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Biography
Once, a young housewife and her older sister were sitting in the kitchen of a Chicago apartment having afternoon tea. The older woman looked into her sister’s tea cup and read the leaves that had accumulated on the bottom. She said, “I see that soon you will become pregnant with your second child. It will be a girl. She will be much like our late mother – full of joy, open and trusting, with a wild imagination that cannot be contained. This could be blessing, or a curse.”
A year later, on March 16, 1951, the young housewife gave birth to the second of her and her husband’s three children. They named her Mary Rachel after her grandmother.
Even in early childhood, it was evident that Mary had the qualities that her aunt had foretold. She was an avid reader and made up elaborate stories of her own. Though innately shy, she had a flair for the dramatic, and began creative dramatics classes at age 5. Her reading and vivid imagination sparked a fascination in foreign cultures and desire to understand the beauty and mystery of the human heart.
In high school, Mary excelled in English and the dramatic arts. She took part in many school productions and performed in the Chicago area with a student folk dance troupe. The loss of her mother to cancer during this time caused her to explore different philosophies dealing with the spiritual aspect of life. She developed a deep interest in utopian ideals, and her restlessness to see the world was fueled.
When she graduated from high school in 1969, Ms. Platt went to Israel on a year-long work-study program. Taken by the youth and idealism of the country, she stayed there for nearly six years, first living on a kibbutz and then as a student of literature and drama at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her studies included acting, puppet theater and writing scripts adapted from folk and fairy tales. To her, the most powerful aspects of theater were those that came directly from folk traditions, such as Balinese shadow puppet theater, whose mystery and magic defied time and culture.
After graduating from Hebrew University with a BA in Literature and Drama in 1975, Mary traveled in Europe and immersed herself in the spiritual study of Far Eastern philosophies. When she returned to Chicago in 1977, Ms. Platt earned a living as a free-lance writer, and a few years later she moved to New Jersey to work as a staff writer for a subsidiary of the New York Times. In December, 1981, she married John Platt, an English teacher and martial artist.
Over the years, Mary was continually struck by the simplicity and beauty of the art of storytelling. Then, in November 1987, she went to see Peter Brook’s production of the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic. The simple style of the production was much like storytelling; its power, magical and transformative. In that one event, she experienced full-force the power of story presented as art. She suddenly and clearly saw her own potentiality as storyteller, and storytelling as a culmination of all the things that she loved, and for which she had an innate understanding and talent.
From that point on, Ms. Platt began to seek out the people who would help her develop her art. She studied voice and acting to increase her range for dramatic expression. She studied with internationally acclaimed storytellers, including Laura Simms , the Folktellers and John Basinger. In order to deeply explore the relationship between personal story and the ancient archetypal tales of the oral tradition, she has taken training in psychodrama and Playback Theatre (a form of improvisational theater, which enacts audience members\' personal moments) with its founder, Jonathan Fox.
Since 1989, when Mary began to perform regularly as a storyteller, she has established a reputation for her ability to captivate audiences, children and adults alike. To date, she has performed extensively throughout the Northeast, as well as nationally and abroad. She offers workshops for adults and children in both educational and corporate settings. She gives in-residence programs in schools and museums, teacher-training workshops, parent literacy workshops, and trains groups of students to perform for inner-city children and senior citizens. She occasionally collaborates with other artists, including a classical Indian dancer, and has performed as the featured storyteller with CarnegieKids performances at Carnegie Hall. She is an affiliated performing artist for Lincoln Center Institute. Annually, she travels to India where she gives workshops and performances in cities as well as remote tribal regions.
Mary is also a member of Hudson River Playback Theater , a professional Playback theater troupe which performs in various venues throughout upstate New York.. Her training as an actor in this theater form has enriched her ability as a storyteller to listen deeply , and respond to her audiences with sensitivity, insight, spontaneity and joy.
A resident of Poughkeepsie, NY, Mary is a member of The National Storytelling Association, Storytelling Arts, Inc., and Visions Story and Art Center.
To Mary, it seems that all aspects of her life, interests, and talents have been a blessing – for they have found expression in an art that is a celebration of life, and of the human spirit.
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