Everything that I make fun of in this play I have done myself – from meditations to trust falls to extended eye-gazing to fire-walking to experiencing sudden outbursts of emotion that come out of nowhere.  I love all of it.  But I also resist it with my entire being.  I sign up for workshops, but then when the time comes actually to go, I start making up excuses for why I shouldn’t or imagine all the things I could be doing instead.  (Once I even hoped I had pneumonia so that I wouldn’t be able to go.)

 

The whole New-Age movement can have some real downsides.  Some workshops and teachers shamelessly appropriate Native American or Eastern traditions.  Others misuse power or are careless in how they allow people to treat each other.  There’s more than enough reason to stay away from all of it.  At the same time, though, they can put participants face to face with really important (and really difficult) questions, like:  What do you really want in life?  What do you value more than anything?  What are you doing to tend to the relationships in your life? And who are you really?  I’ve found that my life has been changed when I’ve confronted these questions.  So despite my resistance, and despite the many difficulties with these workshops, I keep going. 

 

Now, it’s true that I exaggerate a bit in the play.  Not every workshop participant is like Steve, who expresses himself solely in movement, or Star-Thunder Hawk Flower, whose Irish appearance wars with her self-created Native American identity, or Candy, whose sexual energy seemingly can’t be contained even for a moment.  Or like our hero, who finds that he doesn’t actually know what he wants and is not sure he’s willing to risk finding out.

 

Or maybe they are closer to us than we think?

 

Come see “The Weekend Workshop” and decide for yourself!