Press Release Episode 1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 10, 2017

BOSTON, MA - The first episode of Boston Podcast Players debuted on Monday, July 3, 2017 with an interview and play excerpt from the playwright Mimi Augustin and her play Shameless Breathing. The podcast, hosted by Greg Lam and Mara Palma, gave Augustin a platform to showcase her work and career. It will continue to feature Boston area playwrights throughout its eight episode first season.

Augustin, an immigrant from Haiti who came to the US when she was a child, wrote Shameless Breathing as an exploration of life in a women’s mental facility in Boston. The main characters are a diverse group of women with different afflictions who have to cope with the staff, treatments, and their own issues. This play highlights a world rarely seen or depicted on stage or other media with imagination and humor.

The play is “loosely based on my life” Augustin says, and it illustrates the conflict between Western treatments of mental health and traditional views. One vivid example Augustin gives revolves around a stigma against breastfeeding. “For example [the main character] Nina’s from Haiti…  They truly believe [in Haiti] that what we call post-partum depression is actually caused by breast milk, and they believe that the breast milk can travel to their brain and actually affect their personality.” You can learn more about Mimi Augustin at her website, mimiaugustin.com.

The Boston area actresses Eva Hughes, Dayenne C. B. Walters, Lauren Foster, and Allyson Lazar helped bring the play excerpt to life. 

The next episode of Boston Podcast Players will debut on Monday, August 7 with Mary McCullough’s Ballahoo in the Hair Kitchen. New episodes will debut monthly on the first Monday of each month for the eight episodes of Season 1. Episodes can be downloaded on iTunes or other podcast players, or from bostonpodcastplayers.com

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