I first met Tania Katan about two months ago on set for her September Java magazine article. I was scouted to model for the project and was informed it would help promote Tania’s upcoming performance, “Saving Tania’s Privates” which shares her personal life struggles of battling breast cancer. Based on the topic of the assignment, I was more than willing to help advertise her show with any skills I could provide. I posed along with a group of darling girls that I had never met before. We were all dressed as sexy nurses and positioned above Tania as she lay on a stretcher with two large vegan cupcakes taking the place of her breasts. The photo team asked me to “play” the lead nurse in the photo shoot due to previous modeling experience. So, with an intense gaze into the camera, I held an oversized, cartoon-like syringe into Tania’s simulated cupcake breasts.
On Friday October, 8th I finally got to see “Saving Tania’s Privates”. After the performance I felt as though I wanted to share how Tania’s life story impacted me. First off, I have to say that Tania is so incredibly brave; everything she went through struck a deep cord within me. I felt as if I lived every experience along with her as she shared her powerful life events with the audience. Tania is an excellent performer and extremely talented. As a performer myself, I paid close attention to the details of how Tania conducted her facial expressions and the ways she communicated the dynamics of her voice. Her tone of voice was loud during some dramatic scenes and softer during others but always maintained clarity. Tania’s body movements helped express her story even further and really made use of the intimate space within the theater. I learned a lot about her performance abilities by observing her confidence on the stage floor and how she interacted with the audience surrounding her.
I am honestly so proud of Tania Katan for being able to share her struggles of enduring breast cancer on two separate occasions at such a young age. I was impressed with how Tania controlled the emotions of her audience as well. There were so many moments in which I felt as though I wanted to cry for her because I sympathized with everything she had to go through. But just as I was gathering a huge lump in my throat and water in my eyes she quickly threw on a humorous face along with some silly sarcasm to make me laugh. Tania also gave an amusing twist throughout her performance by making some excellent impressions of her friends and family members. Each character had a unique voice and body movement which helped suspend each person separately from one another. It was fascinating observing how each character expressed their emotions during the many trials in which Tania faced and how she portrayed herself simultaneously along with them. The fact that she could jump from sad to happy moments and the ways in which she switched personalities of family members, to girlfriends and then back to herself is where she truly excelled in her presentation. Tania kept me fully engaged in her production about her life’s events and left me with an immense feeling of inspiration. I gained motivation for action by learning about Tania’s incredible narrative of self perseverance and found insight as a performer by watching her many talents as an artist.
It is hard to ever imagine being confronted with cancer, death, severed body parts, and chemo therapy. But the fact that Tania had to continually battle these things on an incessant basis throughout her life makes her very courageous in my eyes. She shared how she loved being alive and that she was good at it! Being the champion runner that she is, you could truly see and hear this as being true based upon her joyful spirit! She has been blessed with so much strength and support from so many loved ones around her, and as a result she was able to get through it all! I am honored and grateful to have had the opportunity to meet and work with Tania Katan and will forever remember her incredible story.
