BWW Preview: A IS FOR ABORTION Seeks to Normalize Women's Right To Choose

Like The Vagina Monologues before it, Cassandra Hume's The A-is-for-Abortion Play, presented this weekend at Center Stage by the Santa Barbara Pro-Choice Coalition, personalizes the decision many women face regarding whether to keep or terminate a pregnancy. The A-is-for-Abortion Play offers a deeper look into several women's journeys as they navigate this difficult choice--and how to deal with the stigma associated with the decision to end the pregnancy. This production is an attempt to reclassify the choice to have an abortion as a personal decision and investment in the future rather than a destructive, polarizing social issue. Director Kellyn Johnson describes this play as one that gives a human face to a procedure too often associated with divergence of opinion, both political and societal.

The stories of emotional struggle at the root of the play's narrative are based on the real-life experiences of women Hume interviewed in writing the play. The A-Is-For-Abortion Play focuses on several women in a clinic waiting room; as their stories unfold, the audience learns the details of each woman's situation, including the choices that lead them to the decision to (or not to) terminate their pregnancies. These women, played by local actresses Samantha Eve, Erica Flor, Terry Li, Sydney Wesson, and Rosalee Wollman, lend their voices to the conversation, giving the issues broached in this production an appropriately poignant and sympathetic context.

On this upcoming 43rd Anniversary of the Roe V. Wade decision, The A-Is-For-Abortion Play presents the social landscape of abortion from a standpoint that includes various generations and genders. It presents a narrative that builds a sense of community amongst characters in order to alleviate the feeling many women have of being unsupported in their decision to maintain or abort a pregnancy. Men are represented, too--as allies. Johnson emphasizes that this play as one that portrays healthy, productive relationships.

Abortion has become a dirty word. Many people argue that the choice to have an abortion should be personal, but the secrecy and shame that those on the other side of the argument perpetuate too often effects the people most at risk: the women faced with the decision. This play approaches the abortion conversation from a variety of angles, and features the point of view of women in a number of situations and backgrounds. It's a theatrical work that emphasizes the personal rather than the propaganda.

With a comfortable blend of humor and drama, A-is-for-Abortion handles the emotions that accompany the choice to terminate a pregnancy, including confusion, regret, and relief, with empathy. Certainly no piece of theatre can speak for an entire population; instead, The A-Is-For Abortion Play seeks to continue this debate by presenting a compassionate and open-minded portrayal of individual situations via realistic and diverse characterizations of women. Especially important for the underrepresented women in our culture, theatre of this nature is a way to push the normalization of this medical procedure rather than charging the concept with outmoded morality. This play is about women controlling their own destiny in the face of difficult decisions. The ladies of the Santa Barbara Pro-Choice Coalition are creating art that initiates an important conversation with audiences from both sides of this issue.

The Santa Barbara Pro-Choice Coalition Presents

The A-Is-For-Abortion Play

By Cassandra Hume
Directed by Kellyn Johnson

@ Center Stage Theatre
Saturday, January 23rd @ 8:00pm
Sunday January 24th @ 2:00pm

centerstagetheater.org