#Amy Oestreicher

[gabicoatsworth]

Writers' Rendezvous: October update - Part 2

Writers’ Rendezvous: October update – Part 2

Hello again! Here’s the second part of the update, as promised, including more events that have just appeared in my inbox.

Join British author Sonia Purnell (First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill and Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition) at the Fairfield University Bookstore from 4-5:30 on November 3, as she discusses her latest book A Woman of No Importance,the astonishing but…

[sethsings]

- Cabaret in Captivity, Pangea, 2018 -

Songs and sketches from Terezin/Theresienstad In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day

Performance filmed on April 16th, 2018 At Pangea

Performed as part of the National Jewish Theater Foundation's Holocaust Theater International Initiative, Remembrance Day Play Readings.

Conceived by Edward Einhorn

Developed and directed by Edward Einhorn and Jenny Lee Mitchell

Produced by Untitled Theater Company No. 61 in conjunction with Mad Jenny Theater

Original work written by Armin Berg, Robert Dauber, Hans Hofer, Vitezslav “Pidla” Horpatzky, Jaroslav Jezek, Frantisek Kowanitz, Feliz Porges, Leo Strauss, Karel Svenk, Louis Taufstein, Viktor Ullman, Ilse Weber, and Lisa Zeckendorf-Kutzinski

With: Craig Anderson, Seth Gilman, Jeremy Lawrence, Jenny Lee Mitchell, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, Katarina Vizina and Barbara Maier Gustern

Musical direction and piano accompaniment: Maria Dessena.

Terezin was located an hour away from Prague, and during World War II it served as both an internment camp and a way station for the concentration camps during the Holocaust. Full of satire, bitter humor, and hope, these pieces demonstrate how art became a vital survival technique for the inmates. Most of these pieces were recently recovered through the efforts of scholar Lisa Peschel, who also translated the majority of the work.

"Although honoring a somber event, the atmosphere was surprisingly pleasant and uplifting...Cabaret in Captivity is a call to action to use hope not as a means of passive daydreaming, but a powerful act of resistance. It has been said that humor equals truth plus distance. Perhaps humor was the most palatable, effective way of sharing the unbelievable creativity, will, and resistance that came from the 'Chosen' who 'had no choice.' " - Amy Oestreicher, Broadway World

Previously performed at The Center for Jewish History, the Bohemian National Hall, York Theatre, the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC, and The William Goodenough House in London, England.

[fanfiction-inc]

Hope Of A Forsaken Man (FC5 2020 Fanzine)

Verse: Far Cry 5

Characters: Staci Pratt, Jacob Seed

Rating: T for Teen

Warnings: PTSD, nightmares, torture references, and drinking

Word Count: 999 words (Limit was 1,000)

Summary: Staci Pratt begins to experience another episode of PTSD induced from his time in Jacob Seed’s cage. memories resurface, pain is felt, but what will be the resolve Pratt faces? Only you can find out.

NOTE: This was my contribution to the 2020 Far Cry 5 Fanzine. I highly encourage you all to go follow the artist I worked with as well as check out the rest of the art and stories from the fanzine itself. Below I will have the fanzine tagged. Art by the amazing: @dadtron-3000​. Thank you so much for being my partner in this and working so well with me, even if my idea was a bit delayed!

Link to the 2020 Far Cry 5 Fanzine: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qzje7mv8yq14guj/Far%20Cry%205%20Fanzine.pdf?dl=0

Link to Ao3 Version: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25021558

“It becomes difficult to deal with everyday life because you have hid your soul in a dark corner so it doesn’t have to face the dangerous world of the Trauma.  Without your soul, you are only half a person, a machine who is constantly running from reality.” - Amy Oestreicher

The clouds rolled in above the metal ceiling of a newly improvised cage, rumbling with the deadly winds and shaking the world about. Montana storms could be some of the worst to sleep during, some of the worst to escape from. He takes a deep breath as he lays in bed, listening to the pistoning of rain hammering the metal roof above, how the soft drip of water from a spot that leaked near the window fell into a waiting dish, half full already from the torment of the storm outside. Each sound had its own little reverberance, own little sounding off point, and it made his body toss and turn underneath the thin sheet he insisted upon when he first had a place to call home. At least, what could have been deemed a home. The lightest flinch followed when the window creaked and the room around him settled along with the touch strain of wind, watching the world around him shatter, even if the storm was supposedly supposed to be brief that night. 

