Cleaning in the House of Healing

Theater of Witness is excited to introduce Constance, Gloria, El-Shara, Jerome, Nicole, and Shamona – six Environmental Service Workers who clean in area hospitals and perform in Cleaning in the House of Healing.All of them have been cleaning since they were young. They’ve been doing the invisible but essential work that most of us don’t want to see. Some of them grew up cleaning for elderly neighbors and family, others in stadiums, on city streets, and/or in hotels. They all became Environmental Service Workers (EVS) in hospitals where they have stories of cleaning in trauma bays, patient rooms, doctor’s offices, and emergency departments. As Constance Turner has said, “I’ve seen it all and I’ve cleaned it all”.

With dignity and poetry, they share their personal life stories as well as their experiences and emotions after cleaning in a hospital setting following trauma, violence, illness and care.

Theater of Witness is a form of testimonial performance and documentary films performed by people sharing their personal and collective stories of suffering, transformation and peace. Developed more than thirty years ago by Artistic Director Teya Sepinuck, the work brings people together across divides of difference to bear witness to each other’s life experiences. Performers who have survived trauma, marginalization, oppression, and the complexity of the human experience, address some of society’s most challenging issues from a multiplicity of perspectives.

The performances weave the performers’ stories together with music, spoken word, visual imagery and film into dynamic theater that humanizes the ’other’ and cultivates compassion and empathy. The result is authentic, raw and powerful theater that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.

Lead support for Cleaning in the House of Healing is provided by the William Penn Foundation.

Lunch provided. Credit available for the Asano Humanities and Health Certificate. Learn more at Jefferson.edu/Asano.

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at [email protected].

Image: Constance Turner

Host or Publisher Jefferson Humanities & Health