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Friday, January 20, 2023
Seattle play highlights health care workers’ accounts of pandemic’s early days
The Seattle Times: In the early days of the pandemic, performer and writer Gloria Alcalá sat at home in Seattle, hearing horror stories from a roommate, whose sister was an ICU nurse in Long Island.
6 comments:
Alex Reinard
said...
I think that this is simply a great idea for a play, and a great way to share the story of healthcare providers during the covid pandemic. After all, theater is one of the best ways to tell a story while conveying the power it warrants. I have a sister who's a nurse; she had just started working as an RN less than a year before the outbreak. Even though she was fortunate enough to be working in a part of the hospital that didn't allow COVID cases (transplant floor) I can still remember her talking about how much more difficult the job got as the pandemic surged. I think Alcalá made a good choice by incorporating real experiences and word for word statements from the workers. Even though the first outbreak and the hardest times are (probably) past, I think that today, a lot of people are forgetting that we're still battling the pandemic. I hope that this play does healthcare workers justice and gets them the appreciation they deserve.
I think healthcare workers during the pandemic are a great topic for a stageplay. Theatre is a platform to tell the stories of the unheard, and most people, including myself, don’t completely comprehend what it was really like for those healthcare workers. The fact that the play was written using real interviews and quotes from real workers makes the whole thing so much more personal. One of my favorite plays, The Laramie Project, was written the same way. The whole script is just a compilation of interviews from residents of Laramie, Wyoming. Hearing personal accounts causes the audience to connect to the characters so much more and really take in the messages of the story. It’s unfortunate that some stories had to be cut from the script to create a cohesive story, but it doesn’t make those stories any less important. Hopefully, those who go to see An Endless Shift leave with a new understanding and respect for healthcare workers who dedicate their lives to others’ wellbeing.
I think it’s great that the story of the pandemic is being told, especially one that pays respect to the frontline workers who were at the most risk. Gloria Alcalá’s big heart and strong empathy for others allow her to produce such a heavy, yet much-needed story. The fact that she tries to gather as many primary sources as possible is also incredible because of how taxing it could be trying to digest all the stories that reveal so much struggle. In one of my classes last year, we learnt a lot about the pandemic, and to hear about the medical staff’s perspectives is truly shocking, and many of them had severe burnout with many still suffering from associated mental health conditions. Since the COVID-19 pandemic affected so many people globally, there’s no doubt that there will be more work surrounding this topic in the future, and I’m excited to see what is being produced.
this topic is definitely worth talking about and should be published through forms in art. Especially with theater, it resonates and encourages audiences to think about instances within their own life. For me, as an example, I’m thought about how my high school roommates parents being healthcare workers and were talking to patients who were sick with COVID. Seattle is also a city that has been impacted a lot during the pandemic, especially it having one of the first cases of COVID within United States. Productions with topics similar to this will be produced over and over again in the future. As it being a period of time that have impacted people around the globe seriously, it is natural to predict that there will be an increase in production center around COVID in the future. In addition, these relatable topics attracts audience and are automatically selling seats just from the topic itself.
This must be an incredible piece of work and as much as I want to see it, it must also be a difficult piece to sit with as a non-healthcare worker. I will also refer to the different parts as characters, however I recognize that these are all based on real healthcare workers. I think it’s an interesting choice to have all the parts played by one person. By having each character played by one actor, it gives off this sense of isolation from the world. This may very well have been the point. But by having more than one actor play the characters, the audience would get to feel the range of complete emotions the healthcare workers were and continue to feel. We could see the different challenges healthcare professionals were dealing with such as getting sick themselves, burnout, being isolated from family, and lack of support from the government.
One thing I love about the healthcare world is that every therapist must have a therapist, so they don't drown in the stuff they hear others going through so they don't get traumatized by it. I have found that more professions need this pseudo-safety net and can be traumatized by their jobs without ways to cope built-in. I have never been able to imagine working as a healthcare worker because I fear it would scar me in this way, so I am impressed by those that can do it without experiencing mental taxation. However, when the world is going through trauma on a more global scale, such as a pandemic or an epidemic, I fear there is no way to avoid the stress build-up in already taxing jobs like healthcare. I love that this show has been created because one of the few ways that seem to work to alleviate global stress is to make it into art. It gives people a way to relate to one another without having to start the conversation all on their own.
