My Mind is Like an Open Meadow

In 2001, Hand2Mouth ensemble member Erin Leddy lived with her grandmother, Sarah Braveman, for a year and recorded her memoirs. These interview tapes form the bones for this performance, a meditation on consciousness, memory and mortality. Sarah was a stage actress in Boston and New York from the 1930s to the 1990s. My Mind Is Like An Open Meadow appears to be a solo performance, but ultimately emerges as a duet between two generations of theatre artists, one returning for her ‘final performance’ that is carried out by her granddaughter.

Erin Leddy under the direction of h2m’s Artistic Director, Jonathan Walters and with collaborators Chris Kuhl (design), Casi Pacilio (sound design/engineering), Ash Black Bufflo and Holcombe Waller (original score/music) craft a sonic and visual world where memory overcomes the live performance and the two realms begin to blur into an elegant mixture of lighting, pre-recorded voice, original songs, immersive music and brilliantly illuminated scenery.

My Mind Is Like An Open Meadow honors the voice and wisdom of one woman, but becomes something bigger: memoir, memory, the words we are compelled to impart before death, the strange and simple things that call us to pay attention to the world around us. The performance is a sort of ritual, an attempt to make sense of this complicated life.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

My Mind Is Like An Open Meadow was developed in part at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY and originally premiered in January of 2011 in Portland, OR. It has since had a 3 week run at 59e59 in NYC and toured to The Blast Festival in Berkeley, CA, the New Orleans Fringe, the PuSh Festival in Vancouver, BC, the City Arts Festival in Seattle, the Ko Festival in Amherst, MA, to colleges and small towns across Oregon.

A twenty-minute version of My Mind Is Like An Open Meadow premiered in June 2010 at the Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards and has shown in Portland at the Risk/Reward Festival of New Performance (June 2010) and Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival (July 2010). The first full-length version premiered in Portland on January 20, 2011 as part of the Fertile Ground Festival, with a sold out, extended run. In June 2011 Erin and Hand2Mouth were awarded 5 Drammy Awards for the performance including Outstanding Production of 2010-11.

REVIEWS
NY Post (August 2012)
Theater Mania - New York, NY (August 2012)
Portland Monthly (July 2011)
Oregonian (February 2011)
Portland Mercury (January 2011)

PREVIEWS
Oregonian (June 2011)
Oregonian (June 2011) - Drammy Awards Coverage
KBOO Stage & Studio with Dmae Roberts (January 2011)
Culturebot (January 2011)

PERFORMANCE DATES
Columbia Center for the Arts, May 13, 2017: Hood River, OR
Shotgun Blast Theatre Festival, February 12-13, 2016: Berkeley, CA
CoHo Solo Summer Fest, June 27 - 29, 2013: Portland, OR
KO Fest, July 27 - 29, 2012: Amherst, MA
59E59 Theaters, August 1 -19, 2012: New York, NY
Western Oregon University, May 14, 2012: Monmouth, OR
PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Feb 2, 2012: Vancouver, B.C.
Estacada Together, January 20, 2012: Estacada, OR
Ethos/IFCC, December 1-11, 2011: Portland, OR
New Orleans Fringe Festival, November 16-20, 2011: New Orleans, LA
City Arts Festival, October 21-22, 2011: Seattle, WA
Southern Oregon University, October 15-16, 2011: Ashland, OR
WAA Live! Arts! Mashup, August 31, 2011: Seattle, WA (excerpt)
The 1 Festival, Headwaters Theatre, July 15-16, 2011: Portland, OR
the mOuth at Zoomtopia, Jan 20 - February 5, 2011: Portland, OR
JAW Festival, Portland Center Stage, August 2011: Portland, OR (excerpt)
Risk/Reward Festival, BodyVox Dance Center, June 2011: Portland, OR (excerpt)
NW New Works Festival, On the Boards, June 2011: Seattle, WA (excerpt)