Today we’d like to introduce you to Judith Austin.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Judith. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Back in the 1990s, I was an actor with a degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. I performed in shows in and around Boston until about 2007 when I decided to return to school to become a Nurse-Practitioner in Psychiatry, specializing in Addictions. While working on the frontline of addiction, treating patients within an inpatient detox setting, I realized that the stigma of addiction was so significant and that my patients faced not only a tremendous physical and emotional battle but a societal one. For example, I have been asked, repeatedly, by healthcare providers who do not work in the field of addiction (now known as Substance Use Disorder) how I “Could work with those people.” I was incredulous that healthcare providers could attach such stigma to a disorder and realized that their thoughts and opinions were based solely on a lack of education. With that, I began to write stories based on my patients’ experiences, whether it was how they were feeling while they were actively detoxing, obstacles they may encounter after leaving a detox and trying to keep clean and return to a ‘normal’ life or how they became addicted in the first place. I created a One-Woman show formerly entitled ‘Spiro Spero: A Play’ to perform for healthcare providers, as well as non-healthcare providers, as an educational tool. The name of the play has been changed to AddictShunned to immediately inform viewers about what they will be watching. The goal of the play is to generate conversation about the disease, address the stigma surrounding addiction, and provide education in an engaging way.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My journey as a playwright has been an interesting one for me. The challenges I faced were both internal and external, the former being the more important one. Prior to writing AddictShunned, I did not really consider myself a writer. I have always had ideas that I would write in a notebook, just jotting things down thinking “I would like to remember this moment, I am not sure why or what for, but I’m keeping it anyway.” One of the most difficult aspects that I faced was the actual sitting down to do my work. As a non-writer with ideas (don’t we all have them??), I thought I needed to wait for inspiration to hit (“Oh, I can’t write right now, I’m not feeling inspired.”) I realized, when I had no pages written, that the only way to get something written is to sit down and start writing, inspired or not, I would sit with a blank sheet of paper in front of me and start from a random thought in my brain and just write (I write longhand and type it in later; I’m a terrible typist and my thoughts work faster than my fingers on a keyboard!). The miraculous aspect of simply sitting in front of a blank sheet is that it seemed to just open up the creative floodgates and ideas would start pouring out of me.
Another obstacle I faced was that not everyone I asked to read my play liked it (art is subjective, so that is completely understandable). I got some pretty harsh criticisms along the way by people I like and admire and was asked to consider revising it in a way I was not comfortable with at the time. Knowing my play would not be as marketable in the way I was writing it, I forged ahead with my vision and completed it the way I felt it should be written. My advice to future writers out there would be to not compromise your ideas to fit what others may want. Stick to your intuition and write what your vision is. The flip side of that is that as long as you remain open to creative input from others, and you feel it is beneficial to your project, then take good advice when you get it, as long as you are on board with the suggestions. Write on your own terms, not someone else’s.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Right now, my work is primarily based on writing and teaching about Substance Use Disorder through theatre at various colleges, Nursing and Medical schools, and healthcare conferences. I feel I can best promote education about addiction through art. There is a ton of information about addiction that is accessible to those in search of it, but what sets my teaching apart is through the use of theatre. When an audience member is watching AddictShunned, they are learning valuable information through the emotional attachment they may have with my characters, whether they like the characters or not. The play creates an emotional response within them and the information about addiction tends to stick. I’ve been to many conferences on addiction and as informative and valuable as they are, there are only so many ‘powerpoint’ presentations you can watch without your mind wandering. With theatre, it’s different. People become emotionally engaged and that is what stimulates conversation and ideas about the topic.
Who do you look up to? How have they inspired you?
I am continually inspired by my daughter. She is 19 years old and a sophomore in college and she has always been a free and independent thinker. We have very different personalities and I am enjoying every second of watching her evolve. She is extremely creative, much more than I could ever hope to be! She is a kind and empathetic soul, yet strong-willed and unafraid to try new things with gusto! Another is my mom. My mom was a single mom working two and three jobs when my sister and I were young, just trying to create a stable life for us. We didn’t have financial security growing up, yet we wanted for nothing. The main takeaway I have always lived with from my mother is that I am capable of doing and being whatever I want in this world. When that is ingrained into the head of a youngster, it carries a lot of weight throughout life and makes a significant difference. Style-wise, I find inspiration from One Women performers like Anna Deavere Smith, Eve Ensler, and Whoopie Goldberg, who bring everyday experiences to life through different characters they have created.
Contact Info:
- Email: judesvoice@yahoo.com
Image Credit:
Christine Dibella, Eunice Simmons
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