Today I feature Brigid Day, Co-Director of Listen To Your Mother: Nashville, to tell us a little more about it.

Good morning, Brigid, and welcome!

Tell us about Listen To Your Mother. What is it, exactly?

Listen To Your Mother is a national series of original live readings shared locally on stages and globally via social media. The idea started five years ago with one show which gave women a chance to speak about motherhood. This year, there will be 32 shows in 32 cities to giving motherhood a microphone. Each show is a well-crafted journey to celebrate and validate all aspects of motherhood. Listen To Your Mother: Nashville will be April 26th at 7pm at TPAC’s James T. Polk Theatre.

How did you come to be involved with the Nashville production?

I took my mom to the Chicago LTYM show last year and within moments knew that I wanted to bring the show to Nashville. I recruited two friends, Anne McGraw and Carrie Weir, and we began making plans and submitted an application. We are thrilled that Nashville was chosen as one of the new LYTM cities for 2014.

Why Nashville?

Nashville has a variety of voices from southern born, to transplants, to immigrant and refugee women, and more. We are a storytelling community, and can’t wait to entertain and captivate with this powerful show.

What should audience members come prepared for? Inspiration? Laughter? Tears? All of the above?

As an audience member last year, I laughed, I cried, I related to the women, I was amazed by them, and my face hurt from smiling when I left.

So women can audition for the show. What would an audition entail?

Women, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, fathers, sons, anyone who has a story about motherhood may audition. We have 80 auditions spots which filled up fairly quickly. During the audition we will meet the reader, and listen to them read their original piece of under 5 minutes. Ideally, the show will return next year and the following years. We encourage everyone who missed the audition signups to stay tuned and audition for LTYM: Nashville 2015 (and of course, come see LTYM 2014! – click here for ticket information).

I’ve read that LTYM works with causes. Tell me about this.

Each LTYM show works with a local cause that supports women. Nashville is thrilled to donate 10% of ticket sales to Thistle Farms (http://www.thistlefarms.org/) and Magdalene House. Magdalene is a residential program for women who have survived lives of prostitution, trafficking, addiction, and life on the streets. They also provide outreach to women still living on the streets. Thistle Farms is the social enterprise that is run by the women of Magdalene. By hand, the women create natural bath and body products and earn skills in manufacturing, packaging, marketing and sales, and administration.

Tickets to Listen To Your Mother: Nashville at the Polk Theater downtown on Saturday, April 26th at 7:00pm are available now! Click here to order.