Mother's Day usually passes with flowers, a card and a hug but do we really understand who we're celebrating?That's a question local actor Heather Feeney contemplated when invited to participate in My Mother's Story, which includes two stage shows on Sunday (May 11) featuring stories written and performed by 20 actors from Vancouver and area."What most people found was that they didn't know their moms very well," said Feeney, 37. "And it's interesting, with my mom, her life began when I was born so it was an interesting experiment to figure out more about her."The process of learning more about her mother, Rosemary Harper, who lives in Calgary, started about four years ago after receiving an email from creator and director Marilyn Norry sent to the local acting community. Norry said she sent out about 300 emails. "It started for me just on a whim really just to see what stories were out there," she said. "I was just so bored with the way women were being portrayed in all of the scripts that I was reading and there was a whole genealogical thing my parents were going through with having the facts but not the story, so I threw this email out to the winds to see what would happen."What happened was a huge response of over 50 stories, including Feeney's.Putting together her mother's story required investigating and collecting anecdotes from grandparents and straight from Harper. After writing the maximum 2,000 word story, Feeney fact-checked and revised with her mother and started to see her in a different light - not necessarily as a mother but as an individual. While forming a greater bond with her mother, she gave birth to her own daughter, Islie Hirvonen, now a year old. "My relationship to her seems that much more special because of this process," said Feeney. "It's neat and I really hope to have an open communicative relationship with my daughter because of this. I want her to know that I had a life before she was born."Feeney said the show, of course, is much more than an actors' therapy group. The women's stories are interwoven through the performance and together touch on a spectrum of issues affecting the extraordinary lives of ordinary women. "There's something for everyone to be able to relate to, which is why the general public, I think they feel like 'wow, you're kind of tapping into my own life.'"Feeney said her mother is an industrious person who even as a young girl sold pints of raspberries to earn money. And although she always made sure there was music and singing filling the home, her life was not without its unplanned events and struggles.Norry said she is excited to have Feeney contribute her mother's story because it hits on issues common to countless women.Norry said the show is meant to encourage others' to salvage their mothers' stories in the name of accelerating a growing community, which includes forum discussions, workshops and a book entitled My Mother's Story: The Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary Women. "I don't know why it is that there isn't library shelves filled with the ordinary because it's absolutely fascinating seeing how a life unfolds and we have such limited stories of women, said Norry. There are two shows - 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. - on Sunday (May 11) at UNITY of Vancouver (5840 Oak St. at 42nd Ave.). Tickets cost $30 and are available at www.gigtickets.ca or by calling 1-866-705-5437 (ext. 4051).For more information, or to find out how to contribute your own mother's story, visit www.mymothersstory.org.
