The Grief Workshop
Asheville Community Theater
January 2024
LIORA CHEN, 42, stands on empty stage. Twenty folding chairs in a circle. Sign: "Somatic Grief Processing - $75"
First participant arrives. KEVIN, 38, Tesla keys visible.
KEVIN: Is this where we learn to compost trauma?
LIORA: We explore embodied healing through movement.
KEVIN: Your flyer said something about mushrooms.
LIORA: Metaphorical mushrooms.
KEVIN: For seventy-five dollars they better be real.
---
The Participants Arrive
KEMI (31), JASPER (55), MINH (47) trickle in. Outside, Asheville floods. Fourth time this year.
JASPER: Bridge is out. We're stuck here.
LIORA: The workshop is three hours—
JASPER: No, literally stuck. Roads are flooded.
KEMI: I need to get home. My mom's alone.
LIORA: I'm sure it'll clear—
Thunder. Lights flicker.
MINH: This building's in a flood zone.
LIORA: We're on the second floor.
MINH: I was on a second floor in Houston. During Harvey. Didn't matter.
---
The Exercise Begins
LIORA: Let's start. Everyone stand. We'll begin with rooting.
KEVIN: While flooding?
LIORA: Especially while flooding. Feel your feet—
KEMI: I can't stay. My mother has dementia. If the power goes—
LIORA: Can someone check on her?
KEMI: She only speaks Yoruba now. Who's going to—
Water drips through ceiling. Small, but persistent.
JASPER: That's new.
---
The Truth Comes Out
LIORA: Okay. Cards on table. I'm not certified in anything. I read a book about fungi and trauma. My therapist dumped me for missing too many appointments. This is my first workshop.
KEVIN: What?
LIORA: The theater needed rent. I needed money. You needed... something.
MINH: I needed continuing education credits.
LIORA: I can't provide those.
JASPER: Jesus Christ.
KEMI: My mother is alone in a flood because of fake therapy?
---
Real Processing
Water pools in corner. They move chairs.
LIORA: Look, we're all here. Stuck. Might as well talk.
KEVIN: About what?
LIORA: Why you came. Really.
KEVIN: My wife left. Took the kids. Said I was "emotionally absent."
JASPER: Mine died. Six months ago. Car accident.
MINH: Brother. Overdose. Last year.
KEMI: Mother's forgetting me. Piece by piece.
Silence. Water drips louder.
LIORA: Father. Cancer. Two weeks ago.
---
The Exercise Changes
LIORA: Forget the workshop. What do you need?
KEMI: To call my mother.
JASPER: To stop pretending I'm okay.
MINH: To stop feeling guilty.
KEVIN: To feel anything.
LIORA: Then do that.
Kemi calls. Speaks Yoruba. Others listen without understanding, hearing only tone: love, worry, love.
JASPER: My wife hated my driving. Always grabbed the door handle. Night she died, I was home. She drove herself. I keep thinking if I'd driven—
MINH: You'd both be dead.
JASPER: Maybe.
---
The Water Rises
First floor now flooded. They hear it lapping at stairs.
KEVIN: Should we move higher?
LIORA: It's a two-story building.
KEVIN: Roof?
LIORA: In this rain?
They stay. Circle tightens.
MINH: My brother called that night. I didn't answer. Working late.
KEVIN: You couldn't have known.
MINH: I knew he was using again. I was tired of it.
LIORA: Being tired doesn't make you guilty.
MINH: Doesn't make me innocent either.
---
Real Movement
Without instruction, they begin moving. Not dance. Just... movement.
Jasper rocks. Kemi sways. Minh paces. Kevin stands still—the most movement of all.
LIORA: This is probably what I should have taught.
KEMI: This is better.
LIORA: Why?
KEMI: It's honest.
Water reaches top stair. They hear sirens outside.
---
Morning
Water receded. Sun out. Asheville steaming.
They've been there all night. Talking, not talking, moving, being still.
KEVIN: I should sue you.
LIORA: Probably.
KEVIN: But I won't.
JASPER: We should do this again.
LIORA: The flooding?
JASPER: The honesty.
KEMI: My mother's okay. Neighbor checked.
MINH: That's good.
They gather their things. Nobody asks for refunds.
LIORA: Same time next week?
KEVIN: You're not qualified.
LIORA: No. But neither is grief.
They leave separately. But something connects them now. Not healing. Not closure. Just shared flooding.
---
Next Week
Twelve people show up. Word spread.
NEW PERSON: Is this the grief thing?
LIORA: I guess it is.
NEW PERSON: How much?
LIORA: Whatever you can afford.
NEW PERSON: What's the method?
KEVIN: Flooding.
NEW PERSON: Like, emotional flooding?
JASPER: Sometimes.
They sit. Circle forms. Someone brings coffee. Someone cries. Someone laughs.
No mushroom metaphors. No root choreography. Just people, circled up, surviving high water.
End
