{"id":3024,"date":"2021-10-13T15:12:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T20:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/?p=3024"},"modified":"2021-10-13T15:12:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T20:12:29","slug":"whole-woman-catalina-florina-florescus-lecture-at-bradley-university-about-the-importance-of-togetherness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2021\/10\/13\/whole-woman-catalina-florina-florescus-lecture-at-bradley-university-about-the-importance-of-togetherness\/","title":{"rendered":"“Whole Woman”: Catalina Florina Florescu\u2019s lecture at Bradley University about the importance of togetherness."},"content":{"rendered":"

Bradley University hosted a lecture by Catalina Florina Florescu regarding breast cancer and the importance of family and community togetherness. The lecture, titled \u201cWhole Woman\u201d, was held at 1:30 p.m. October 5, in Bradley\u2019s Marti Theatre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Catalina Florina Florescu is a published author and playwright who holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Purdue University with a double specialization in medical humanities and comparative theatre. After the death of her mother due to breast cancer, Catalina found comfort in theatre, music and philosophy. She currently teaches theatre and cinema courses at Pace University.<\/span><\/p>\n

During her lecture, Catalina spoke extensively about breast cancer, it\u2019s effect on the body and on family. She displayed a slideshow of breast cancer survivors following lumpectomy and mastectomy surgeries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to look at these images and understand the real effects of breast cancer\u201d Catalina stated sternly to a silent and rather shocked audience. \u201cThese images are raw \u2026 these women are real people with sons and daughters \u2026 mothers and fathers,\u201d Catalina spoke with emotion in her voice and fist skyward unclenching from a tight grip.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Catalina is also the New Play Development Curator at Jersey City Theatre Center. She is developing four plays, each dealing with subjects such as illness, racism, immigration and community togetherness. The subject of immigration is particularly important to Catalina because she is originally from Romania, having moved to the U.S. in the 1990s. Catalina spoke in-depth about her play \u201cMia\u201d which centers around Mia, a woman fighting against and coming to terms with breast cancer. The play holds themes of body dysmorphia, loss and family.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Catalina said that most of her inspiration for writing \u201cMia\u201d came from her own experiences of losing her mother to breast cancer in the early 1990s. In a statement Catalina gave following the lecture she said \u201cYes, my momma was and still is a huge inspiration in everything I do \u2026 \u201cMia\u201d came right from the last years of her life,\u201d\u00a0 A wavering smile crept onto her face as she continued to speak, \u201cIt\u2019s (\u2018Mia\u2019) not just about the hardships and pain the illness causes, but how it can bring a family closer than ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The lecture concluded with Catalina asking for student volunteers to act out four different scenes from \u201cMia\u201d including a monologue from the main character. Followed by a short video of an actor reenacting another monologue from the play.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bradley University hosted a lecture by Catalina Florina Florescu regarding breast cancer and the importance of family and community togetherness. The lecture, titled \u201cWhole Woman\u201d, was held at 1:30 p.m. October 5, in Bradley\u2019s Marti Theatre.\u00a0 Catalina Florina Florescu is a published author and playwright who holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Purdue University with a double specialization in medical humanities and comparative theatre. After the death of her mother due to breast cancer, Catalina found comfort in theatre, music and philosophy. She currently teaches theatre and cinema courses at Pace University. During her lecture, Catalina spoke extensively about breast cancer, it\u2019s effect on the body and on family. She displayed a slideshow of breast cancer survivors following lumpectomy and mastectomy surgeries.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s important for us to look at these images and understand the real effects of breast cancer\u201d Catalina stated sternly to a silent and rather shocked audience. \u201cThese images are raw \u2026 these women are real people with sons and daughters \u2026 mothers and fathers,\u201d Catalina spoke with emotion in her voice and fist skyward unclenching from a tight grip.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Catalina is also the New Play Development Curator at Jersey City Theatre Center. She is developing four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":346,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-campus","category-talk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3030,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions\/3030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}