Theater - Breaking the Language Barrier

“For my whole life, I’ve been singing and acting. I really love the way it can be a way to express yourself emotionally and creatively. Personally, my relationship with my mom isn’t the greatest because of a language barrier between us, so sometimes it’s hard to convey our feelings. But theater has always been an outlet for me to be able to express myself and my true feelings.

Last year, we had a workshop where we were all divided into three groups and my group used a form called ‘applied theater.’ Everybody shared really personal things, like our fears or things we don’t usually talk about. I talked about my dad and how losing him freshman year was so difficult because he had been the mediator between me and my mom. Things became worse because my mom and I were grieving. At the end of the workshop, we had a performance.

Photo and words provided by singer and actress, Johanna

It wasn’t scripted out. On stage, one guy was assigned the role of my dad, the other girl the role of my mom and I simply played myself. I shared with my ‘dad’ how I felt and what had happened, how I wished things were different, while I told my ‘mom’ my true feelings, how I still love her and how sorry I was there was such a barrier between us.

What I didn’t know was that my mom was in the audience that night, and normally if I had said those things to her she might not have understood, but in theater everyone was so expressive. She was able to feel what I was feeling and in a way, that night a wall was broken between us.”