WHAT: Making Masked Theatre: workshops to develop performance in a respirator with Molly Brennan
WHEN: 2nd Fridays of the month (except August); starting Friday, July 10, 6–8 p.m.
WHERE: The LAVA Center, 324 Main St., Greenfield
https://www.facebook.com/events/2038348256766307
CONTACT: info@thelavacenter.org or 413-376-8118 (voicemail/text)
GREENFIELD, MA — Molly Brennan, Equity Actor and Teaching Artist hosts a 2 hour workshop once a month to invite performance artists, playwrights, singers, poets, drag performers, clowns, actors and everyone who loves to be onstage to:
• Devise new work
• Workshop ongoing projects
• Develop vocal and physical techniques to perform in a respirator
• Beginners welcome!
Why mask required?
As we find ourselves in a world where for most of us, medical care is unaffordable, air quality is poor, and there is a growing population of Long Covid survivors and other folks who need or choose to be cautious about airborne pathogens, many in the performance community have been left behind because of the choice to wear respirator masks.
Who is Molly Brennan?
Molly Brennan enjoyed a 30 year career as a professional stage actor in Chicago, but the Covid pandemic changed her path, and she had to find other ways to make a living. She and her wife moved to Massachusetts in the fall of 2025, and Molly has slowly been returning to her art, as a teacher, playwright, director and performer. She wears an N95 respirator to do these things, and has found a small community of others who do the same. As a regular and a member of the booking committee of Last Ditch Bar, she observes 5 days a week of mask-required events. Her play “After the Whales Spoke” was featured at the LAVA Center’s On the Boards New Play Festival, and her cast was entirely Disabled actors or actors who are not yet disabled, but wear respirators to protect themselves and their community. The reading was performed to a full house of masked audience members, as well as folks watching from home on the live stream.
Molly is thrilled to offer her decades of experience teaching Acting, Clown, Improvisation and Devising New Works as well as her experience in disability access, in a mask-required environment. There are barriers in creating this work, and she is excited to explore vocal, physical, and access tool making techniques to make masked performance a normal and celebrated form.
The LAVA Center is a community arts space in Greenfield, MA whose mission is to create opportunities and build inclusive community in and through the arts and humanities. We are focused on making The LAVA Center a space where all artists, including marginalized communities and individuals, can have their voices heard. The LAVA Center is located at 324 Main St., in downtown Greenfield, MA. https://thelavacenter.org
