FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

samantha church’s latest solo show, “Process,” is a digital cabaret about facing real life.

Hamlet Soliloquies and Alternative Rock Classics guide viewers through the scrolling, multimedia landscape.

Cabaret artist Samantha Church’s latest project, “Process: A Digital Cabaret,” (which quietly opened Independence Day at SmutMag.Art, a digital arts magazine and “playhouse” of which she is the artistic director) delves deep into self-examination and self-doubt to discover, “How do you fight for yourself when you are fighting alone in the dark?”

Through a revolving door of mistake-laden rehearsal videos, pictures and text, covering work from Hamlet to Bobby McFerrin, as well as self-coscious essay drafts full of notes, Process aims to highlight what is human as it searches for a way out of a demoralized world.

Church has spent her career in underground spaces, street performing original songs across the country and creating solo theatre pieces, such as 2020’s “Love in the Underworld, performed at the Arcata Playhouse. The Eureka Times-Standard said of the show:

But the show closed after only two performances, and the planned tour to follow cancelled.

“That show was a catharsis about poverty and sexual assault. I was finally able to put the situation to words and ring something healing from it. Then just as it closed, and was ready to tour, COVID hit.”–Says Church

What followed were abusive bosses, unemployment, eviction, vandalism and the disappearance of old friends as the world became more polarized.

“I was completely alone, dealing with crisis after crisis, and was getting frightening flashbacks from the sound of my own banjo–all of my progress regressed. There was no help. I felt as though I was being punished.”

There was also the problem of keeping theatre alive in an increasingly remote world.

“Process” is the culmination of Church’s mission to create a resilient, flexible and scalable cabaret that continues to thrive and move, even in alienating times. In it, Church explores her own avoidance of action, and learning exactly what it means to be ready when the readiness is all–and all you can hope for.

“Isolation and demoralization have left a lot of people feeling helpless, alone, and incapable. My hope is that this show will help us grieve and learn to trust ourselves again, when the world is telling us our humanity is unworthy,” says Church. “I wanted to show how even in process, we are enough.”

Does that mean the digital space is the last stop for “Process”?

“Our goal is to have the show in front of a live audience on public access television by next Independence Day. But it will be a different show than the one you see online–each tailored to their venue. Those who watch the online show will have access to every iteration as it develops.”

Ticket sales all aid Church in building permanent, stable housing for herself and other artists. Tickets are $20, and can be gotten at SmutMag.Art. Audiences may view at any time.

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