Rose Weaver

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Waterspill Junction Menopause Mama Ethel Waters

Home Introduction Events Bio Clips & Photos Projects Waterspill Junction Menopause Mama Ethel Waters Writings Contact

Softer than I look. Harder than you know.

“Weaver has the rare ability
to prompt laughter that turns into tears.
And when she sings, hearts break
and angels cry.”

-Patti Hartigan, Boston Globe

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Waterspill Junction, Inc./Rose Weaver

166 Valley Street Unit 6M307,

Providence, RI, 02909,

United States

310-916-6804 hello@roseweaver.com

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Education Through The Arts

www.waterspilljunction.org

Background

Waterspill – where streams of creativity flow to a Junction – merging there for the purpose of researching, writing, staging, and producing artistic projects that use the arts to educate the community about Black people, our culture and history. We were granted exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Code in May of 1998 as a Nonprofit arts organization. It was started because founder Rose Weaver believes that, "The arts have a way of changing the distance people have to the issues they are dealing with…it can bring them closer in to see the details, or help them take a step back to see the whole picture.” (New York Expressive Arts Director, Denie Whalen, who uses the arts to facilitate self-discovery and healing.) Rose Weaver adopted this stance.

MISSION

To provide theatrical and interdisciplinary media performances and education drawn from African American traditions and experiences
To bring awareness through theater, music, dance and writing
To highlight African American accomplishments and contributions to the arts

PAST COLLABORATIONS

Alzheimer’s Association California Southland Chapter

Bryant University Women’s Summit

Rhode Island Heritage Harbor Commission

Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health

Lawrence & Memorial Hospital_Connecticut

Lifespan Rhode Island

Pot au Feu & Independence Trail

Providence College

Rhode Island College

Rhode Island Hospital

Rhode Island Department of Health

Rhode Island State Council on the Arts

RI Philharmonic Orchestra

Rites and Reason Theatre

South Side Cultural Center

Trinity Academy for Performing Arts

Trinity Repertory Company

Village Retirement Communities

Waterfire Arts Center

University of Rhode Island

YWCA Rhode Island

Copyright ©2024 Rose Weaver

June 2, 2018

A Tribute to Rosa Parks

WATERFIRE ARTS CENTER

Providence Rhode Island

Curated, Written, and Directed by ROSE WEAVER

The tribute script was in honor of the memory of Mrs. Rosa Parks and the Rosa Parks House Project visiting Providence, RI. Ms. Rhea McCauley, niece of Rosa Parks, Fabia Mendoza and artist, Ryan Mendoza were in attendance. It is a compilation and dramatization of selected materials culled from credited published sources and Rose Weaver’s original copyrighted works.

THE CAST:

Ramona Bass-Kolobe Cathy Clasper-Torch Delbert Collins Jackie Davis Elizabeth Ann Keiser Angela Nash-Wade V Rafinni Sylvia Ann Soares Kim Trusty Rose Weaver

2005-2008 Skips in the Record staged readings in Los Angeles and Rhode Island:

Skips in the Record is a dark comedy about a southern black American family coping with Alzheimer's disease. Memories are the lifeblood of a family's identity. Skips in the Record focuses on the fear of losing memory, history, thoughts, ideas, recognition and the urgent desire to preserve all of these. The play also captures the bittersweet and sometimes antic comedy that can come in the wake of Alzheimer's. Skips in the Record is based on interviews that playwright Rose Weaver conducted in 1998 and 1999 with family members in her native Georgia. Rose and volunteers organized a series of staged readings in the Los Angeles area.

The Alzheimer’s Association California Southland Chapter sponsored four readings for the play. The readings were performed at various community-based locations in Los Angeles including West Angeles Church, Holman United Methodist Church, Circle of Friends Adult Day Health Care and Cedars Sinai Medical Center; Downtown Los Angeles Women's Center, Links, and Avalon Church of Christ; and Providence Rhode Island community organizations.

Each reading was successful and highly regarded by the audience as an excellent and innovative approach to educate the community about Alzheimer’s disease.

2000-2008 Menopause Mama: Menopause Mama is an original, compelling, cutting edge and often hilarious solo performance play with music, humor, and singing about aging and midlife changes. It uses the stories of women -- and men -- who have successfully (and not-so-successfully) chartered the waters we call "the change of life." Endorsed by Dr. Christiane Northrup, author of The Wisdom of Menopause, Women’s bodies, Women’s Wisdom, and Mother and Daughter Wisdom, it premiered at Perishable Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island to sell-out audiences and unabated demand for tickets. It was extended twice and traveled around New England and to Bermuda. . Through a variety of characters and interspersed with signature renditions of new and standard songs, author and actor Rose Weaver depicts the struggles, triumphs, tears, and the lighter side of menopause. Weaver also gives a voice to a few men as they grapple with their own midlife changes.

The idea for Menopause Mama was conceived when Rose Weaver was at Brown University in 1999 working on her MFA in creative writing (the degree was her 50th birthday present to herself). At the time she had just begun to experience forgetfulness and confusion.

In talking with friends, she realized she was not alone in her frustration. After some research, she found that her "senior moments" were actually consistent with the beginnings of menopause. Rose’s response, as an actress and promising writer, was to keep a journal of her "symptoms" and feelings and began to focus solely on her menopause stories and those of other women.

She interviewed dozens of friends and women of other cultures on this topic and wrote a research paper called "The Cultural Significance of Menopause."

1998 "I'll Make Me A World: A Century Of African - American Arts. Providence RI Project

"And God stepped out on space, And he looked around and said: I'm lonely -- I'll make me a world." ____James Weldon Johnson, "The Creation" (1927)
"I'll Make Me A World: A Century Of African - American Arts," was an unprecedented six-hour WNET TV series that captured the stories behind 100 years of tumultuous struggle for identify, equality, and self-expression, and celebrates the creation of an extraordinary artistic legacy. It was produced by the late Henry Hampton of Blackside, (who wrote His Eyes on the Prize) in association with local arts organizations throughout the nation. Waterspill Junction, in collaboration with First Night Rhode Island, was a local producer in the state of Rhode Island. Waterspill Junction organized a large number of local African-American painters, dancers, musicians, storytellers, actors, and singers to present week long programs throughout the state. Artists included published visual artist Morgan Monceaux, filmmaker Don Mays, international storytellers Valerie Tutson and Lenny Cabral, gallery owners Linda Avant-Deishinni and Munir D. Mohammed.