6 comments:
I think that this is simply a great idea for a play, and a great way to share the story of healthcare providers during the covid pandemic. After all, theater is one of the best ways to tell a story while conveying the power it warrants. I have a sister who's a nurse; she had just started working as an RN less than a year before the outbreak. Even though she was fortunate enough to be working in a part of the hospital that didn't allow COVID cases (transplant floor) I can still remember her talking about how much more difficult the job got as the pandemic surged. I think Alcalá made a good choice by incorporating real experiences and word for word statements from the workers. Even though the first outbreak and the hardest times are (probably) past, I think that today, a lot of people are forgetting that we're still battling the pandemic. I hope that this play does healthcare workers justice and gets them the appreciation they deserve.
I think healthcare workers during the pandemic are a great topic for a stageplay. Theatre is a platform to tell the stories of the unheard, and most people, including myself, don’t completely comprehend what it was really like for those healthcare workers. The fact that the play was written using real interviews and quotes from real workers makes the whole thing so much more personal. One of my favorite plays, The Laramie Project, was written the same way. The whole script is just a compilation of interviews from residents of Laramie, Wyoming. Hearing personal accounts causes the audience to connect to the characters so much more and really take in the messages of the story. It’s unfortunate that some stories had to be cut from the script to create a cohesive story, but it doesn’t make those stories any less important. Hopefully, those who go to see An Endless Shift leave with a new understanding and respect for healthcare workers who dedicate their lives to others’ wellbeing.
I think it’s great that the story of the pandemic is being told, especially one that pays respect to the frontline workers who were at the most risk. Gloria Alcalá’s big heart and strong empathy for others allow her to produce such a heavy, yet much-needed story. The fact that she tries to gather as many primary sources as possible is also incredible because of how taxing it could be trying to digest all the stories that reveal so much struggle. In one of my classes last year, we learnt a lot about the pandemic, and to hear about the medical staff’s perspectives is truly shocking, and many of them had severe burnout with many still suffering from associated mental health conditions. Since the COVID-19 pandemic affected so many people globally, there’s no doubt that there will be more work surrounding this topic in the future, and I’m excited to see what is being produced.
this topic is definitely worth talking about and should be published through forms in art. Especially with theater, it resonates and encourages audiences to think about instances within their own life. For me, as an example, I’m thought about how my high school roommates parents being healthcare workers and were talking to patients who were sick with COVID. Seattle is also a city that has been impacted a lot during the pandemic, especially it having one of the first cases of COVID within United States. Productions with topics similar to this will be produced over and over again in the future. As it being a period of time that have impacted people around the globe seriously, it is natural to predict that there will be an increase in production center around COVID in the future. In addition, these relatable topics attracts audience and are automatically selling seats just from the topic itself.
This must be an incredible piece of work and as much as I want to see it, it must also be a difficult piece to sit with as a non-healthcare worker. I will also refer to the different parts as characters, however I recognize that these are all based on real healthcare workers. I think it’s an interesting choice to have all the parts played by one person. By having each character played by one actor, it gives off this sense of isolation from the world. This may very well have been the point. But by having more than one actor play the characters, the audience would get to feel the range of complete emotions the healthcare workers were and continue to feel. We could see the different challenges healthcare professionals were dealing with such as getting sick themselves, burnout, being isolated from family, and lack of support from the government.
One thing I love about the healthcare world is that every therapist must have a therapist, so they don't drown in the stuff they hear others going through so they don't get traumatized by it. I have found that more professions need this pseudo-safety net and can be traumatized by their jobs without ways to cope built-in. I have never been able to imagine working as a healthcare worker because I fear it would scar me in this way, so I am impressed by those that can do it without experiencing mental taxation. However, when the world is going through trauma on a more global scale, such as a pandemic or an epidemic, I fear there is no way to avoid the stress build-up in already taxing jobs like healthcare. I love that this show has been created because one of the few ways that seem to work to alleviate global stress is to make it into art. It gives people a way to relate to one another without having to start the conversation all on their own.
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