Deep Listening

Deep Listening is a one-person play developed by Still Point Theatre exploring the subjects of death, dying and end of life care and conveys valuable insights to congregations, physicians, nurses, hospice workers, students, administrators, social workers, ministers and counselors.

Lisa Wagner-Carollo, 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.

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, churches, and conventions.

Deep Listening is performed by Lisa Wagner-Carollo with original music by Paul Amandes, designed by Holly Windingstad, with Chris Carollo 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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Haunted By God

Haunted by God: The Life of Dorothy Day is an acclaimed play about the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, who spent 47 years caring for the poor and leading the Catholic Church to a more active concern for the needy in U.S. society.

Hailed as "a moving, magnificent one-woman show," this dramatic portrait, featuring Still Point Founding Director Lisa Wagner-Carollo, follows Dorothy from her days as a 17 year-old Greenwich Village bohemian, through her middle years as a social activist and journalist to her later years as an elderly, wise leader.

Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a powerful woman of immense conviction. In 1933, she and a French-born itinerant philosopher Peter Maurin co-founded the Catholic Worker in New York. The Catholic Worker became a living movement that has been responsible for feeding and housing the homeless, while maintaining a monthly nationally-read newspaper. Today, there are over 100 Catholic Worker houses in the United States and around the world, including communities in Toronto and Oxford, England.

Dorothy spent 47 years living with the poor and challenging the U.S. Government to halt acts of war. She is known as the "mother of the peace movement" in the United States and has influenced such American peacemakers as Daniel Berrigan and Michael Harrington. Day has been called "the most significant, interesting and influential person in the history of the American Catholic Church."

Haunted by God was performed at the Pax Christi International Conference in Assisi, Italy in May of 1995. In 1999, it was performed in Cape Town, South Africa at the Parliament of World Religions. It was written by Paul Amandes, Lisa Wagner-Carollo (who also portrays Day) and Robert McClory. Directed by Virginia Smith, with costume and set design by Daniel Ostling, this acclaimed production has been touring the U.S. since May 1990 (including Guam/2006) and toured Europe in February and March of 1994.

Lisa Wagner-Carollo is now offering a one day retreat on the life and spirituality of Dorothy Day. For more info., click here.



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House Shows

Still Point Theatre Collective's Haunted by God: The Life of Dorothy Day House Show is now available for anyone living in the Chicago land area who has a large living room and who will host at least 10 guests for the audience. The guests/audience members must understand that the performance is a fundraiser for Still Point.

By hosting a House Show you are partnering with Still Point Theatre Collective. Still Point staff will provide the technical support and the performance. We will come to your home and help you transform your living room into a performance space. We will provide the back drop and the lighting. World renowned actress Lisa Wagner-Carollo will provide a moving performance (please see a video clip and written information about Haunted by God: The Life of Dorothy Day).

As the host, you are expected to provide invitations for your guests sent out via email or mail at least 3-weeks in advance of the performance, and a reminder to guests sent one week in advance of the performance. The host is expected to provide refreshments and a warm and inviting atmosphere. It is highly recommended that you invite more than 10 people to ensure you have at least 10 guests. After the performance a hat will be passed around for audience donations.



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Strong Women

Still Point has created a short theatrical piece entitled Strong Women, which is built solely around poetry written by women incarcerated at the Cook County jail. This inspiring performance explores the shock of arrival and separation from children, the experience of incarceration and abuse, the search for one's spirit in the midst of adversity, and the quest to grow as a person and eventually release long-held fears.

The piece is performed by current or past facilitators in the Persephone Project prison workshops. The thirty minute performance is followed by brief reflections given by the performers about their own experiences working with women in prison.

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