The man could only recall back to his time behind metal bars, how the wind and rain hammered him, drenched him, and covered him in the mud from beneath. He could remember how the ground and bars faintly shook with each deep rumble of thunder above. The storms went on for days in those mountains, cutting off all the sudden then starting back up just when you thought they would be over. The world above was going to hell, and back then he never imagined escape. He never imagined leaving the confines of the red headed captor that held him there, bound by chain and sizzle of defiance. He hated that man, even when he showed what was a mock of sympathy. 

"Still got some fight in those eyes, Peaches. A few more days will do you well. Strengthen you up. You want to be strong, don't you? Strong enough to leave your bonds?"

Battered, broken, starved, and diminished. All the other could do was nod along in a feeble gesture of loyalty. This 'loyalty', built on the backbone of the blood, piss, and sweat of the others that had been just as unfortunate as him to sit on the muddy ground beneath him, was all he had as his sign of hope. He thinks back to it now, as the storm rages on outside with his back pressed onto a filthy mattress and pillow wrapped around his ears, how wrong he had been at the time to think that loyalty would have gotten him anywhere. He lets out a broken sob when the walls around him shake, shaking limbs curling into a fetal position as best as they can while being tangled in the mess of the thin fabric around him. Some would think after months of being away, he would have a way to cope… But there truly was no way. 

His hand is shuffling for the bottle beneath the bed, sweat slickened hair stuck to his forehead from the Montana heat slipping and falling before his face, letting the light droplets cascade down until they meet the amber bottle that holds only God knows what sort of cheap liquor. He had taken to spending his nights like this. Anxious, mind riddled with memories, and drinking away his sorrows until he was finally asleep. Just like him. He who locked him away. He who ruined what sense of sanity Pratt had held onto like a lifeline while in his company. He who still haunts his dreams, speaking to him within his mind until he's passed out and waiting for the next day to begin. 

The cap is unscrewed and thrown aside, mind-set already on finishing the contents of the bottle despite the amount left behind from the last go-round. His lips, chapped and trembling slip around the opening and the burn of whiskey stains his throat. He coughs, sputters, and feels the liquid run down his chin, dripping down onto a bare chest that heaved with each anxious breath. 

"Whiskey, a mans drink. Supposed to burn your throat and make ya strong. That's what my old man used to say before he'd take one down the hatch… Drink up, Peaches."

That voice that haunts him so, making him recall the first drink they shared, the first drink excluding what rainwater he could collect in his cupped hands. He takes another harsh swig of the bottle, growing accustomed to the sting and warming of his throat and belly knowing by the end of the bottle he'll be sleeping fine. But fine wasn't a word he'd use often. Fine was just the dull buzz in his head and numbness in his being. Fine was the days he spent flinching at gunshots and turning around at the faintest of voices that sounded like his captors own, as if he was taunting him from the grave. Fine was not fine, and in Staci Pratt's mind, fine would never be truly fine. 

The bottle rolled across the worn wooden floor, stopping against the dressers edge with the quiet slosh of a few sips that just couldn't be finished. He lays with fluttering vision to the ceiling, the rain beginning to fall into a dull Drum and lessen to a familiar song. 

"A man clings to the bottle like it's his only lifeline. What do you cling to?"

His voice sounds distant to Pratt, even as he begins to drift, even as his heart slows and his body lulls into the heavy slumber just outside the reaches of death. There was one thing Jacob fucking Seed could never take away from him, just one thing he couldn't own. 

