Unwind: Hindsight is 2020

Created by Heidi Kraay and Kate Kraay
Directed by Julia Griffin

Saturday, March 27th @6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern
This staged reading will premiere on the West of Lenin YouTube channel.

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Playwright, writer, and theatre maker Heidi Kraay examines the connection between brain and body, seeking empathy with fractured characters. Unwind: Hindsight is 2020 explores stress during this particular moment in history. Co-created with Kate Kraay, and based on survey responses from 90+ individuals, Unwind uncovers how stress affects the human body, women’s bodies in particular, and the Earth’s body. As we careen into a time where a recurring pandemic, autocratic and climate crises overcome us, Unwind asks how we can stay strong, calm, and heal in the face of disaster.

Heidi Kraay, Playwright:
"My hope is to reach out to others who face a debilitating struggle each day, which for many is harder than mine, and also to find a connection between the sickness chronic stress brings us as individuals and the sickness we have brought the earth as an individual being. I would love this play to offer healing or the possibility of healing to an audience, perhaps less through showing a glistening hopeful future where we conquer the problem like superheroes and live happily ever after, but through breathing together in our shared struggle and igniting a desire for action -- or rather for stillness, peace and changing what it means to move forward."

Kate Kraay, Co-Creator:
"The creation of this work has been a deep effort to connect the power of the feminine, as it is beset from all sides by a patriarchal, capitalistic system that is desperate to remain in sway. This desperation is blind even to the need for what we call Mother Earth, which is that delicate biome that we live in, each being dependent on the other to live in a state of balance. This work calls for attention to be paid, and shows that if the balance owed is not paid, Nature will extract that payment in ways that will take us by surprise."

Julia Griffin, Director:
“If you look at an icicle, it didn't get there overnight. Tiny drops of water started to trickle and to build and, if you're not paying attention, the next time you notice, there is a massive crystal stalactite on your porch. I feel that happens with people more than we would like to admit, but I think we all know. The story of the womxn in this play are all just about that; different stages of the icicles forming. Some have been there for as long as we can remember, some are aware enough to see the water droplets start to crystalize but can only watch in frozen awe."

***This reading of Unwind: Hindsight is 2020 is made possible in part by generous support from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.***

Featuring: Kate Kraay, Patti O’Hara, Shermona Mitchell, Megan Ahiers, Lexi Chipman
Directed by: Julia Griffin
Composed by: Ivory Smith
Production Manager: Miranda Pratt
With text contributions from Samantha Berry, Erica Elizabeth Dymen and anonymous contributors.

Read more about the Cast and Production Team