Ruthie Fudge stood on stage erect, gazing into the audience as she recounted her first time binging and purging. Fudge recalled Cyndi Lauper’s video “True Colors” blaring through her television set as she stuck two fingers down her throat and began regurgitating violently.
“It was the best thing that ever happened in my life,” Fudge said. “I stood in front of the mirror, wiped away the mess from my face, felt all the euphoria of a coked-up care salesman, juxtaposed with a little bit of Catholic shame.”
Fudged continued to narrate some harrowing details of her life, including being molested as a young child and how it subsequently “dysfunctionally transformed” her.
Fudge was one of three storytellers featured Wednesday night at the Storyzilla Story Show at Bear’s Place. The Storyzilla Story Show is Bloomington’s only live storytelling event and a storytelling variety show featuring pre-selected, directed storytellers sharing autobiographical stories loosely based on a particular theme, said Nell Weatherwax, Storyzilla Story Show’s director and producer.
“For this show we’re working with the organization Women With Guts, and it’s all about celebrating women bold enough to be themselves,” Weatherwax said. “Gutsy women is our theme for tonight.”
Women with Guts provides a platform and a forum for women to come together and celebrate their gutsy stories, figuratively and literally, said Rachael Himsel, founder of Women with Guts.
“Women have been traditionally scrutinized for their appearance and more specifically their body shape,” Weatherwax said. “It can be gutsy to be yourself, whatever size you are and be comfortable in your body.”
“I consider Women with Guts a mind melding of a bunch of women who are sick and tired about being under the pressure about how they look,” Fudge said. “We’re so bombarded by the media’s image of how we need to be, adhering to a particular diet, the necessity to be thin.”
After delivering her story, Fudge said she hopes the audience received the underlying message. “The story is pretty deep and dark,” she said. “I’m hoping that they can find the silver lining in the darkness.”
Fudge struggled with bulimia for a number of years before overcoming the eating disorder. “I did the gutsiest thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “I checked myself into a hospital, saw a therapist and I go to a support group.”
The two other storytellers delivered autobiographical stories infused with humor, theatrics and animation. Himsel recalled mastering the choreography as she tried out for show choir her junior year in high school. After being rejected, the choir director told her “some people look better dancing than others.”
While Storyzilla is entertaining, there are lessons to be gleaned from every story, Weatherwax said.
“Every story provides a glimpse into someone’s life. What they learned, what they’ve gained, how they overcame something, how they experienced something.”
Storyzilla Story Show will be performing again at Bear’s Place on Sept. 30.