"Hope."

FC5 Tag: @theoceanhathsolace​

[littlewingconnections]

Who's Crazier? Me for Singing About a Coma…or NBC's Today Show for Writing It?

Who’s Crazier? Me for Singing About a Coma…or NBC’s Today Show for Writing It?

Are you near New York on June 30th? Maybe you can tell me if I’m completely insane.

“I’m performing a show about my life next week!”

“Oh yeah? What’s it about?”

“Uh…there’s a discount code?”

“Uh…[panics] watch my TEDx Talk? [hands out postcard, runs in other direction]”

I’ve been having the hardest time trying to explain exactly what I’ll be singing about at New York’s most famous supper club on…

[missheardmedia]

From Trauma to Creativity by Amy Oestreicher

My name is Amy Oestreicher, and according to doctors, I am a “surgical disaster.” However, at 29, I feel truly blessed. I may not have a stomach, but I sure am hungry for life. It started in 2005 – a week before my senior prom. It was our second night of Passover, and my stomach started hurting. My dad said it might be gas, but he took me to the ER for an x-ray, just in case. On the way there, my cheeks actually puffed up, soon after, I collapsed, and I woke up from my coma months later. Apparently, there was a blood clot on the mesenteric artery that caused a thrombosis, and when they cut into me, my stomach actually burst to the top of the OR. Both of my lungs collapsed, I went into sepsis shock, and I needed 122 units of blood to keep me alive. At 18, I was read my last rites.

When I finally awoke from my coma months later, the doctors finally told me what was going on. I had no stomach anymore, I couldn’t eat or drink, and it was not known when or if I would ever be able to again. What do you say to that? I was shocked – I had been too sleepy to be hungry, but now that I knew what the real circumstances were, I was devastated. I was confused, like I had woken up in someone else’s life – where was I? Who was I? I remember I was once so desperate for answers that I googled “How do I find myself?”

Part of me wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear, part of me wanted to throw something. I was frustrated – I had just gotten my college acceptance letters – was I the victim of some cruel joke? Read Amy’s full story: http://www.missheardmedia.com/from-trauma-to-creativity-by-amy-oestreicher/

[chronicillnesstruths]

Check it out, one of the authors in my upcoming Chronic Illness Truths anthology just published her own book!

[gabicoatsworth]

Westport Writers' Rendezvous: June update - Part 2

Westport Writers’ Rendezvous: June update – Part 2

Here, as promised, is Part 2 of the June update. Lots of author events, contests, and places to submit your work:

The Norwalk Public Library is offering two creative writing series: An ongoing poetry workshop on the first Monday evening of each month, and creative writing each Monday, from 10:30-12pm, beginning July 8. Free. Details here.

A quick reminder that I’ll be interviewing Amy Oestreicher

[sethsings]

- Cabaret in Captivity at Triad Theater - Songs and sketches from the Terezin Camp, originally performed May 1, 2022 at Triad Theatre in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Conceived by Edward Einhorn. Developed and Directed by Edward Einhorn and Jenny Lee Mitchell. Using songs and sketches from Lisa Peschel’s anthology, Performing Captivity, and other sources. This year's production was dedicated to the memory of cast member Barbara Maier Gustern. With: Craig Anderson, Seth Gilman, Jeremy Lawrence, Jenny Lee Mitchell, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, and Katarina Vizina Musical direction and piano accompaniment: Maria Dessena, Violin: Johnna Wu Terezin was the final stop for more than 30,000 Central and Western European Jews, most from Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany who perished within its walls. For thousands more it was only a way station on the journey to the slave-labor and death camps. Yet it was also a place where many prisoners became intensely aware of the meaning and power or art. During those years in Terezin/Theresienstadt, a vigorous cultural life emerged. Not all prisoners participated in the cultural life and only a small fraction of the works produced there has survived. Amy Oestreicher, in her Broadway World review, said “Cabaret in Captivity is a call to action to use hope not as a means of passive daydreaming, but a powerful act of resistance. It has been said that humor equals truth plus distance. Perhaps humor was the most palatable, effective way of sharing the unbelievable creativity, will, and resistance that came from the 'Chosen' who 'had no choice.'

