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Friday, Sep 05, 2008
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Interview with Tania Katan: Writer, two time cancer survivor, marathoner and Lesbian |
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| Interview with Tania Katan: Writer, two time cancer survivor, marathoner and Lesbian | ||
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by Miryam Gordan -
SGN Contributing Writer MY ONE NIGHT STAND WITH CANCER BY TANIA KATAN DIRECTED BY CARYS KRESNY ACT THEATRE THROUGH NOVEMBER 11 Tania Katan's memoir book, My One Night Stand With Cancer, about her early experience (age 21) with the diagnosis of breast cancer and continuing through her second diagnosis of breast cancer (age 31) is an award-winning book. It's a startling and disturbing topic that she writes about with humor, grace and a deep commitment to Life. Tania has re-engineered the memoir into a one-woman play, which is world-premiering at ACT Theatre. She has experience with turning her story into a play, since she wrote a play, Stages, about her first experience with cancer, and has had great success with it being produced in many towns across the U.S. One key difference between the two plays is that she did not perform the first play and didn't conceive of it being performed by her. The intimate stage at ACT brings the audience within feet of Tania as she walks historically through her life, poking gentle fun at her 16-year-old self just learning about sexuality and trying to figure out why she didn't like guys that way, much. She demonstrates her forays into dating and trying to find a woman to kiss, as she awkwardly tries picking women up in bars. She explores her first relationships, so much like all of our experiences. What becomes so different is that her lover finds a lump in her breast at age 21. When Tania was diagnosed with cancer, very few women of that young an age were getting that diagnosis and it changed the whole focus of her life. All of a sudden, she now had to combine her sexuality with complications of breast removal, radiation and chemotherapy. How does she cope? What does she tell her dates? Will women she is attracted to reject her? The performance is funny, warm, very personal, and also painful. The fact that she is performing it herself brings a deeper dimension than if an actress were to attempt the part. I wanted to find out more about the development of the performance, so we sat down for a chat. I asked about the beginnings of her writing and developing the material. She explained, "I've been writing and journaling since I was about 16 years old, ever since my drama teacher gave me a journal. I've always used journal writing as a way to talk about my life, it's a safe place to express all the things, icky, unsavory, nobody's business except for mine and my journal. It's my way of expressing my emotions. So, I've consistently kept a journal, through both of my diagnoses with cancer. The first time, at 21, I wrote a play about cancer (Stages) and it made it more interesting to go to chemo. It was all very scary at 21. I'm like my own biographer. It eased my nerves and I knew I would use it (the experience), and that was helpful." But what made her think about writing a play, to begin with? "In my life, I viewed this experience as an absurdist play, all the interacting with the medical community, with no human component, humanity, 'oh, you have cancer&.' so casual, unfeeling. I was taking a playwriting class at the time. I thought, 'this is a play, this is live and interactive and it needs to happen in that form.' It was perfect for theater." Tania detailed the process she went through. "I was finishing treatment, going to school and working on this play, and my teachers at Arizona State University, Marshall Mason and Jim Leonard, helped guide me and get me my first professional gig while I was still in school. It was totally me, but I changed the name to protect myself. I fictionalized encounters and people I met along the way to make it interesting for a theater audience. First, there were staged readings, then I got a full production, which was pretty fancy for a kid in a school in a regular state university. Young women weren't being diagnosed at 21 with breast cancer; it was like a medical novelty. Now, many younger women have gotten diagnosed with cancer. At that time, there was a lot of interest in the topic." So if the play was so autobiographical, how did it feel to see someone else act her life? "First seeing it, it was shocking. Even though it was fictionalized, enough was real to make it shocking to see. The first production was very close to when I finished chemo. It was exciting, unnerving, exposing, all those things. But what's interesting is that actors have lives that they bring to the character and it becomes its own entity and when it was produced other places, each person or production or director brought their own ideas. Even so, it still tells what it was intended to convey." After that play, years went by until her second diagnosis. Still journaling, she decided to write a book. "I wrote the book because I was going through treatment, again. I'm a writer, I was keeping a journal, but I've already written a play. I was bald and exhausted and what am I going to write? It was National Breast Cancer Month (October) and I went to a bookstore to see if there were books with young voices, (also) Jewish voices. I (didn't see books from those perspectives and decided) I'm going to write that book (My One Night Stand With Cancer)." Why would she want to make it into a stage play? "I wanted to do that because I love theater, but I never thought of me performing it. I did a reading of the book and my mentor asked, 'you're going to perform it, aren't you? You have to do it.' I adapted it for the stage at Arizona State into a one woman show for two nights for students and professors. The reception from it was great." Regarding the autobiographical nature of the play, Tania emphasized that "it's not therapy on stage. There are some things that are meant to be in your journal, some on stage, and they (the staged events) need to be worthy of inviting an audience to. If I hadn't gone through (psychological) therapy for cancer, thought about it, I wouldn't be able to go on stage to be a live nerve. I was ready to engage in the moments and I also know how to get out of those moments. I'm not going to have a breakdown on stage. I convey the truth of those situations. I relive events within a crafted version of my life; it has an arc, a beginning, middle, and end. Life doesn't work that way. My part of the (two way) dialogue (with the audience) is performing my play, then afterward (often) someone tells me her story. I'm not going to guide them. I'm just aware that they are comfortable enough to tell me their stories. I'm an expert at living my life, not telling them what to do." On the importance of her being the one on stage, she continues, "It's important to have my live body on stage, deal with mortality, it means so many things. You get to experience that anxiety that existed within me. I like visceral responses." The play includes portraits of her family and her cultural background as a Jew. She weaves her Judaism and Lesbianism throughout. Both aspects are intrinsic to who she is, so it's all part of the story. I told her that one reaction I had, as I was watching the play, was realizing that she's now 36 and can't know that she is cancer-free. Typically, women who have been cancer-free for five years are considered cured. She agrees, "It (the five year mark) means nothing to me anymore. Those markers went out the window with a ten year diagnosis." We talked about some of the most frequent questions she gets from people. One is how she got treated by the medical profession and did her Lesbian identity become a problem. "Some people have horrible experiences with doctors& that are icky and mean. I demand good health care and I've never had a problem. I might not have liked them (medical practitioners) very much, but I don't feel like I've been discriminated against. My partners have always been allowed to be a part of the process. I feel really lucky because I have heard story after horrible story. I just feel lucky." Another question she gets is whether being a Lesbian, where women typically don't focus on looks quite as much, and then losing her breasts, made her less concerned about feeling attractive. "My self esteem is concerned. Some partners break up over mastectomies and it runs the whole spectrum. It's what you demand from a partner. It has more to do with self worth, but I remember trying to have a one night stand and met this woman at the coffee shop, and then I realized that I've never had to explain having only one breast, and I gave her a magazine article I was in with a picture of me and I handed to her and said I'm going to take a shower." Tania acknowledges that there are unanswered questions in the play. She is confronted with the advice to have a hysterectomy, but she doesn't reveal if she actually had that surgery. "That dialogue about that: what to do? take it out or not? what would I do? that's all part of what I want people to experience. For just a moment, they have to try on what it's like to be me. They can leave the theater debating if I had the surgery or not. It's not about a happy ending. It's a 'to be continued'." For more information, go to www.acttheatre.org or call 206-292-7676 or visit www.myonenightstandwithcancer.com. |
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| Halloween on Capitol Hill
Slide Show photos by Joey - SGN photographer |
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