New Project Survey
My amazing sister Kate Kraay and I are collaborating for the first time on a theatrical project. Well -- besides the times we performed renditions of fairy tales with our brother for our parents when we were growing up. I remember playing Gretel opposite my brother's Hansel when I was six, with Kate graciously taking on the witch's role...
Now we're a little older, devising a new play/performance/thing together and could use your help as we begin. We'll be exploring the effects of stress on the body, women's bodies in particular, in comparison with the effects of stress on our planet, stress caused by humans in particular. Your insights through the survey questions below will be most helpful in giving us more direction, context and research. 
Photo by NASA on Unsplash
You are welcome to take this survey whoever and wherever you are. Though we are most interested in responses from individuals who identify as womenx, non-binary, transgender or gender non-conforming, if you are a human who has lived in this world, we appreciate your answers. And if you know someone who may have a lot to say about these questions, do consider sharing it with them. Thank you! Learn more/respond below, save the form for later on a new page or share it using this link (https://forms.gle/8qw4ReXwR6vnYywA9). Thank you so much for your time and insights! If you have questions, feel free to reach out through my contact page. Many thanks, Heidi and Kate
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Sight, Watching, SeeingIn May's Drop In Workshop, we focused on listening and sound. This week we focused on what we attend to with our eyes. I started by asking participants to close their eyes, paying attention to what they saw when I read this: The Summer Day by Mary Oliver Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?  "This grasshopper...who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes." Photo by Boris Smokrovic on Unsplash Watching/Seeing Next we went outside to The Cabin's yard. I asked participants to: Find a site that draws you near. Focus on one small section of that site. One object. Sit with it for a good five minutes at least. Spend five minutes finding a place, five sitting with it, watching, paying attention. Not writing yet. After that five minutes is up, spend time drawing what you see. You don’t have to be good at drawing, just sketch what you’ve been sitting with. No judging what you draw. Get it down, not perfect. Get down what you see. Then, spend time writing down everything you see. No need to be precious – this can be a written piece like a poem/story/essay or just notes. Then go back and either write or draw some more. I’ll come around and remind you, let you know when to pick up the next thing. Again, the sequence was: Find the thing Sit with the thing Draw the thing Write the thing Draw or write When we returned inside, we paired up with a buddy and shared what we wrote and drew. Then we read this poem, and spoke to what we saw: Moon by KATHLEEN JAMIE Last night, when the moon slipped into my attic room as an oblong of light, I sensed she’d come to commiserate. It was August. She traveled with a small valise of darkness, and the first few stars returning to the northern sky, and my room, it seemed, had missed her. She pretended an interest in the bookcase while other objects stirred, as in a rock pool, with unexpected life: strings of beads in their green bowl gleamed, the paper-crowded desk; the books, too, appeared inclined to open and confess. Being sure the moon harbored some intention, I waited; watched for an age her cool gaze shift first toward a flower sketch pinned on the far wall then glide down to recline along the pinewood floor, before I’d had enough. Moon, I said, We’re both scarred now. Are they quite beyond you, the simple words of love? Say them. You are not my mother; with my mother, I waited unto death  Photo by Klemen Vrankar on Unsplash So now, dear reader, after you do all of the above, take: 1. your notes, 2. the image you drew, 3. one line or one image of a partner’s work, 4. a line or phrase from the Moon poem, 5. something you see around you right now 6. and one true thing (whatever that means to you) and write all that into a new story/poem/essay/something else. That's what we did, and turning out some beautiful material. XOXO, H |
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$1, $10, $100, whatevs :) Heidi KraayProcess notes on a work in progress (me). This mostly contains raw rough content pulled out of practice notebooks. Occasional posts also invite you into the way I work, with intermittent notes on the hows and whys on the whats I make. Less often you may also find prompts and processes I've brought to workshops, as well as surveys that help me gather material for projects. Similar earlier posts from years ago can be found on: Archives
April 2024
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