Feature: CATASTROPHIC THINKING by Carol Metcalf

Everyone can relate to disaster. If drama is conflict, then calamity is the seed of all good plays. Sometimes disaster takes people by surprise--like an earthquake. In these cases, drama is concerned with society's response to the crisis in its aftermath. In cases where the disaster is expected and inevitable, drama's focus can shift to society's response to this anticipation.

Local comedienne Carol Metcalf explores another narrative option in her new one-woman show, Catastrophic Thinking. The title refers to irrational leaps in logic that allow anticipation of disaster to manifest as everyday anxiety. Metcalf, who is a performer and a therapist, is specifically qualified to comment on her own lifetime of catastrophic thinking.

Metcalf, who worked at The Comedy Store and with The Groundlings, has been expressing her experience with catastrophic thinking through comedic characters for the duration of her career. "My history of catastrophic thinking is embedded in an interesting childhood," she says. "As a therapist, I have to create Genograms for multi-transmission of ways the family deals with stress; the gender specificity of power and roles." The show includes several thematic elements related to gender-specific conditioning, including examples of gender bias in psychiatry practice and mental health diagnoses and traditional gender roles on a military base through the women's lib movement.

Creation of a one-person show, especially an autobiographical monologue with musical and comedic elements, is a major undertaking. Metcalf calls the work emotional, exhausting, and exhilarating. "It's hard to include a truly personal history, especially about my mother and her struggles. Adding humor at intervals is important, and the ability to reframe these difficulties is healthy and resilient." As Metcalf reworks the show, she plans to add characters, including one based on a (female) Astronaut cousin. Through her work, Metcalf continues her focus on mental health, gender roles in family systems, and self-acceptance.

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