaching a client about the way she and her husband argue. “He gets upset when things are not put away. I could tell him he’s overreacting, but it won’t help. I’d be justified in taking the high road, but it doesn’t get me anywhere.”

This is a familiar scenario. We know we are right, but sometimes a disagreement is often not really about the disagreement. My client understood this and considered what was a better use of her energy. “What if you just listened to why he was upset and showed him you were listening?” I offered. “He is feeling a strong feeling. Remember the three troublesome emotions are anger, sadness, or fear. What if you listened to what he said, not for the content but rather with your heart to see what is going on with him?”

My client, being the brilliant woman that she is, said “he’s probably feeling scared that I don’t care how he likes things to be. I can see it’s not about anything I did wrong, it’s just that he needs things to be calmer, so he’ll feel safe.”

When we are compassionate for the person we are battling, the fight becomes irrelevant. In this case, she no longer felt defensive and now responds with compassion. I have no idea whether things are any more orderly than they were in their kitchen, but emotionally things are much more peaceful. Hopefully they are both enjoying that.

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The magic of EFT: Emotional Freedom Technique

By Jennifer BlaineJune 7, 20160 Comments2 min read1.4K views

* Mona Lisa with the EFT points highlighted

Lately there is increased interest in a modality I use called Emotional Freedom Technique. It also goes by EFT or tapping. I tried it with one client in Cambodia, who told a friend also in Cambodia who loved it, who then recommended her friend in Senegal do the technique with me too! They each report that the relief they experience with tapping has been more effective than all the different kinds of therapy and other techniques they tried before.

Tapping is an extraordinary process, whereby negative thoughts and feelings are removed by tapping on certain acupuncture points throughout the body. In addition, one affirms the things one wants to happen. But part of what distinguishes the way I use EFT from how I’ve seen it used by other practitioners, is that I bring in a poetic blending of many of the things people say during their session and integrate it into a script that is impromptu and utterly tailored to whatever that person is going through at that particular moment. In any coaching session I find what transpires is highly co-creative, meaning that it is about what I’m doing but also what my client is saying and doing. The same thread of intuition that I use in listening during a session leads to the way that I do tapping for that person as well.

One of the clients I worked with this morning offered this feedback:

“I love that you create the EFT tapping script from all the hardship and reveals that come out in our session and morph it into a sort of bath of truth telling, life affirming beauty and goodness.” I find it exciting that people get so much out of the EFT work I do because it is one of the best ways I know for me to be in the unknown, present and creating solutions for people that help change their lives. It’s one of the most healing ways I have found to be creative.

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Sometimes You Need A Good Shove

By Jennifer BlaineFebruary 19, 20160 Comments2 min read1.5K views

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When I was 17 I competed in the “Macbeth” contest on Broadway. High school students from all around New York City participated, seeking to best all others in Act 2 Scene 2 of the Scottish Play. My scene partner, Phillip Baskerville, and I advanced, round after round, until we found ourselves standing onstage to compete in the finals at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. The judges were the producers of Macbeth, currently playing in this Broadway theatre, as well as the inimitable Glenda Jackson who was starring as Lady Macbeth.

Shortly before our turn, I became immobilized with fear. My heart racing was nothing new to me, but frozen legs were a first. What was I going to do? “Phillip! … ..You have to push me onstage,” I pleaded. With a great shove Phillip succeeded in launching me onstage and into my opening monologue. Once offstage, neither of us could remember how our performance went, but hoped that we somehow did our best to replicate the choices we’d made during countless rehearsals.

Finally it was time to announce the results. First were the third place finishers, and it was not us. Then second place went to the students from the High School of the Performing Arts (our greatest competition). At last we heard our own names called as the victors! We appeared on the news, interviewed by Christiane Amanpour and were featured in an article by the great theatre critic Howard Kissel. As we toured the theatre on a subsequent visit we also got to meet Christopher Plummer. “Don’t be an actor,” he warned, while sweeping his sword and marking a battle scene, utterly undermining his own words with every jab.

So when people ask if I have performed on Broadway I say “yes.” But I rarely tell them how I did, or that without my amazing scene partner, I would never have made it onstage. There are so many resistances that keep us from going forward and trying, but I hope this piece serves as a good shove to push you where you want to go.

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Faith

By Jennifer BlaineNovember 2, 20150 Comments3 min read1.6K views

Faith by Jennifer Blaine

Many people have been asking me recently for advice on how to have faith. Not the religious kind, but the faith in dealing with everyday challenges.

One client of mine is undergoing IVF. She devoted her time, energy, and vacation days from her high-powered job so she could undergo the procedure. She and her husband really wanted it to work. After all that, she found out it was unsuccessful.

“The doctor says there is nothing wrong and that the chances that it will eventually work are in my favor,” she told me. “The thing is for now I am just so broken-hearted and disappointed. How am I supposed to keep going, when there’s no guarantee it will work?” she asked.

There was a philosopher named Epictetus who said, “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” This brilliant advice came from someone who was born a slave in 55 AD, but later in life became an advisor to not just one, but two Roman emperors!! The desire to influence things beyond our will is what still tortures many of us. We wish we could control things: our bodies, our feelings, our thoughts, other people, even our sports teams winning! But in fact, when we start to examine what we have control over we begin to see that we have much less than we thought. So where does that leave us?

“We don’t have control,” I told my client, “But we can shift to being willing to have things go well.” One of my favorite self-help gurus is Louise Hay. She offers the saying “I am open and receptive to all good.” What a beautiful intention. As soon as my client tried adopting a willingness to have things work out, and let go of her fears and insecurities, she felt at peace and more assured. She wasn’t giving up by stopping her worrying or feeling sad, she was just letting go. She was even more devoted to a good result, but without all the pressure she had been putting on herself. She looked to see the things she actually had some choice over and set to work exercising those. She decided she would do IVF again when she felt ready. She decided it was silly to think it was her fault. She was just going to intend things working out. Everything else was just a waste of her precious energy.

So much of the time we want a miracle, a change, an improvement. It’s when we release attachment to it that we start to have a different experience, which ends up creating a different result. I find that it’s easier to create from nothing than creating from fear, or from rules that feel constricting, or from what someone else tells us which at times can be a limiting thought. Some people call that faith. I say it is actually the process of creating, and it’s one of the most fulfilling ways I know to engage with life and get fabulous results.

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