The acclaimed one-woman show Private Parts: The Secrets We Keep, was written and performed by female actress and masterful storyteller Joanna Rannelli in Ten10 Brewing at this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival. Her show was candid, raw and often funny.
When she started reflecting on her youth, her story started to cause me to reach deep into my own memories which I had long swept into the recesses of my mind. She started talking about her mother being in the hospital. Relatives decided it would be best if the young Joanna did not see her mother when she was so close to the end of their life. I imagine they must have wanted to save the young Joanna from seeing her mother so sick. They were trying to shelter her from pain.
The Joanna’s reaction was anger. Who were they to keep her from seeing her mother? This triggered a deep anger that I had felt when I was not allowed at 10 years old, to visit my mother in a New York City Hospital. A candy stripper at the hospital had given me a small kit to make an art project which I had made to give my mother on Mother’s Day. Joanna’s mother had died around Mother’s Day as did my mother. I never got to give my mother the art project I had made. Joanna’s story caused me to feel that deep hidden anger and I had to stop sketching because the tears caused my vision to distort and blur. Mother’s Day has always been a painful day that I try to ignore.
The same people who wanted to save me from seeing my mother in the hospital then allowed me to go to my mother’s wake and funeral. A room full of people sat and looked at my mother’s open coffin. Someone whispered in my ear, “Doesn’t she look peaceful? It is as if she was sleeping.” I spent the next hour watching my mother’s chest waiting for her to take a breath. She never did.
Johanna’s show also went on to deal with long hidden memories of assault and difficult relationships. Her stories are her own to tell. There were also so many stories filled with joyous delight. In the end, she left me feeling hopeful and delighted to celebrate each day that we all have on this earth. This show was such an emotional roller coaster. She knew how to reach in and touch hidden memories. She was telling my life with her words.
There were only four opportunities to hear this consummate storyteller. I am so glad that I was in the right place at the right time to allow her stories to bring back hidden memories. This was my favorite solo show at this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival.