Choices

ABOUT

CHOICES follows the education of Emily, an idealistic young woman who begins training as an abortion counselor after having seen a TV show where the charismatic Allison described the important work that clinic counselors do. Allison made a plea for courageous women to come help their sisters deal with stressful choices at a time when the clinics themselves are under siege. Surrounded by pickets yelling "murderers!", bombarded with death threats and bomb scares, the counselors who take Emily under their wing --Sherrie, Jill, and Martha-- have various personal reasons for staying with their high-risk low-pay jobs. But they also have unique ways of coping with the stress-- notably, the group has developed a gallows humor that includes a running contest for the most outrageous abortion "war stories". As we see the counselors helping a cross-section of patients, and supporting each other in their work and in their personal lives, we begin, also, to sense the psychic costs. Their lives are inevitably affected by the misery, desperation and sense of failure they deal with daily -- and by the jaundiced view of men that results from this. Choices is a play that empowers women and reminds them that "It is their body, their choice"

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