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JOURNAL beyond borders

Category: Videos

WBB on Stage

Zilah Mendoza, Joanne Nguyen, Meredith Baxter, Play Director Jenny Sullivan, Jennifer Leigh Warren, and Ulka Simone Mohanty

 

Rubicon Theatre Company

Ventura, California, USA
April 24 – June 2, 2019

Karyl Lynn Burns, Producing Artistic Director, Writer
James O’Neil, Artistic Director Emeritus
Jenny Sullivan, Director
Lorraine Serena, Writer
Claire Bowman, Writer
Lauren Patten, Writer
Beverly Ward, Writer, Original Song Composer
Michael Ward, Original Song Composer

 

WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS AND THE RUBICON

 

 

Inspired by Lorraine Serena and the Creators of Women Beyond Borders.

 

The Rubicon’s Producing Artistic Director, Karyl Lynn Burns, first became aware of Women Beyond Borders in the late ‘90s, when she heard Lorraine Serena speak at a public event in Santa Barbara. Burns recalled, “I had never heard anyone speak so powerfully about the positive impact of art on building community.”

 

“I later wished I had recorded Lorraine’s comments as I have wanted to go back and listen with relish to every word over and over again. It was a transformative experience for me. Lorraine’s influence made me want to do more as an artist. It was much of the reason I wanted to become an arts administrator – I wanted to facilitate the kinds of conversations that happen when a idea resonates with an individual or a community.”

 

“After later seeing an exhibit and reading the artist’s statements,” said Burns, “I knew as a theatre practitioner that those statements should be given a voice onstage.”

 

“We have talked off and on over the years about the possibility,” continued Burns. “Our board felt that now was a perfect moment to share these stories. We are extremely grateful to the Women Beyond Borders’ leaders and board for being responsive to the idea and allowing us to begin what we know will be a beautiful journey together.”

 

THE WORLD PREMIERE

 

The Rubicon Theatre’s stage all set for the premiere

 

Over the course of about 85 minutes, the audience was transported to a forest in Upstate New York, a classroom in Rwanda, a boat fleeing Saigon — so many places and experiences that are deeply personal and yet universal. While the actors performed, images of many of the boxes were projected onto a big screen.

 – Emily Dodi, VCReporter

 

For the Rubicon premiere, company members created a play in which the journey of the WBB project is interwoven with excerpts from many of the artist’s statements. Says Rubicon Artistic Director Karyl Lynn Burns, “We hope the play will provide serious and humorous insights into relationships between grandmothers, mothers and daughters, sisters, and friends; birth and the process of raising children; how women view their bodies; oppression and war; fairy tales, dreams and myths; and even our obsession with shoes.” The actors who expertly performed during the World Premiere were as follows: Meredith Baxter, Zilah Mendoza, Joanne Nguyen, Jennifer Leigh Warren, and Ulka Simone Mohanty. Preceding the premiere gala, the Rubicon Theatre produced a Tribute to Lorraine Serena for her work as founder of Women Beyond Borders.

 

THE PREMIERE GALA

 

Zilah Mendoza, Jenny Sullivan, Lorraine Serena and Karyl Lynn Burns at the premiere gala

 

THE PRODUCTION

 

Claire Bowman and Lauren Patten hard at work at a script meeting

 

Little things mean a lot, especially when they’re fueled by bold and creative ideas. In Rubicon Theatre Company’s innovative “Women Beyond Borders,” on stage through June 2, a rotating cast of five women expresses a diverse flow of ideas inspired by regional artist and activist Lorraine Serena and her outreach to artists throughout the world.

 – Rita Moran, Theater Critic

 

The production of WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS was helmed by Rubicon Artistic Associate Jenny Sullivan, and written by Claire Bowman, Karyl Lynn Burns, Lauren Patten and Beverly Ward, with additional stories by Stephanie Coltrin and Sandra Tsing Loh. The production included extensive use of video projection to showcase the vast number of boxes included in the project. The multi-media was co-created by Yee Eun Nam and Eunnym Cho, who also credit for scenic design. The international, all-female design team also included Azra King-Abadi as Lighting Designer.

 

Lorraine and Frank Serena assisted with the talented writing team and dramaturgical assistant Samantha Winters to organize the stories into common themes or threads, to give the show a beginning and an end, and create an arc. Stephanie Coltrin-Beyries has also provided enormous support on the project and added a personal story of her own to the play.

