Spoken-word show relocated to Loving Heart

IU alumna Amy Fortoul's one-woman show "This is My Body" was supposed to be performed at the 600-seat Buskirk-Chumley Theater Saturday. Instead she will perform at a much smaller venue, The Loving Heart Healing and Counciling Center, with limited space.\n"It was my decision to cancel," Fortoul said. I was trying to do all of the marketing for this performance myself."\nFortoul explained she felt that she could handle the necessary marketing for a show at the Buskirk-Chumley but found the task to be too daunting. Fortunately, a Bloomington resident who wishes to remain anonymous has come forward and volunteered to act as a sponsor, and the Buskirk-Chumley performance has been rescheduled for mid-January.\n"He felt that the piece was helping people in the community and wanted to help support that," Fortoul said.\nFortoul is the writer, performer and director of "This is My Body," an original movement-theater/spoken-word piece that boldly focuses on the relationship between sexuality and eating disorders. The root of the story comes from Fortoul's own battle with eating disorders. \n"This is My Body" is the offspring of a project Fortoul started eight years ago. A group of six IU female students worked under Fortoul's direction to create a show a spoken-word show exploring eating disorders. Over the years while touring with the show, Fortoul realized that something was missing from the performances.\n"It needed my own story to make it complete," Fortoul said.\nThe current piece was first performed in Albuquerque, N.M., in the summer of 2002. Since then, "This is My Body" has been showcased in New York City, San Francisco and numerous Bloomington venues.\n"Bloomington is always a full house, so I keep doing it," Fortoul said.\nThe New York Presbyterian Hospital is planning to have Fortoul come Dec. 1 to perform for all of its second-year medical students.\nWhen Fortoul cancelled the Buskirk-Chumley show, she heard a number of people were disappointed, so she scheduled a performance at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Loving Heart Healing and Counseling Center, located above the Book Corner at Kirkwood Avenue and Walnut Street. Admission is a suggested donation of $7 to $10. The donations go toward the continuation of Fortoul's work.\nFrom 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, Fortoul will hold a workshop teaching others the healing and self-expression tools she has developed with this project.