“When I started breastfeeding, my great grandmother would sit across from me and sing what I was doing wrong,” explains actress ‘Rie Shontel, who is known as Anita Woodley offstage. 

Shontell transitions seamlessly into her great grandmother’s voice singing, “That’s not how you do it/You’re gonna kill that baby with that milk.” The first few minutes chatting with the journalist who grew up in Funktown on 13^th Avenue and East 17^th is filled with laughter. She share’s some of most memorable interactions with the woman who inspired “Mama Juggs: Three Generations Healing Negative Body Image,” which shows Wednesday and Thursday - Dec. 29 and 30 - at the Black Dot Café in Oakland.

“My husband said ‘Baby, get a notepad and write these songs down,'" recalls Woodley who revisited the songs at a gathering of artists. “I sat on the stool in the middle of a living room and started singing 'use breast milk in the breast jug' and people fell out. I mean the people were on the floor laid out laughing.” But when a partygoer suggested that she turn the songs into a play she responded, “I’m a journalist, not an actor.”

More than a year and 30 performances later, Woodley is still sharing through theatre the story of her life with her mother and great grandmother and the lessons she learned about womanhood and body image.

“Everything in the play is real,” she explains. But no show is the same.

“Once I performed three shows in a row and at least five people came to each of the shows and they said, 'We just love it because it’s a different show,'” says Woodley. “I’m going on the energy and I’m pulling people up, just like Grandma's house. If you go to Grandmas house, she is going to put you to work.”

From the comedic moments of a 9 year old stuffing her bra for the first time to the difficult routine of a woman living with breast cancer and changing the gauze for her wounds, Woodley weaves a story that audiences connect with on many levels.

“People are getting what they need. It’s beautiful. It’s education without being preachy,” she says noting that the play is a great release going into the New Year. “You are ready to create, you’re ready to let go, you’re ready to cry and whatever happened this year, you are going to wrap it up in those 90 minutes.”

Take Action

See the show-Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 29-30, 7:30 p.m., at the Black Dot Café, 1195 Pine St., West Oakland. Tickets are $20. Reserve your tickets for the Oakland show at Brown Paper Tickets, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/136647, or by calling the 24/7 Ticket Hotline, 1-800-838-3006.

Rie Shontel: Visit http://rieshontel.blogspot.com/ and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/rie-shontel/95106818063. Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rieshontel or email me at rieshontel@gmail.com.