"A punch in the gut, clear, overwhelming and emotionally powerful."
We Tell Stories
In 20- to 30-minute-long original plays, the Broken Shoulders Project tells stories of true people making the choice to change.
We tell these stories in powerful table-readings of works written especially for the company, dramatizing the single heroic moment when a Mother Jones, Fyodor Dostoevsky, or Dorothea Dix overcame the effects of his or her traumas and became the people we celebrate today.
We place these stories in times often radically different from our own, from 1400 BC to 1981, while presenting situations astonishingly similar to what is being experienced now.
We show the conflict, we enact the first moments of resolution, and then we discuss the impact - all in the hope that you will be inspired by their wounds to heal your own.
What stands in the way is the way.
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
The Broken Shoulders Project is...
The Dramatic Alternative to Life's Challenges
"Your rendition really hit home. The audience was blown away!"
Abigail Rabinowitz and Rabbi Binyomin Scheiman, Directors, Hinda Institute
"You managed to reach many of our hardened guests... how powerful this was.
[It] will have a phenomenal impact on many lives."
Roland Fouche, former Director of Hilda's Place Shelter
You can bring us to your Fundraiser, Living Room, Drama Group/Book Club, or your Residents and Clients!
- Have us present a designed-for-you Reading at your Fundraiser, Thank You Dinner or other gathering;
- Watch us on Zoom or in a Library near you
(see the PRODUCTS page for days and addresses); or
- Purchase a copy of our Plays for your Drama Group or Book Club.
"The Broken Shoulders Project
is extraordinary."
Statement of the Founder
When Your "Big Shoulders" Break under the Weight of Life...
The tendency is to curl inwards. Shut out the world. Even drown in your own tears.
The Broken Shoulders Project invites you to go the opposite direction: Step outside yourself. Find another from decades or centuries earlier who has experienced a similar trauma or challenge. Find the moment of decision when that individual turned his or her life around. Write about the person. Draw a picture. Sing a song. Teach others about him or her. Connect your story to theirs. Discover how they could not have accomplished what they did without the wound created by their trauma.
Be inspired by their wounds
So you can heal your own.
We at Broken Shoulders show you one way to do this:
We work with you to present a public reading of a brief play about real people in history struggling with and overcoming the wounds of homelessness, aging, violence, depression, incarceration, disease, grief or other challenges in life.
We lead discussions of that play to unearth its meanings to you and others.
And, throughout, we teach how to step outside; we teach how a connection to laughter and desire can open your heart and mind to a more complete life.
Tim Anstett