Bozeman Magazine

MUST PRE-REGISTER. Can ONLY REGISTER at www.playingmonopolywithgod.com partial scholarships

Sponsored by the Thunderhead Writers’ Collective & The Silver Foundation: Forging Resilience This workshop is for mamas of any age who experienced trauma, loss or hardship during the pregnancy, birth or postpartum period. Let’s shine our light into
the dark corners or ourselves and our experiences
– illuminating and transforming what we find. This workshop is an opportunity to unearth, articulate and transform. You may choose to craft your story for yourself, your family, your children, a mamas’ group or the stage.... You may choose to tell a sad tale, a sad and happy tale, a sad, happy and ridiculously funny tale… THIS IS YOUR STORY! We will spend the afternoon in a series of conversations and exercises designed to unearth and invite our authentic voice. Exercises will be both verbal and written. Participants will have the ability to choose their level of sharing. After three sold-out shows in October, Melissa Bangs is returning to Bozeman at the end of January for two encore performances of her one-woman show Playing Monopoly with God & Other True Stories. Melissa has been a storyteller all of her life. Stories were the most powerful tool in her toolbox in various endeavors over the past twenty years ranging from human rights and women’s empowerment work in El Salvador to labor organizing in sweat shops to leading nonprofit organizations all over Montana as they envisioned their future. Melissa brings an openness, authenticity and compassion to storytelling that inspires the deepest truth of those around her. She also brings a liberating sense of humor and ability to find the funny in the toughest chapters of her own life. A former student of the Upright Citizens’ Brigade, Melissa’s favorite homework was studying the improv master Amy Poehler. Melissa learned, via improv, how to bring that which is most true to the surface and risk what we might find in the fullest expression of that truth. “If my story does nothing else, may it unleash yours!” - Melissa Bangs