Mama Knows Best: Talking with Molly Breen from Chaffin's Barn's LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER

Here in the south, we revere our mamas, y'all, often expressing our loyalty and devotion to the woman who raised us in a myriad of ways. Rarely a day passes that we don't give mama credit for teaching us all sorts of things during our lifetime, whether it's how to pick the right china pattern for a holiday dinner, the difference between a ripe cantaloupe and one that's not quite ready, or how to stretch a meal for four people in order to feed eight more.

Our relationship with the woman raised us can sometimes be fraught with tension and discord, she can drive us crazy, reduce us to tears with her too on-the-nose criticisms or wound us deeply because of a lack of understanding. Truly, the relationship between mother and child is complex and oftentimes hard to define.

Which brings us to today's new feature: Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville's iconic professional theatre, opens its latest show next week (Thursday, April 25) Listen To Your Mother, which runs through May 12.

From the original live storytelling phenomenon that "gave motherhood a microphone," Ann Imig founded Listen To Your Mother with a show at the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, on Mother's Day 2010. She and 11 other local writers read their original true stories of motherhood before an audience of 300 people, according to a story on the show's website. The show ultimately grew beyond the confines of that one theater, to be performed throughout the world.

"Listen To Your Mother entertains, energizes, brings community together and leaves everyone feeling a little less alone and a little more understood," according to the show's official website (www.listentoyourmother.com).

Members from the Chaffin's Barn's cast of Listen To Your Mother will tell us about their own moms and their lessons learned. Today's subject is Molly Breen, who with Listen To Your Mother makes her debut at the theater, located at 8204 Highway 100 in Nashville. For ticket information or reservations, call (615) 646-9977 or go to www.chaffinsbarntheatre.com.

Molly Breen is thrilled to make her debut with Chaffin's Barn Theatre! She works with many Nashville area theatre groups and has also appeared on stage in Atlanta, Kentucky, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York, as well as in short and feature films, commercials and music videos. Favorite roles include Jessie in Cry It Out, Agnes White in Bug and Women C in the stage play and feature film Singleville. She also serves as the Program Coordinator for Tennessee Playwrights Studio, a development lab for Tennessee-based playwrights, and as a neurotypical actor with the Tandem Troupe, an acting troupe for adults with disabilities at Friends Life Community. Look for her next as Lady Capulet in Violent Delights, an all-dance version of Romeo and Juliet for ACT 1 at the Darkhorse Theatre.

What's the best advice ever given you by your mama? This is more advice by example rather than overt advice, but my mother has always lived a very full and active life, choosing meaningful work, pursuing a variety of interests, traveling, volunteering, and nurturing relationships. I don't think she has ever been bored. She has more energy than anyone I know, and she always makes little things feel special.

Besides raising you, what's your mama's biggest accomplishment? My mother is a brilliant - and completely self-taught - interior decorator, who also gardens and creates needlework. Her home is absolutely stunning. She is an amazing artist, although she is extremely humble about these abilities, and she has a huge appreciation and love for visual art as well.

What's your best trait or attribute that you can say definitively came from your mama? We both always have a book that we are reading.

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