By Melissa Bergstrom and Kate Marple

Directed by Danielle Turner

FEATURING

Members of the Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group and community members

In 2014, playwrights Melissa Bergstrom and Kate Marple had both just turned 30, and felt largely defined by the ways they made their livings. Melissa was struggling with the idea of what it means to be an artist with a day job. And Kate, after retreating into work during a long period of illness, was trying to figure out where work was supposed to fit in the new life she was building. And everywhere they went, it seemed like every person they met asked the same first question, “What do you do?”

Eager to explore the role work plays in shaping both people's sense of self and their relationships, the playwrights interviewed people across the United States--farmers, pharmacists, retail workers, at-home parents, accountants, housekeepers, aerospace engineers, and others. What began as conversation about work, quickly evolved into a deeper exploration about what is expected of us, how much control we have in where we end up, what we will leave behind, and whether or not we really can have it all.

The portraits of the real people depicted in the play reveal the rich inner lives we all lead, and beckon us to explore what questions we should be asking in order to truly know one another.

TICKETS

$25 General Admission

$20 Students/Senior Admissions

Discounts for un(der)employed available

ENGAGEMENT EVENTS

Third Act—There will be a 20 minute “third act” for audience members to engage with the cast, director, and producer.

Reception—After each performance, there will be reception with light refreshments

ACCESS

The building is handicapped accessible

Large Print Programs can be made available upon request with one week notice

Sign Language Interpreters will be available upon request with two weeks notice

CONTACT

Janet Glover-Kerkvliet, LCPC-S, GCDF, NCC

BJHSG Director

[email protected]

410-627-2372 cell

410-435-1506 office

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR, DANIELLE TURNER

Dani Turner is a director, producer and administrator based in Baltimore, MD. For the past two seasons, she has served as the Artistic Assistant at Baltimore Center Stage. This season, she is taking on a new role as Education Coordinator. Recent directing credits include Lipstick, A Queer Farce (reading, Cohesion Theatre Company), Spank Me (Wearing Only Your Yarmulke) (Playwrights at the Grand),What Makes Us Feel Good (Dixon Place), Stupid F*cking Bird (Loophole Productions), Cordelia (Collaborations), Awaken: A Surrealist Circus (Collaborations), and Not Not Not Enough Oxygen (PTC). Recent assistant directing credits include Crude (Black Lab/Ars Nova), The Bachelors (Lesser America), Bright Star (workshop, Powerhouse/NYSAF). Dani has also worked with Everyman Theatre, The Tristan Bates Theatre, Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center, New York Stage and Film, and Classic Stage Company. She is the co-founder of Potluck: Young Playwrights and Directors Collective and Paper Kraine Productions at the Kraine Theater in New York. Dani is also a former Creative Team member at Idina Menzel’s A BroaderWay Foundation. She is currently the dramaturg on Baltimore Shakespeare Factory’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, running October 26 through November 18.

ABOUT THE BJHSG DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER, JANET GLOVER-KERKVLIET

Janet Glover-Kerkvliet, NCC, LCPC, GCDF is a career development facilitator and adult and couples therapist in Baltimore, MD. She is a Certified Prepare/Enrich Premarital/Marital Facilitator and an Imago Relationship Therapist. Ms. Glover-Kerkvliet has experience counseling clients dealing with life/career issues, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, co-occurring disorders, addiction recovery. She facilitates counseling groups and workshops designed to assist people with relationship issues, employment barriers, racial microaggressions, and other mental health concerns. As Director of the Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group, Ms. Glover-Kerkvliet is an advocate for the Healthy Workplace/Anti-Bullying Bill and legislative measures that assist long-term unemployed workers. She is the former program director of the Family Employment and Support Program at the Circuit Court for Baltimore County and GenesisJobs/Goodwill Industries. She is also an experienced freelance medical writer and editor.

ABOUT THE BALTIMORE JOB HUNTERS SUPPORT GROUP (BJHSG)

The Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group (BJHSG) is a volunteer-led group that provides emotional, psychological, and spiritual (if requested) support to older un(der)employed workers who are dealing with the pain and uncertainty of mid-career job loss. BJHSG was started in November 2011 by Rev. Carol Cook and Nancy Jeannechild as an outreach program of First Christian Church, now the Corner Community Center. During 2018-2019, BJHSG will expand from a group into a program that includes coaching, advocacy, counseling, mutual mentoring, volunteering, and connection to resources, for all persons seeking employment search assistance, with emphasis on long-term unemployed workers (defined as those who have been seeking employment for 6 months or more without success) affected by the Great Recession and those who are age 45+ workers.

ABOUT THE CORNER COMMUNITY CENTER

The Corner Community Center (CCC) is a Maryland non-profit with 501(c)(3) status whose mission is to enrich our community by providing a facility for worship, arts, education, recreation, and celebration for personal and collective growth. Located in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore City, CCC is the home of five congregations and 24 groups. CCC is working to enhance and expand the use of its building and grounds to provide opportunities to network, learn about environmental changes, present speakers and programs that deal with city-wide concerns and offer spaces for meeting and programs.

PRESS CONTACT

Janet Glover-Kerkvliet, LCPC-S, GCDF, NCC

BJHSG Director

[email protected]

410-627-2372 cell

410-435-1506 office