Faith Stories Project History
In 2003, Looking for Lilith’s Co-Artistic Director, Jennifer Thalman Kepler, spent a year living in a rural town on the west coast of Guatemala, through the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). Using her background in Educational Theatre, Jennifer taught literacy and leadership skills to women in her community—a task that was daunting due to the patriarchal and oppressive nature of the church structure within which she was working. When one of Jennifer’s workshop participants asked her what her job was back in the States, and she explained that she worked for a women’s theatre company that created original plays based on women’s experiences, the woman said, “Well, why don’t you bring them here, and do that with us?”
Jennifer began to think about how she might share her skills and experience in Theatre of the Oppressed work to open a conversation among the Guatemalan women based on two questions: “How does your faith liberate you?” and “How do the structures of your faith oppress you?”
In 2005, 3 artists from Looking for Lilith traveled to Guatemala and worked with over 100 Guatemalan women, both indigenous and Ladina (of European descent), collecting oral histories and creating theatre pieces based on responses to those two questions, which were then shared back with the Guatemalan participants. The women’s response was that seeing their stories performed was incredibly validating, and the project has grown exponentially over the last 18 years, as our Guatemalan sisters have moved from being our students and our audience to being our partners and collaborators. Each step of the process has been prescribed by our Guatemalan sisters.
In 2006, the participants asked to train as actors and perform their own stories, and LFL artists spent two months working with them to build their theatre skills and create scenes based around the two central questions of the project mentioned above. In creating scenes based on these experiences the women were able to reflect on their experiences in a dynamic and collaborative way.
In 2007, the participants asked to learn to more about facilitating and leading their own theatre-based workshops in their communities. LFL artists created and implemented a training program and Spanish language leader’s manual to this end.
In 2008, the women created a 45 min play and performed it publicly for the first time and the audience was riveted! After the performance, the women reflected on how much they had grown and what an empowering experience it was to perform publicly.
In 2009 and 2010, the participants began a yearly cultural exchange with delegations of women from First Presbyterian Church, Winchester, VA and Fairfax Presbyterian Church, Fairfax, VA that accompany LFL to Guatemala.
In 2011, they decided that they wanted to use their theatre skills to explore other topics of women’s oppression in their society. As a first step toward this, together we created and shared a theatre-based workshop on doctor-patient communication with health-care workers in the Mayan community Pacjac.
In 2012, they studied the ways in which systemic economic oppression affects nutrition, and created an interactive piece and workshop on this topic, which was shared with women on public assistance in Pacjac.
In 2013, Looking for Lilith artists, the women from the churches in Virginia and our Guatemala partners spent a week studying the issue of violence against women as it manifests itself in Guatemala. Together we reflected theatrically on our week of study, creating movement pieces that represented our reflections. We also created two scenes - one depicting a situation of domestic violence and the other a home without violence - and worked on creating a workshop around those scenes.
In 2014, our Guatemalan partners made their first visit to the U.S.! Read more about this exceptional collaboration and their visit here. Hot on the heels of the Guatemalans’ first visit here, LFL artists performed UnCaged/Desenjauladas at Walden Theatre, as part of the 3rd Annual Slant Culture Theatre Festival. This short play was a reflection on the previous decade of this groundbreaking collaboration, and how our compañeras discovered their artistic voices by sharing their stories and creating theatre based on their experiences.