TORIE WIGGINS
Collective Healing and the Well-Rested Artist

In this episode, I talk with multi-hyphenate artist and entrepreneur Torie Wiggins about creative wellness and the joys of solo performance. We also talk about why the arts industry must stop trading on the trauma of its artists as a means for creating consumable stories. Listen in as we discuss our dreams about stories of Black joy, a culture of mutual care and rest, and a thriving future beyond the cumulative pain of the pandemic.

“When I direct plays, I often ask whose story is this? When I write, I ask whose story is this? Who gets to tell whose story? This question permeates our industry. When it comes to identity, bodies, race, ethnicities, diversity, it always goes back to the question of who gets to tell whose story. Doing solo performance was a way that I could tell my story my way. And it's probably to date the only time I've ever felt complete autonomy over my experience as a woman, as a Black woman, as an actor, as a storyteller, as a creator, is when I take that space on stage.” — Torie Wiggins

Our conversation happened in October of 2021.

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GUEST INFO

Torie Wiggins (she/her) is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with a BFA in Dramatic Performance and has been performing professionally for 20 years. She has co-adapted and performed a one woman show, Your Negro Tour Guide, at various venues across the country. Her film work includes A Christmas Melody, starring and directed by Mariah Carey; The Old Man and the Gun with Robert Redford and Danny Glover and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring Zac Efron. She has performed with and directed productions at many local theatres, including Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Human Race Theatre Co., Cincinnati Shakespeare Co., Falcon Theatre and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. She is also an accomplished voiceover artist, having lent her voice to multiple national commercials, audiobooks and other projects.

Torie has also worked as an instructor of Theatre Arts at Miami University, University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. She recently launched her company, WellArts Cincinnati, which offers coaching, classes and workshops in various fields of the arts centered around wellness for the performer. She has presented many workshops for conferences and symposiums, including her most recent workshop “The Well-Fed Artist and The Art of the Healthy Hustle.” You can learn more about Torie’s work at: www.wellartscincy.com.

SHOW NOTES

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