STREAMING: Thank You for Holding: The Caregiver Play Project

THIS EVENT IS FOR THE STREAMING EVENT. IF YOU'RE LOOKING TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR THE LIVE THEATER EVENT VISIT THIS PAGE.

Based on the true stories of caregivers across the spectrum of experiences, audiences will experience a series of interlocking fictional scenes that use puppetry, song, movement, and humor to entertain and provoke conversation and thought.

In the middle of the night, mysterious forces demand that Jonah accept a calling for caregiving that he would do anything to avoid. Carol battles with the inadequacies of social service support while she tries to ensure her brother gets the best care possible. Liyou cares for her aging mother and complex family while dealing with the demands and microaggressions of being a nurse, and Malcolm loses himself trying to support his mentally ill partner. Parents grapple with the joys and trials of caring for adult children with disabilities, program staff that tries to build community among people of all abilities, teenage children experience role reversals caring for sick parents and middle-aged, and adults care for their aging parents. Each character is alone and unique in their experiences, but united in the secret club that is being a caregiver.  

The show asks the audience to consider: What does a community of care look like? How do we place a value on care as a society?

For the past 2 years, Wonderlust Productions has been conducting interviews and story circles with almost 150 Twin Cities caregivers. These include staff at MSS (formerly Midwest Special Services), therapists at Creative Kuponya, caregiver support groups at Comunidades Latinos Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), the Karen Organization of Minnesota, and Covenant Living Senior Living, home health care workers, daycare workers, end of life doulas, educators, doctors, and more. 

From these interviews, a team of local artist writers led by Alan Berks and Leah Cooper and including Vinecia Coleman, Antonio Duke, Bradley Greenwald, Matt Guidry, Masanari Kawahara, and Sarah Myers created a play which dramatizes caregiving from a multitude of perspectives. 

The full production features a mix of professional caregivers, at-home caregivers, and professional actors collaborating in a show that features the diversity of caregiver experiences, the joy and grief that comes with caregiving, the complications of the healthcare system, and celebrates care as the glue that holds all of us together.