We recently connected with Miri (mj) Hunter and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Miri (MJ), thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

Such a timely question for me. I realized tonight at dinner that since 2019 I have been dealing with major life shifts. My mom died in 2019, then there was COVID in 2020 and 2021, then I had a serious illness in 2022 that kept me in bed for months and now at the end of 2024, my dad passed away. Talk about unexpected problems!! Life Changes!! Yeah!

In the beginning, the grief of my mother’s passing and then being quarantined led to a huge creative cycle of writing, producing and painting. In some ways it was the opposite of what I thought I would feel. I threw myself into art. The culmination of this was a one person cabaret style show that I wrote and still perform entitled “Musings of a Black Woman in a Brown Desert.” In short, the embodiment of those energies and transformations made me think about who I was and why I was.

My dad passed away in December 2024 during the Holidays/HolyDays and since then I have been feeling less like performing and more like wondering about the legacy I am going to leave behind. What projects (writing, recording, painting) do I need to complete? What goals do I still need to achieve? Death brings the temporality of life into focus.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I became mesmerized by the idea of performing after my first dance class when I was 6 or 7. The teacher was a former Rockette. She wore fake eyelashes and fishnets to our tap dance classes. She was very tall. I thought the way she looked and moved were magical. Honestly, I don’t remember why I wanted to go to dance class, but I did and I loved it. But then there was the piano to study when I was nine and then sonnets to write in High School. As years went on, I settled into theatre primarily acting, being in the spotlight. The dance, the music, the writing were probably always about theatre, the stage.

I never wanted to be political in my artistic pursuits, but there was little choice. If I am writing my own material, what am I writing about? If I am writing what I know, I have to include aspects of myself in the writing. While trying not to be political, I ended up with a strong component of spirituality in my writing. My spiritual life informs all aspects of my creativity. I am un-covering that my soul purpose is to engage with others, be it through, music, theatre or painting, in the exploration of who they are and assisting them in un-covering their soul purpose.

The works I produce at my theatre company, Thought Theatre Morongo Basin, are all chosen with the idea of inviting the audience to think about their world in relation to the world of the play they are witnessing. So whether the text is Tennessee Williams, Katori Hall or my own writing, I want the theatre experience to be vivid enough so that it allows the audience to go deep into the world that the text and the characters represent, learn something, and develop some awareness of critical thinking: what did the playwright mean, are the ideas and thoughts relevant to you, what can you takeaway from the experience, what did you feel, what do you think? This process is a cross between the Greek idea of catharsis with a hint of Bertolt Brecht’s idea of detachment.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I tried several times to not be a creative and I failed miserably. I did not like myself, the work was steady, but my soul was dying or at least rebelling. I kept being led towards a more spiritual life which was about creating: healing and awakening not only myself through artistic expression, but using this expression to assist others on their journey.

I’m not getting rich by producing theatre in a small town or from the lack of royalties from my music and minimal sales from my art. BUT what non creatives may not understand is that to be me, to realize myself, means that I do not have the choice not to do it. It is who I am at my core. My desires are about writing a well told story, or conveying the perfect sentiment of a song, or coaching an actor through a difficult scene, enveloping an audience in a good performance. Other desires, like food, clothing and housing are necessary but functional as they are important in order for the creative work to happen. I just watched the movie version of “The Dresser” with Ian McKellan and Anthony Hopkins. Aside from being a magnificent film, great script, with incredible performances, it tackles the question of why creatives do what we do. I highly recommend it.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I learned that simply arguing, debating an issue doesn’t work. We are human beings in three dimensional bodies. Things need to be experienced, felt, embodied to be understood. We can only be experts on ourselves if we actively participate in knowing ourselves. Until someone has had personal experience and develops empathy, it is all speculation. When we become self-aware our ability for compassion increases.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.projectsheba.com

Image Credits

Photography by Hilary Sloane, Thom Merrick, Alice Jones and Miri Hunter