DEATH BY A thousand
THE SHOW.
THE work.
Welcome to my Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts show site. In 2019, I created one-woman solo performance show pieces for the stage. These are creative fiction / non-fiction humor and comedy pieces inspired by both empowering and toxic time periods in technology workplaces in Silicon Valley. The first show’s circumstances followed the loss of a beloved leader at a company I am grateful to have once worked at. It showcases characters you may recognize if you’ve ever worked in tech.
Or any industry.
My current artistic work explores today’s tech workplaces, the psychologically safe and healthy ones and the toxic and unhealthy ones. It looks at leadership or a lack of it, command and control vs. servant leadership, internal collaboration vs. competition (healthy & saboteur), power vs. empowerment, corporate and gender politics, conscious and unconscious biases, overt and covert sexism, bullying, abuse and manipulation, and different types of oppression in today’s mostly male-dominated technology workplaces.
I also explore the dynamics of women in the workplace under these circumstances. Women who support each other and those who do not, and why. As a white woman in America in her latter 40s, and four decades of work experience, I completely grasp what sexism, misogyny and my own internal misogyny feels and looks like.
More than anything, I hope my work inspires men especially to listen to women and understand our challenges still today. That they help us create anti-sexist workplaces and advocate for their women colleagues. I also hope it gives courage to more people to speak up and call out their colleagues when they aren’t acting in integrity towards other colleagues.
I also feel it’s important to admit that while I understand sexism from an experiential standpoint, I do not understand racism and other isms in my own skin. All isms are a form of oppression. I believe it’s critically important that I learn as much as possible about building anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist and really anti-anything-that-oppresses-another-human-being-workplaces and world. I am noticing, listening and learning.
I’m currently writing this show into a play and my dream is to get it produced post-pandemic. My other dream is that the position of Chief Well-Being Officer become a staple across all Silicon Valley companies.
Show # 1: Fun in Workplace Hell [Watch “The Show” Video Above]
Meet Veronica Mann and a full cast of her favorite colleagues. Veronica has recently been promoted to Chief Fun Officer (CFO) at Hanky, a technology company in Silicon Valley. When the show begins, you will get a first-class seat to one particular time period of great loss at Hanky, followed by leadership from the psychopathic rings of hell and a few versions of the truth. As CFO, Veronica is hell bent on helping her demoted and squashed colleagues heal from the wounds of betrayal, bullying, backstabbing, greed, sexism, and good old-fashioned misogyny in the workplace. Come sit back. Laugh, cry, and be horrified…in a fun way! Veronica’s pouring the champagne!
Show # 2: Marjorie’s in Charge
Meet Karen Ally Brohn, a Director at Hanky. After Karen’s boss gets nastily pushed out of Hanky by Richard Face and Tim Tinkleton, one of her reports, Marjorie Bouchei, who Karen courted and helped get into the company, becomes Karen’s peer. With the power dynamics now shifted, Marjorie pulls no punches with her feedback to her former champion and boss. Watch as Karen loses her cool and uses her mirror acting skills in a way that eventually gets her tripping over power cords.
Original Trailer.
UPCOMING SHOWS.
All my favorite theaters in the Bay Area are currently closed due to COVID-19. I have recently started a yoga, meditation and writing workshop program with my colleague Monika Kaufman, a master yoga teacher. Our next workshop series begins November 1. Learn more at yeayas.com.
I’m currently working on a #covideo thanks to Filmsight Productions and Needle Space Labs. My film’s working title is “Pandemic Road Trip” about a cross country road trip through several American states including Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and California.
In the spirit of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Emmy-award winning film company Filmsight has given stipends and mentorship to artists and filmmakers, many of whom are marginalized and dis-enfranchised, to document life in times of COVID. You can watch some of the incredibly touching and already produced videos here: http://filmsight.com/covideos/
I was recently assistant producer on a COVIDeo called “Cecelia Delivers” about a passionate USPS employee named Cecelia. Written by San Francisco-based nationally produced and award winning playwright Ruth Kirschner, Cecelia has been reminding people to vote early in 2020. You can meet Cecelia here: https://www.facebook.com/Cecelia-Delivers-116396206874939
ALLY STINCHFIELD.
Ally Stinchfield is a San Francisco-based comedy/improv performer and writer currently working on the show Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts. She has trained and performed at Chicago's Annoyance, ImprovOlympic, Playground and Second City theaters. In San Francisco, Ally was part of Leela Theater’s resident company and taught improv there. She trains extensively with award-winning solo comedy performer and writer Ann Randolph and principal director of SPW Martha Rynberg. Ally also works and performs with “Notes on Your Notes” creative podcast hosts Joshua Townshend-Zellner and Adam Lesser. And she studies with Chicago-based resident playwright Will Dunne. She most recently started a yoga, meditation and writing workshop company called yeayas with yogi master Monika Kaufman of glo-yo.com. To learn more, go to yeayas.com.
Ally is also Head of Comms at Needle Space Labs, a Bay Area-based content incubator elevating narratives – building an agency about building agency.
CONTACT.
Want to know more about the show? Got your own workplace story to share? Contact Ally.