Title
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
2-3-2009
Abstract
The performance of Circumference at URI was funded in part by the Women’s Alliance Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island and was co-sponsored by the URI Counseling Center, Health Services, Women’s Center, Multicultural Center, Student Affairs Diversity Committee, Body Image Awareness Committee, GLBT Program Center, Rainbow Diversity House, the Rhode Island Chapter of Hadassah and the South County Jewish Collaborative. This post contains the write up and press release from the event. CIRCUMFERENCE; 2009; Written and performed by Amy Salloway; Amy is FAT as hell, and she’s not gonna take it anymore! But when her radical, desperate, last-ditch plan to nab herself a socially acceptable body backfires, how will she live with the reality that remains? Can an internal and external self ever reconcile after years of bitter divorce? From Minneapolis actor/writer Amy Salloway, the creator of the award-winning touring solo shows “Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat?” and “So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!”, comes an all-new autobiographical comedy about size, sweat…and exercising your demons.; KINGSTON, RI—February 1, 2009-- Hillel-The Jewish Student Center at the University of Rhode Island will present comic-actor, writer and storyteller, Amy Salloway in her one-woman show, Circumference on Thursday, February 19 at 7:30 pm in Swan Hall Auditorium, 60 Upper College Rd., Kingston, RI. The show, which contains adult language, is free and open to the public and will be followed by a discussion with the artist. Largely based on the year Salloway spent trying to get insurance approval for gastric bypass surgery, Circumference takes a sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful look at the ways we’re led to love, loathe, reject and reclaim our bodies. As the theatricalized version of “Amy” is forced into constant, daily interactions with the uncooperative body she insists she long ago “got a divorce from”, her understanding of its worth and capacity slowly changes, until, in a final, ironic plot twist, her efforts to “get rid of her body forever” become the very force that unexpectedly unite her with it.; Says Salloway, “Circumference is intended to be a balanced, non-partisan look at how our culture shapes what we think about our bodies. It’s not about being rock-solid in your self-love, or knowing exactly what you do and don’t want for your body, healthwise, politically, down to the letter – it’s about the long journey towards maybe, possibly getting to that place. If the character of ‘Amy’ didn’t have a journey to travel – then there wouldn’t be a play.” Circumference has a loud, clear message of size acceptance, and makes a strong case for eradicating weight-based prejudice, and for following the “Health At Every Size” philosophy. The show has garnered praise and letters of thanks from fat activists, bariatric surgery patients, and individuals with eating disorders, all of whom attest that the story onstage resonates with the issues in their own lives. Writes the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “(Salloway) is a major-league writer and storyteller -- poignant, sensitive and hysterically funny.”; Amy Salloway graduated Phi Beta Kappa/Summa Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota, and has lived most of her adult years in Seattle and Minneapolis. Much of her acting and writing work has been in the areas of issue-oriented theatre, children’s theatre and educational theatre. Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat?, Amy’s first full-length solo production, debuted in the Minnesota Fringe Festival in the summer of 2003, and won Lavender Magazine’s vote for “Best Solo Performance”. It went on to be included in theater festivals throughout the United States and Canada. Amy’s follow-up effort – another semi-autobiographical story about adolescence, angst and Jewish summer camp, titled So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!; premiered in the 2005