 |
 |
|
|
|
April 29-May 1, 2005
For over 20 years, Olympia Dukakis and Leslie Ayvazian have been working with women over 30. developing methods that explore and investigate the information held in the Sumarian myth, the Descent of Innana. They use the poetry of Enheduanna, High Priestess of Innana in about 2300 B.C., to guide participants through a series of acting exercises and improvisations that take them into the heart of the myth. Many of the women who descend into the myth discover voices that their lives have conspired to silence. Finding that lost voice can be invigorating and liberating.
Olympia Dukakis works as an actress, director, producer, teacher, activist, and recently wrote her memoir Ask Me Again Tomorrow. She received an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress, the NY and LA Film Critics’ Awards, and the Golden Globe Award for her work in the Norman Jewison film Moonstruck, as well as two OBIE Awards for Bertolt Brecht’s A Man’s A Man and Christopher Durang’s The Marriage of Bette and Boo. She’s appeared in over 130 productions on and off-Broadway and regionally, including A Mother, Mother Courage, The Rose Tattoo, The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Sea Gull, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Iphegenia in Aulis, Othello, Enemies, Miss Julie, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Night of the Iguana and The Milktrain Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore. She’s appeared in innumerable films and TV shows, including the Tales of the City series, based on the writings of Armistead Maupin. Her social activism centers around issues dealing with the health and safety of women and children worldwide, human rights, and the environment. She and her husband, actor Louis Zorich, have three grown children and three grandchildren.
Leslie Ayvazian’s first one-person show was Footlights, in which she played l2 different characters, changing roles by changing shoes. In l996, Leslie wrote the full-length play Nine Armenians, which played in NYC and won the Outer Critics Award for Best New Play and many other awards. She then wrote Singer’s Boy, four one act plays called Plan Day, Twenty Four Years, Hi There, Mr., Machine, Deaf Day, and High Dive, a one woman show in which she starred. Her new full length, play is Rosemary and I. She has taught at Oberlin, Smith, Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, Drew, NYU, and many other colleges. With Olympia Dukakis and Joan MacIntosh, she created “Voices of Earth,” which they’ve performed for twelve years across the country. She enjoys working as an actress, playwright, and teacher and is the happy mother to son Ivan and wife to architect Sam Anderson.
“I feel found. There is no doubt in my being that this feeling comes from the work of Innana that we women did this weekend in the sacred black theatre space on Third St. I feel found. I read and seek and even have done tantric, shamanistic, and metaphysical work, but I have lacked an epicenter for all that work. In these myths of Innana and Ereshkigal, I feel very, very found. So I thank you for your teaching, for your generosity and patience, for your light and understanding, for your tough and nurturing love and support, and most of all for turning your ears inward again and again and again to unearth these sacred rituals and teachings to make us whole anew. The teaching goes on and on, and for this, I ‘overflow with blessing.’ ”
— Letter from a participant