Deep Listening, by Teresa Weed, is a new one-person play developed by Still Point Theatre and is the core of a half-day seminar providing healthcare providers with continuing education. This performance piece and seminar explore the subjects of death, dying and end of life care and convey valuable insights to physicians, nurses, hospice workers, students, administrators, social workers, ministers and counselors.

Lisa Wagner, founder of Still Point and the show's sole performer, lived at a homeless shelter for people with HIV/AIDS for two years. Inspired by this experience, Wagner commissioned playwright Teresa Weed to create Deep Listening. In Weed's interviews with healthcare providers, she was informed that "As a culture, we are dying very badly." The result of this collaboration of artists and those in the field Has developed into, a vivid, moving play with music.

Deep Listening engages the audience with familiar stories, gentle humor and simple songs, reinforcing palliative education while candidly exploring the reality of what it is like to "look death in the face" on a daily basis. This 70 minute play serves as a discussion springboard for subsequent facilitations, encouraging audiences to integrate head and heart into their work. Deep Listening tours to healthcare facilities, conferences, schools and conventions.

A specialist in Internal Medicine with an interest in Geriatrics, Dr. Guy Rowley (the physician facilitating the post-show seminar) practices with Sage Medical Group in Chicago. Dr. Guy Rowley, Lisa Wagner and Jorge MadrigalA graduate of Harvard University, he received his medical training at Northwestern Medical School and Cook County Hospital, after which he practiced Emergency Medicine for several years. He also did an Intensive Care fellowship in France and has a Public Health degree from the University of Michigan. Dr. Rowley's main hospital associations are St. Joseph, Advocate Illinois Masonic, and Lincoln Park Hospitals, and he serves as Medical Director for the Northwest Home nursing home.

Deep Listening is written by Teresa Weed, directed by Virginia Smith, performed by Lisa Wagner, designed by Holly Windingstad, original music by Paul Amandes, with Jorge Madrigal as Technical Director. Deep Listening is supported in part by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Puffin Foundation and Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital (Ann Arbor, MI).

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