Through Our Eyes,In Our Voices: The ARTS in Our Lives:Nancy Smith-Watson

                                                                            Feast of Crispian

                                                                  Shakespeare with Veterans

My personal story,Nancy Smith-Watson which becomes the story of Feast of Crispian:

Growing up in a dysfunctional and traumatic environment, the arts were my savior from very early on. They gave me a way of speaking about what I saw and felt and hoped for without giving away anything that might get me into trouble.

 My first experience with Shakespeare was seeing Midsummer Nights Dream when I was 5 years old and falling in love with the way the language sounded. I started creative dramatics as a child, was a dedicated member of the drama club in high school and took drama as my major in college. My goal was to work at Ashland Shakespeare Festival, a goal I, sadly, never reached but I never lost my passion for the words and stories of Shakespeare. Even working with it now, every day, I still get a thrill when I speak the words out loud!

 My professional career lasted only a couple of years. When I started my family, I gave up acting and pursued my newfound tool, somatic bodywork, for retrieving what had been stolen from me in my difficult childhood. As an actor, I had struggled to access full expression and in postgraduate acting school, I had worked with extraordinary movement teachers that opened my eyes to how disconnected I was from my body. These two things, acting and somatics (the study of how the brain and body influence each other) led me to seek a community where I could explore both of these things. That’s what the arts do: teach us who we human beings are and how we can use that information to live more conscious lives.

Through the serendipitous connection to Shakespeare & Co. I found my community in 2012 when a group of local actors and theater educators began exploring how we might recreate, in Milwaukee, the Shakes. & Co's life changing program, Shakespeare in the Courts. In a perfect storm of our focus and a tremendous amount of press on the issue of veteran's dire needs, we designed a program that would give veterans who were struggling with a range of symptoms stemming from PTSD a safe and alternative way of telling their stories of war. Now, 5 years into this, we are humbled, grateful and transformed by the veterans who work with us and tell us they are transformed.

My artistic pursuits saved my sanity as a child, opened up an intellectual search and a passion to share what I learned. On a personal level, I have gotten to travel, I’ve had amazing experiences and my world has expanded by getting to know people I thought were very different than myself. I have met some of the most brilliant, influential and powerful people in a wide range of fields, from great artists to awe inspiring warriors to world renowned scholars and researchers.

On a community level, my organization has brought comfort to many who suffer terribly on behalf of their fellow citizens. We bring civilians together with our veterans to facilitate better understanding. We have seen many of our participants return to productive lives and begin the process of healing family relationships. We are told that we have saved lives.

On a purely economic level, we have modestly bettered our own lives and we employ dozens of others from hiring and training new facilitators that continue the work with the veterans, to designers and technicians for our full productions, to our accountant, graphic designer, and lawyer. As the Americans for the Arts say, “art works”.

I would add, it’s good enough that arts make lives better.

Feast Of Crispian is a non-profit organization bringing together professional actors

with post deployment service veterans in order to teach and strengthen emotional resources that veterans need to overcome traumatic

 and reintegration issues.

USING BASIC ACTING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES AND THE POWERFUL WORDS AND STORIES OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, WE HELP THESE WOUNDED WARRIORS BE HEARD AND SEEN IN THE EXPRESSION OF THEIR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS. THIS ALLOWS THEM TO MORE EASILY HEAR, SEE AND RESPECT THE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS OF OTHERS, RECONNECTING THEM WITH THEIR OWN SENSE OF SELF WORTH AND WITH THEIR COMMUNITIES.

www.feastofcrispian.org