Soaking In, December 2014

My first exposure with Red Room was at the 5th anniversary event. I had been waiting to get involved in theatre, storytelling and performance for the last four years of living in Taiwan, and I’m so psyched to join in! I adore my new community of friends and I can’t wait to be involved more over the years, especially in R4 and Stage Time & Wine.

I took away a lot with me after the 5th Anniversary. I feel like I found my voice again, in a community where I feel I truly belong. I feel like I’m getting back a piece of myself that has been put away on the shelf for a while because of motherhood, work, and marriage. Now it’s time to get reacquainted with the storyteller/actress/writer that I am. I feel like I can get back to my calling of sharing stories and voices with the world.

However the most important treasure I took away with me actually didn’t belong to me. It belonged to my young son Preston. I watched him absorb his surroundings in his own unique way. I watched him choose to enjoy the performances he liked at Stage Time Juice, and choose to ignore what he wished. I watched him make new friends and share his toys. And when he reached out his little hand to take my camera and start taking pictures of his own, I realized more than ever that art and voices belong to everyone, and everyone responds to it in their own way. In his own way, Preston was soaking it in.

By: Whitney Zahar