"Hey, girlie! I think you got the name wrong. The dog is Stella, remember?"
You are correct, but so is what I wrote. Today was the preview of JinHi's play, "Bella", up at the Historic Savannah Theatre. I've been waiting to see that for months! It's definitely part of my bday68 celebration!
"That's right! You got a special reward in the kickstarter campaign so your ticket to the play would be included. Well, good for you! How was attendance?"
"She hasn't changed at all! Same curly blonde hair as always! But why so many chairs on stage? I thought this was a one-woman show... right?"
Oh, it was. JinHi was the only one up there during the performance. After all, this was the story of her life and her battle against cancers and tumors that began when she was 14 years old. That's when her family found out she had the bone cancer in her left leg. Her dad had been PCS'ed to Italy and life was glorious! She loved the people and the gelato and the fact that everyone there would greet her with "Ciao, Bella"!!! All of that made her feel so beautiful!!! She had a year of bliss before the sarcoma took her leg.
"How brutal for a teen to have to deal with that."
I know. Mama had a problem with fibrous cysts that led to her losing half her palate and all her upper teeth when she was just 15 years old. The doctor did the surgery during summer vacation, so she wasn't around school kids, but, still. She spent most of that break waiting for the dentures and then getting used to them. I never, ever, saw my mother without her teeth in place.
"Yes, I know. You didn't even find out about that until you were in high school. That was probably about the time the doctor found a fibrous cyst in your right breast."
That sounds right. JinHi had recovered from her leg amputation and was in college before the next hit from her body. Headaches led to the discovery of a tumor in her brain that took two surgeries to remove. Fortunately, it was benign, but it did have hair and teeth, so that was unsettling. That was during her 20's. In her 30's, growths in her reproductive organs were found. She and her husband were trying to have a baby, but instead she had to have a hysterectomy.
"Damn."
Yeah, that's pretty harsh. So she started Muse Arts Warehouse as her way of taking care of the artistic community. Then, in 2012, a growth appeared in her right lung, a beast she called a "moonmallow" due to its shape on the CT scan. Fortunately, it was Stage 1, and was handled by a partial removal of that lung, along with chemo. And all seemed to be well again, for two years. She has been battling Stage 4 lung cancer ever since.
"Damn!"
This show was born from that extended battle. A friend suggested she go back through her fb posts and gather up all that data. So, that's what she did. She refers to "Bella" as "43 years in 45 minutes" and that's about right. In August, she'll be going to the Fringe Festival in Scotland. Tickets for her show at that venue are already available. I wish I could be there, but the airfare alone is a staggering expense.
"Heard. Hey, I just noticed something. You never addressed all of those chairs on the stage!"
"How was the Q and A?"
I couldn't stay. I need to get back to Georgetown so the dog can have her play time. Glad I got to have this 'play' time for me! Like that pun? (smile!) Good to see so many I knew! Inessa, Pam Sears of Armstrong, the Soucy clan, Bill Dawers, and even several from Asbury (Cheri and Billy Hester, Tom Lewis). Nice turnout for JinHi, Savannah's theatre royalty!
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