 

Lorraine Serena and Lauren Patten

 

VIDEO PREVIEWS

 

 

 

 

THE ACTORS WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE

 

World Premiere – Meredith Baxter, Zilah Mendoza, Joanne Nguyen, Jennifer Leigh Warren, Ulka Simone Mohanty

 

Week 2 – Amanda Mcbroom, Zilah Mendoza, Joanne Nguyen, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Pallavi Srinivasan

 

Week 3 – Cristina Frias, Jodi Kimura Michael Learned, Jennifer Leigh Warren, Ulka Simone Mohanty

 

Week 4 – Susan Clark, Kimiko Gelman, Zilah Mendoza, Ulka Simone Mohanty, Jennifer Leigh Warren

 

Week 5 – Susan Clark, Kimiko Gelman, Zilah Mendoza, Ulka Simone Mohanty, Jennifer Leigh Warren

 

Week 6 – Donna Simone Johnson, Sandra Tsing Loh, Zilah Mendoza, Ulka Simone Mohanty, Linda Purl

 

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE RUBICON’S SPONSORS

Photo: Jeanne Tanner
 
The Bowman Family Trust, Stone Busailah, LLP, Cafe Nouveau, Laughing Dog Ranch/Mary Anne Morrison
 

Mongolian Exhibition

Lorraine Serena and Narantsetseg Tserendagva

 

Ulaanbaatar Exhibition

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Unknown Date

Narantsetseg Tserendagva, Organizer, Artist
Vesna Wallace, Contact, UCSB
Jan Dunbar, Contact, Designer

 

WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS IN MONGOLIA

 
Dear Lorraine Serena
I am Narantsetseg Tserendagva who met you in your
studio in California during my visit to the USA. I was invited by AWIU in 2003.
I was so impressed with the Women Beyond Borders exhibition.
That was wonderful! And everything, a book, video cassette, was great. I said myself I will do this project in my country sometime.
Recently the Youth Gender Center organized and advertised the Women Beyond Borders Exhibition in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia and its largest city.
BOXES: What do they express? How beautiful they are. We are discussing two subjects:
1. Hurt feelings of those who are hit by violence.
2. Sexual harassment of different layers of society.
I hope you will send us your comments about this and help us to find financial aid.
All looking forward to your reply.
Sincerely yours,
Narantsetseg Tserendagva
 

FRIENDS OF FRIENDS

 
Jan Dunbar, a friend of Lorraine Serena, contacted a close friend of her own, Vesna Wallace, a professor of Religious Studies at UC Santa Barbara, who traveled to Mongolia to raise awareness about Women Beyond Borders and to bring back the beautiful box shown below.
 

Batchuluun, Altanzaya – The Color of Life, 2003, Mongolia

 
We never know that our color of life is so rich and various.
 
You should feel it and live with them.
 
If you don’t feel it you would be lost.
 

VIDEO: 10 Year Retrospective

 

Women Beyond Borders 10 Year Retrospective at UCSB University Art Museum in 2002. At the opening in Santa Barbara, the Chancellor of UCSB, Henry T. Yang and his wife Dilling Yang attended the event, which included many cultural ceremonies, dancers and musicians representing all different cultures from around the world. The University Art Museum had over 7,000 viewers with adjunct projects coordinated with the UCSB Multicultural Center, Women’s Center and Girls Inc. of Santa Barbara, and the TRIBE teen program.

 

Girls Inc.

 

University Art Museum, UCSB

Santa Barbara, CA
October – December 2002

Christine Scott, Girls Inc. Program Director, Art Therapist
Jody Nelson, Girls Inc. Program Director, Filmmaker

 

Women Beyond Borders collaborated with Girls Inc. at the Ten-Year Retrospective in 2002. Girls Inc. held workshops where young students created boxes that were exhibited at the WBB exhibition. Christine Scott worked throughout the program to empower young girls to tell their truth through art. After the program was completed the girls were encouraged to keep their boxes as reminders of their powers of self-expression. Below are a few heartfelt statements the girls wrote to describe their boxes.

A pair of young artists with their boxes and their teacher at the exhibition

 

 

Emmaly Read, Age 8 – Court – California, USA
I was thinking about how a judge who doesn’t know me, my dad or my mom changes my whole entire life in a few minutes. I think if you live with your mom, you should get to still see your dad every few weeks, and if you live with your dad, you should still get to see your mom every few weeks. I don’t like how you can never see your dad or mom again because some judge says that. Judges should have to learn how to meet somebody before they judge them.

 

Breanna Maxwell, Age 10 – Nothing, Something – California, USA
My box is about being a girl who doesn’t have a dad who lives with me and who has a dad that lives in a car and doesn’t live in a house. My dad doesn’t have a house, he has a car as a house. He made the wrong decision. It is his fault but the devil just made him. He made a very, very, very, very dumb decision. It sometimes feels like I have a dumb dad.

 

Rebecca Ramos, Age 10 – A Mess – California, USA
My aunt says that girls in Mexico start cleaning when they are 5. They clean because their parents have to work. I have to clean a lot because my mom isn’t there. I have to wash the dishes and take out the garbage and clean the bathroom and get my sister ready for daycare and clean our room. (Sarah helps me) I wish everybody in my family would pick up their mess instead of me cleaning it.

 


Girls Inc. Program Film by Jody Nelson

 
 

Christine Scott and her students view the original boxes at Lorraine Serena’s studio

 

 

 

SEE THE TEN YEAR RETROSPECTIVE PAGE