Work in Progress – March 30, 2023

Singing ‘La Loba’ to life 
By Melina Laroza

Imagine a gypsy caravan traveling through the Rockies, popping out a puppet theater and handmade wares to tell a magical story, old as time. Bonnie Barker, Sami Akert, Jacquie Hill and Heather Jameson make up the Paonia-based Singing Bone Medicine Show that presented at True Nature on Saturday, March 25. Each woman has a special gift that together immerse the audience in a powerful, sensory tale: a shadow puppet show like no other; Waldorf aesthetic meets “Women Who Run with the Wolves” rhetoric to create a setting that both haunts and delights. The theater itself is a work of art, wrapping the audience in a winter bruja forest of author Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ imagination. 

Song and story, guitar and fiddle, interwoven with English and Spanish to create a show suitable for babies, children and the child within each of us. I sat in utter awe and fascination as the story of an old woman who had been forgotten and forgot herself, sang us back to ourselves by digging up bones she found around her house in forgotten woods. Assembling them became her instinct-driven mission while singing an ancient song of wild wolves and women. (thegamedial.com) Over time, a wolf appeared before her — its wholeness completing something in me. This adaptation of “La Loba” from “Women Who Run with the Wolves” is medicine for the soul. If you get to see this show, let it speak to you. Let the memory of your inner wild woman, or wild women you love, come alive in your love for your children.

With the theater and nature-inspired accouterments packed away, melodious harmonies echoing in our heads still, the four mamas headed to their carefully-crafted booth. Here they joyfully answered questions, let the children see the puppets and sold their herbal medicines, once again tethering the audience to La Loba’s bones from Mother Earth’s soil.