A Theatrical Production of
A BEAUTIFUL HELL
|
Presented by Theatre B
This play is based on a collection of poems by Fargo writer and grief counselor, Carol Kapaun Ratchenski. 'Nothing stops time and its losses,' these poems attest. A BEAUTIFUL HELL narrates the terrible journey into the profound maw of grief one who has experienced great loss must traverse. Told from a distance of years, the poems do 'laps around the cemetery years later,' documenting how close experience with death irrevocably marks and changes the ones who live through it. These poems rant and argue, they chant and console and cajole, they soothe and advise. A BEAUTIFUL HELL is a necessary handbook for anyone who is facing or has faced that unimaginable country—in other words, all of us. 'Music like cancer runs in our family,' one poem reports. Fortunately for us, in Carol Kapaun Ratchenski's devastating poems, the music always has the last say." —Debra Marquart |
October 12
7 PM
Doors open at 6:30 PM
Russell Reid Auditorium
North Dakota Heritage & State Museum
The play will be followed by an on-stage discussion and Q&A.
Meet the Moderator
MONICA HANNAN is a three-time Emmy-Award-winning television anchor, talk show host and news manager at NBC affiliate, KFYR-TV, in Bismarck, ND. She has been in the broadcast industry for 35 years, and currently works as the Managing Editor at KFYR-TV, while hosting North Dakota Today in the mornings and co-anchoring The Evening Report at 6 p.m. Her latest book, Gift of Death- A Message of Comfort and Hope, tells of her father’s journey toward death, interlaced with personal, uplifting and amazing stories of people’s final moments on earth.
Learn more about Monica's work HERE.
Learn more about Monica's work HERE.
About the Author |
Carol Kapaun Ratchenski began writing prose poetry in the 80's after reading Murder in the Dark by Maragret Atwood. The House on the Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros took her breath away. Ratchenski's first novel Mamababy, was published in 2013 as an e-book by Knuckledown Press. After losing her second son to cancer, she decided the best thing to do was to write about it. Ratchenski wants readers to see all the ways that life is horrible and wonderful all at the same time and how that can create something beautiful. She loved the idea of interconnecting poetry and prose together to create something similar to novel length.
