Breast Advice: An Uplifting Conversation about Boobs in Tampa Bay Theatre Festival at Stageworks

Being back stage, preparing for a show is where lifelong friendships are born. You arrive 60 to 90 minutes in advance, get dressed, do your hair and makeup, and wait for the audience to be seated, hold for latecomers, so to pass time, you talk quietly in the dressing rooms…. about anything and everything. During a production of “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” the conversation somehow turned to bras and boobs. I was literally shocked at how many breast cancer survivors were together in this crowded dressing room in a show about memories of clothing. It was at that moment that “Breast Advice” was born.

I posted a request on Facebook for people’s true stories about breasts. I then held my breath and waited. In less than a month, credited and anonymous writers shared their honest, funny, eye-opening, and heart-breaking stories about breast sizes and shapes, the space between breasts, uneven breasts, sports bras, augmentation, third boob syndrome, gender fluidity, men’s appreciation, man boobs, breastfeeding, and breast cancer. Some bravely are telling their own stories, performing in this production.