Faith Helma (Portland, OR) – I HATE POSITIVE THINKING
WEEKEND 1: Faith Helma’s newest solo work, I HATE POSITIVE THINKING, is a performance in which the new-age psychology of positive thinking is ripped apart, and alternatives attempt to be articulated using charts, songs, semi-coherent rants and experiments with the audience. This show will be a departure from previous works that Helma has created with Portland’s Hand2Mouth Theatre, and from her last solo work, Undine, created in 2009.
BIO
Faith Helma is a performance artist and singer/songwriter who has worked with Hand2Mouth for fifteen years, creating and performing in Repeat After Me (2007), Everyone Who Looks Like You (2010) and Something’s Got Ahold of My Heart (2013) among others. She also created the one-woman music-theatre performance Undine (2008), which toured to Seattle, New York and San Francisco. She currently works with people one on one and in groups as a Creative Guide, and if you’d like to book a session you can go to her website: faithhelma.com/workwithme.
PERFORMANCE SYNOPSIS
I HATE POSITIVE THINKING is inspired by Faith Helma’s aversion to positive thinking on the one hand, and her fascination with life-coaching, hypnosis, and the power of the unconscious mind on the other. It’s also inspired by the curveball of giving birth to her son, and how the tools of creativity and performance helped her survive. By using these tools, Helma will help other people harness their own creative power to dissolve blocks and solve life problems. Specifically the performance will include:
• Semi-coherent rants from about how much “I hate positive thinking”
• Guided exercises and experiments with the audience (for instance, testing one of the main facets of positive thinking by seeing if we can manifest something over the course of the performance)
• Simple songs I have written, like “I’m Awkward, I’m Alive” and “You Can’t Control the Universe, You Can’t Control Your Mind”
