Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith
A one-man play written & performed by Michael Mack
Directed by Daniel Gidron
Venue: St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church
Address: 112 Chestnut Street, Lynnfield, MA 01940
Date & time: Saturday, September 24 @ 6:30 pm
Ticket cost: Free will donation
More info: www.michaelmacklive.com
Lynnfield MA – Poet, playwright, and actor Michael Mack will perform Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith, his "powerful" (Washington Post) and profound" (Times Square Chronicles) one-man play at Saint Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Lynnfield, MA on Saturday, September 24, at 6:30 pm.
Following the show, an audience talkback will feature Michael and volunteer priests – including Father Rick Walsh from the Paulist Center of Boston – in a candid question-and-answer session.
Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith is Mack’s spiritual autobiography, recounting how a childhood trauma launched a 40-year search for healing – at first away from, and then back to, the Roman Catholic Church. Father Michael McGarry, CSP, as President of the Paulist Fathers – an order of Roman Catholic priests – called the play "well-written, witty, insightful, engaging, and true… a powerful experience not to be missed."
Following Saturday’s show, the conversation will continue with an audience talkback featuring Mack along with priests from around the Archdiocese, including Fr. Rick Walsh, CSP, a Roman Catholic priest serving at the Paulist Center in downtown Boston.
Fr. Walsh agreed to be the face of the clergy in a candid question-and-answer session. He hopes that an empathic dialogue can help survivors find their way to their spiritual home – whether in the Catholic faith or outside it. "We have not forgotten," said Fr. Walsh. "This is a story that needs to be told – and a story that needs to be heard."
Pope Francis proclaimed 2016 as the Jubilee Year of Mercy, and Mack’s play is his personal exploration of forgiveness, reconciliation, and renewal. How appropriate that he brings it to St. Maria Goretti Parish, whose patron saint, Maria Goretti (1890-1902) was a child victim of sexual assault. She forgave her attacker as she lay dying of her wounds, and is the youngest Catholic saint. Canonized in 1950, she is the patron saint of victims of sexual crimes, and also the patron saint of forgiveness.
Directed by theater veteran Daniel Gidron, Mack's lyric monologue premiered at
Boston University’s Boston Playwrights Theatre at the 10-year anniversary of the
clergy sexual abuse crisis in Boston. It subsequently played in nearby Roman Catholic churches before touring the northeast and netting a prize-winning run (Best Script award, Best Solo Play nomination) at New York City’s Midtown International Theatre Festival.
For more about the play, visit www.michaelmacklive.com
For more information about the performance at Saint Maria Goretti Church in
Lynnfield, contact Marie Lagman at mlagman@ola-smg.org or at
781-598-4313 x218.
BIO
Poet, playwright, and actor Michael Mack graduated from the Writing Program at MIT. His poems and stories have aired on NPR and have twice been published in Best Catholic Writing (2005 & 2007), America (the national Catholic weekly), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the Beloit Poetry Journal. Awards include two Fellowships in Dramatic Writing from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (2005 & 2013), the state's most prestigious and competitive individual arts grant.
A one-man play written & performed by Michael Mack
Directed by Daniel Gidron
Venue: St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church
Address: 112 Chestnut Street, Lynnfield, MA 01940
Date & time: Saturday, September 24 @ 6:30 pm
Ticket cost: Free will donation
More info: www.michaelmacklive.com
Lynnfield MA – Poet, playwright, and actor Michael Mack will perform Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith, his "powerful" (Washington Post) and profound" (Times Square Chronicles) one-man play at Saint Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Lynnfield, MA on Saturday, September 24, at 6:30 pm.
Following the show, an audience talkback will feature Michael and volunteer priests – including Father Rick Walsh from the Paulist Center of Boston – in a candid question-and-answer session.
Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith is Mack’s spiritual autobiography, recounting how a childhood trauma launched a 40-year search for healing – at first away from, and then back to, the Roman Catholic Church. Father Michael McGarry, CSP, as President of the Paulist Fathers – an order of Roman Catholic priests – called the play "well-written, witty, insightful, engaging, and true… a powerful experience not to be missed."
Following Saturday’s show, the conversation will continue with an audience talkback featuring Mack along with priests from around the Archdiocese, including Fr. Rick Walsh, CSP, a Roman Catholic priest serving at the Paulist Center in downtown Boston.
Fr. Walsh agreed to be the face of the clergy in a candid question-and-answer session. He hopes that an empathic dialogue can help survivors find their way to their spiritual home – whether in the Catholic faith or outside it. "We have not forgotten," said Fr. Walsh. "This is a story that needs to be told – and a story that needs to be heard."
Pope Francis proclaimed 2016 as the Jubilee Year of Mercy, and Mack’s play is his personal exploration of forgiveness, reconciliation, and renewal. How appropriate that he brings it to St. Maria Goretti Parish, whose patron saint, Maria Goretti (1890-1902) was a child victim of sexual assault. She forgave her attacker as she lay dying of her wounds, and is the youngest Catholic saint. Canonized in 1950, she is the patron saint of victims of sexual crimes, and also the patron saint of forgiveness.
Directed by theater veteran Daniel Gidron, Mack's lyric monologue premiered at
Boston University’s Boston Playwrights Theatre at the 10-year anniversary of the
clergy sexual abuse crisis in Boston. It subsequently played in nearby Roman Catholic churches before touring the northeast and netting a prize-winning run (Best Script award, Best Solo Play nomination) at New York City’s Midtown International Theatre Festival.
For more about the play, visit www.michaelmacklive.com
For more information about the performance at Saint Maria Goretti Church in
Lynnfield, contact Marie Lagman at mlagman@ola-smg.org or at
781-598-4313 x218.
BIO
Poet, playwright, and actor Michael Mack graduated from the Writing Program at MIT. His poems and stories have aired on NPR and have twice been published in Best Catholic Writing (2005 & 2007), America (the national Catholic weekly), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the Beloit Poetry Journal. Awards include two Fellowships in Dramatic Writing from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (2005 & 2013), the state's most prestigious and competitive individual arts grant.
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