Post F-Word Post for Procrastinators

Hey Q. Terah Jackson, actor from The F Word, here.  A couple things came to me after the staged reading today that I wanted to share and perhaps spark a little discussion. 

So for the greater part of a month we have been on this journey exploring fears about body image, and I noticed that as I got dressed today I did something that I have never done for a role before — I made sure all my "fatty" parts were clearly exposed.  I wanted to make sure that I could act with my round, plump belly.  As we performed, I noticed that for me — and I think this is true for some of the other players and audience members — that the play became a kind of celebration of bodies.  I can recall looking at the audience during the talk back after the reading and seeing that people for the most part were sitting more open than I am used to seeing, no longer crossing their legs or covering their stomachs, or even folding their arms.

Listening to the audience, it seemed they had a clarity about the work that was surprising and unexpected.  I think being a performer in the circus you can't see the whole performance. Listening to the audience really brought home how theater is a community experience where the essence of the play is revealed not by one person or a few people but really is owned by all of us.  And in a way that is a metaphor for bodies in general.  We live in our bodies but we never truly ever get to see them.  We obsess over the appearance of something we will never truly see.  We obsess over what other people will think and what "they" think changes based on what "everyone else" thinks.  I think Melissa has truly found something in her exploration of the American obsession with and fear of fat.  Perhaps she's found a window to let all of us breathe a little easier.