Back in the fall of 2018, artist and spiritual therapist Jenna Wadsworth McCarty received what felt like a divine message about spreading art and healing across the nation (using a yurt--two in fact--of all things!). It was a powerful vision, but McCarty wrote it off, finding herself simply too busy with her growing healing practice to follow this calling. Not long after, she had what she calls her "Jonah and the Whale" moment when her growing team of healers shrank to one, and she found herself in a time that felt like...divine intervention. She started planning the art exhibit, taking the next steps to become the artist she was intended to be.
And now, McCarty shares that journey and her art in her debut production Emergence: First Flight, a truly unique solo show experience playing at The Complex this June as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
In her lyrical, debut production, McCarty asks what's a girl to do when she's born to be an artist but has no idea how to be one? She hangs a blank canvas on the wall and lets the story unravel from there. McCarty invites audience members to witness her process of healing, demonstrating a tenacity for hope amidst a struggle with depression, anxiety, and a loss of purpose and place. When all else fails, she delves deep to emerge. Along with her songs, poetry, and art, she tells a story that touches the untouchable and enlightens the heavy load. Emergence: First Flight is ultimately a story that lifts the audience. Original songs, poetry, and visual arts captivate, while a new piece of art is created during each performance.
"This show is creation before your eyes and an invitation to answer your own soul's calling as I share the story of my own personal calling," McCarty said. "I want to strike a resonant chord with my audience that carries them on the wave of a poetic and neo-mythic performance."
And THAT is why this solo show is not a solo show. While McCarty does offer storytelling, it's more about creating a connection with her audience, making living art in the moment. Early in each show, McCarty brings out a blank canvas and a new work of art develops during the performance. The connection with her patrons entices them to dig deep with her.
"This is a Healing Arts performance, offering an experience of the creative process and of transformation," she said. "Patrons will be expertly guided on a journey through the deepest and darkest places as well as to the highest of highs."
Emergence: First Flight premiered in February at The Wayward Artist Theater in downtown Santa Ana. But really, Emergence began as an art exhibit in Irvine in the summer 2019. The show's director, Craig Tyrl, theatre professor at California State-Fullerton and founding Artistic Director at The Wayward Artist, helped her re-envision her exhibit and refine the story of her artist's journey as a one-woman show.
Ultimately McCarty hopes to follow her vision and take this show (and her art) across the nation, leaving a trail of healing along the way. For now, Hollywood Fringe is a wonderful start.
"My intention is for this production to touch the place of deep unmet needs and wants within each audience member," she said. "And for them to walk away feeling lighter, freer, more secure and more capable than when they first arrived."
Performances run June 5-25, 2022.
TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATION: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/7437
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Good Night, Oscar North Coast Repertory (9/16-10/11) |
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Much Ado About Nothing McCadden Place Theatre (8/07-8/16) |
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6 Out of 10 Theatre 68 (8/20-8/20) |
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After the Blast The Broadwater Second Stage (8/05-8/13) |
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Catch Me If You Can Colony Theatre (9/17-10/18) |
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Emily Skinner: In Concert Feinstein's at the Nikko (8/14-8/15) |
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Gershwin and the Golden Age Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) (10/11-10/11) |
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John Lloyd Young Feinstein's at the Nikko (8/21-8/22) |
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Love, Loss and What I Wore Sawyer's Playhouse (8/08-8/30) |
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Our Man in Santiago by Mark Wilding Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (9/10-9/20) |