In collaboration with the Cross Border House in Sichow, Poland, in 2022, Amber Poole Kieniewicz assisted in organizing a performance which served as a means for healing for the children of 40 Ukrainian refugees. As co-creative director and prop master, we honored the imaginative triumphs of the children and wrote Happy Town, which follows the story of an animal town’s imminent danger as their resident dragon awakes with three heads and no fire, throwing a rampage and instilling fear in all of the town’s residents. Four animals devise a plan to decapitate the dragon’s extra heads, restoring its good nature. During the development of the script, the children were adamant about the physicality of removing the evil extra dragon’s heads, serving as the play’s climax, to much anticipation and excitement. Perhaps this response serves as an allegory of their displacement by war into an unknown and foreign environment, where the dragon represented war and they sought to reclaim the order of peace…or they wanted to pop some balloons with their new friends. Regardless, the transformation of social engagement and collaboration through storytelling allowed for this community, and, in particular, these children, to feel and express their hurt and fear within a fictional setting and an engaging context. The act of artistic community collaboration during this project brought about healing and artistic engagement and aided in the devastating emotional toll of war and suffering. Special thanks to Amber Poole Kieniewicz and the Cross Border House Sewing Center for creating this wonderful production.

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