“When you’re both writer and actor, well, they’re very different roles, and the one does not necessarily understand the other—even if they’re housed in the same person.” —Miriam Feder
Feder reprises ‘Vestibule’ at Hipbone Studio
‘Recovering lawyer’ explores life’s transitions
By Paul Haist
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Miriam Feder has performed in front of audiences since she was a child in Evanston, Ill., where she started out in children’s theater and kept at it through high school and at the University of Minnesota where she earned a B.A. in Theater Arts.
“I’ve always done theater,” she said.
But then it got away from her.
“I put it all aside for 20 years in corporate law,” which, she said pays better than theater, but “it wasn’t entirely satisfying to me.” She has referred to herself as “a recovering lawyer.”
The recovery process brought Feder back to more creative endeavors.
She will present her updated one-woman show called “The Vestibule” at Portland’s Hipbone Studio on Oct. 19 and 20 at 8 p.m. An earlier version of the show was presented last June. She says the new version is about 50 percent new.
“The Vestibule,” is a compilation of 11 written pieces having to do with life transitions.
It has to do, Feder said, “with that period of passing in between and emerging into a bigger vision, a new place. That’s the vestibule I am thinking of.”
Most of the pieces are drawn and adapted from Feder’s Web site, which includes about 50 spoken works that she has written and placed on the Web as free downloadable podcasts presented in her voice.
Feder’s Web site, “Spoken Stories by Miriam Feder” (http://miriamfeder.com), is a project she began in 2006. She posts a new story every week.
In her stories, she travels, alphabetically, from Age to Women, with more than occasional side trips to Dementia, Divorce, Heartbreak, Holocaust, Sex and much more.
Her stories explore life experiences common to most of us, but with an order of sensitivity in a near poetic voice that finds the extraordinary in the ordinary passages of one’s life.
Bringing the podcasts to the stage is not merely a process of repeating the words anyone can listen to at
miriamfeder.com.
“Pieces change quite a bit in the process of preparing for performance,” said Feder.
“I have to give the piece physicality, and, in doing that, sometimes my understanding of what the piece is about changes.”
She has had to rewrite some of the stories as her understanding of them has evolved and as her connection to them has changed from that of writer to actor.
“At some point I have to sort of dismiss the author in order to become the actor,” she said. “When you’re both writer and actor, well, they’re very different roles, and the one does not necessarily understand the other—even if they’re housed in the same person.”
Feder’s reconnection to performance art began about 10 years ago when she performed in the play “Singing for Our Lives” at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.
Then, as the parent of a Portland Jewish Academy student, she wrote the musical “In Portland,” which has been performed at PJA every year since its creation.
“As a PJA parent, you have to volunteer your time,” she said. “I had sort of burned out on volunteer boards as a past president of the Jewish Family and Child Service, so I offered to do music with the kids.”
She has since brought the musical to the Portland Public Schools and other private schools as an artist in residence over the last seven or eight years.
She also wrote the musical “Even to the Western Ocean” about the Lewis and Clark expedition which was performed at PJA and other schools at the time of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial in 2005.
In addition to these activities and directing “Orphan Queen” at the MJCC in 2002, Feder sings with the all-woman choir Pride of Portland.
“I meant that to soak up my desire to perform,” she said, “but I think in some respect it just kicked me into that mode—first the podcasts, and then they just turned into performance.”
Tickets to see Feder perform are available in advance for $12, and at the door on performance nights for $15. Groups of four or more pay $8 each for tickets.
To reserve tickets contact Feder by e-mail at tellmiriam@comcast.net or by telephone at 503-309-7123.
Hipbone Studio where Feder will perform, is a large drawing studio which its owner and operator, Jeff Burke, also makes available for performances. The studio is located at 1847 E. Burnside.