[blairemclaren]

Amy Oestreicher Death - Obituary | Amy Oestreicher Dead - Passed Away

Amy Oestreicher Death - Dead,  Obituary, Funeral, Cause Of Death, Passed Away: On April 9th, 2021, InsideEko Media learned about the death of Amy Oestreicher through social media publications made on Twitter. Click to read and leave tributes

Amy Oestreicher Death – Dead,  Obituary, Funeral, Cause Of Death, Passed Away: On April 9th, 2021, InsideEko Media learned about the death of Amy Oestreicher through social media publications made on Twitter. InsideEko is yet to confirm Amy Oestreicher’s cause of death as no health issues, accident or other causes of death have been learned to be associated with the passing. This death has caused…

[humanmadenet]

My Beautiful Detour by Amy Oestreicher

What happens when an ordinary teenager has to turn into a warrior just to survive? And can the journey through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder really become an “adventure?”

https://www.humanmade.net/books/my-beautiful-detour

[sherryfundin]

. Book Details: Book Title: MY BEAUTIFUL DETOUR: An Unthinkable Journey from Gutless to Grateful by Amy Oestreicher Category:  Adult Non-Fiction (18+) (529 pages) Genre:  Memoir Publ…

[celticladysreviewsblogspot]

Celticlady's Reviews is a blog I created for my love of reading. Book reviews and product reviews. Book spotlights are featured also

[littlewingconnections]

Amy Oestreicher IN Gutless & Grateful

Amy Oestreicher IN Gutless & Grateful

Amy Oestreicher IN Gutless & Grateful Lost a Stomach, Gained a Story

February 5th and March 26th, 2017 AT Metropolitan Room, NYC, INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED JAZZ & CABARET

Following sold-out runs at The Triad NYC, The Bijou Theatre, United Solo Festival, Barrington Stage Company (Tony-Award winning William Finn’s Cabaret Series) and a nationwide tour from Washington D.C. to Hawaii, the captivating…

[missheardmedia]

Not Waiting for Life: How I Learned to Love My Detour by Amy Oestreicher

I’ve spent a lot of time ”waiting” in my life. As a kid I grew antsy with impatience, waiting until I was ”older” to start dating, to go to the mall unsupervised, to learn how to drive. I was counting the days until I turned 18, giddy at the idea of college and independence at last. Two weeks after I turned 18, I was pulled into another realm where ”waiting” took on an entirely new meaning.

When an unforeseen blood clot caused my body to go into septic shock, my life changed forever. Now, it was my devoted family who waited patiently and lovingly while I recovered from a three-month coma. When I awoke, I waited many more months before I could take a breath of outside air once again. I became extremely well-versed in patience — little did I know that I’ve have to wait eight more months before I was discharged from the ICU, six years before I could drink a sip of water or eat a morsel of food again and 27 surgeries before doctors could create a makeshift digestive system for me.

Read Amy’s full story: http://missheardmagazine.com/love-my-detour-aoestreicher/

[clarkdiaries]

Shout-out to these groupies for helping Diversability host Amy Oestreicher as a part of our Disability Speaker Series! Amy is a HuffPost writer, playwright, actress, singer, painter, survivor, and storyteller extraordinaire. We were so grateful to have her perform her one-woman musical, Gutless and Grateful, at Clark last weekend!

-Raechel Segal ‘17

[frozeninptsd]

It becomes difficult to deal with everyday life because you have hid your soul in a dark corner so it doesn’t have to face the dangerous world of the Trauma.  Without your soul, you are only half a person, a machine who is constantly running from reality.

Amy Oestreicher