Journaling and the evolution of audio play ‘Thief’

Early followers of KrisP Production know how much we encourage journaling without judgement as often as possible, if not every day.

Briefly, the benefits of journaling include stress-reduction and mood improvement, stimulating cognitive function by way of the act of writing, cultivating mindfulness and encouraging receptivity to life experiences that fulfil you.

Many significant individuals in history from all fields kept journals. As a creative, it is the most honest, unique source of inspiration to your work. Frida Kahlo, just to name one of many examples, kept diaries that held her dreams, thoughts, poems and sketches. And according to Open Culture,

“Knowing the bare facts of her life gives us much-needed context for her images... Rather than explaining her painting to us, it opens up an entirely new world of imagery—one very different from the controlled self-portraiture of her public body of work—to puzzle over.”

An entry from Frida’s journal

Our own founder, Kristina Pakhomova, journals and has in fact consulted it to inspire a lot of her work. Her solo play ‘Dark Room‘, her upcoming short film ‘Away’, and her latest release, audio play ‘Thief’.

When I proposed the concept of the play, I didn’t know where it was gonna take me, and what it would become

In her interview with The Theater of Others, Kristina shares that when she heard they were launching an audio play festival revolving around the theme of transformation, rebirth, reparation, purchase, or sacrifice, she looked through the entries she had written throughout the course of her pregnancy.

Within those pages, she found that she’d faced challenging moments she didn’t quite have answers for. So as a starting point, she proposed that it would be on the topic of motherhood.

“When I proposed the concept of the play, I didn’t know where it was gonna take me, and what it would become,” Kristina admits in her interview with the Theatre of Others (TOO).

At an early stage, with her pregnancy journal as a compass, Kristina realised that material on her own experience was not enough. There needed to be a distance, outside perspective. She needed to crowdsource, but casting a net that wide with a very generic topic like ‘Difficulties of Parenthood’ would be messy.

In the process of whittling down a generic topic to specifics, she questioned if the challenges she’d written about in her journal were akin to that of postnatal depression. She decided to pursue that gut feel and put up a post on social media, calling on parents to share their stories on postnatal depression.

First-hand source material started to come in, and it opened an entirely new world of experiences that she had no idea people were going through, in parenthood no less. It was at this point that Kristina decided to use this opportunity to spread awareness of postnatal depression. Not as a pamphlet, but an entire auditory experience you could enter. One where if you closed your eyes while listening to the audio play, you’d feel their anecdotes in your heart.

The rest, needless to say, was history. After having put together the play, Kristina still doesn’t know if she had postnatal depression, but she’s realised a lot of women go through the same thing — they don’t know they’re having it when they’re having it. They realise it after.

What she knows though is that she wanted to not only spread awareness about postnatal depression, but that it had to be an outlet through which listeners could help. You may listen to Thief and donate here. Part of the proceeds will go to Postpartum Support International (PSI). Read more about them and Thief here.

With that, the KrisP team concludes this article by encouraging all creatives to start journaling, as we know we will! We also pass on the provocation Kristina posed to Budi and Adam in the TOO interview to you, to write a personal story that touches you.