Westminster church hosts renowned comedy writer Amy Engelhardt for solo performance
Emilia Cardona- Artist Amy Engelhardt will present her multimedia performance, “IMPACT: A Ray of Hope in Midst of Tragedy,” at First Congregational Church of Westminster on March 15 and 16.
- The one-woman show chronicles Engelhardt’s experience befriending two family members connected to the 1988 Lockerbie, Scotland, plane bombing 30 years after the tragedy.
WESTMINSTER — Renowned artist Amy Engelhardt will present her multimedia solo performance, IMPACT, at First Congregational Church of Westminster this weekend.
IMPACT: A Ray of Hope in Midst of Tragedy is a one-act show written and performed by Englehardt. Local cellist Skip Won Kuske and local percussionist Darrin LaPierre will accompany Englehardt. There are two opportunities to catch the show: March 15 and March 16, both starting at 2 p.m.
The performance centers on a series of events 30 years after the 1988 plane bombing in Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, leading Englehardt to experience the best of humanity during the worst circumstances.
How IMPACT was created
After a series of coincidences in 2018, Engelhardt ended up in Lockerbie with two strangers during the 30th anniversary of the 1988 plane bombing. She said the whole experience was a beautiful, life-changing trip filled with human connection.
The plane bombing happened during Engelhardt's sophomore year at Syracuse University and although she wasn't close to any of the victims, five Syracuse students died that day. Engelhardt said she knew Nicole Boulanger of Shrewsbury, and she had watched a documentary about the plane bombing. After watching the documentary, she said she posted about it on social media, and next thing she finds herself messaging Rene Boulanger and Kim Wickham, Nicole's sister and best friend.
After messaging back and forth with Boulanger and Wickham, Englehardt said she got a job offer in the United Kingdom and that's how the three ended up visiting the sites of the tragedy.
'The most life-affirming event'
"The show is a celebration of life because I was expecting the trip to be a grief parade but it's not what happened," she said. "The whole thing was the most amazing life-affirming event that has stayed with me."
After the trip to the United Kingdom, Engelhardt said she arrived home and immediately started to write down everything she saw, heard, experienced and felt about the whole thing, and ideas for the show started to form. She said the show is a celebration, a love letter to these people that the show is based on.
"I'm a smart-ass comedy writer from New Jersey that doesn't believe in anything so there are not coincidences, just human connections," she said. "It was already on my bucket list to go and pay my respects to all of the victims but I never thought I would end up with the most wonderful and amazing human connections I have ever made.
"Either they know someone who knows someone who experienced a life tragedy or they are that person I hope they can embrace this piece," she said. "Human connection is the key to isolation during tragedy."
Why the IMPACT show is coming to Westminster
Russ Goliger, First Congregational Church pastor, said Engelhardt is a close friend. They met during their freshman year at Syracuse in the 1980s. He said he reached out to Englehardt to perform IMPACT at the church because he believes the community will benefit from her message.
"We have talked for years now about producing a show together, and after I moved to Westminster last October, I saw this as an opportunity to bring the show to this community," he said. I think folks from Westminster and other communities should come and experience this uplifting and aspirational show themselves."
Tickets are $25 for general admission and $20 for senior citizens and students. To reserve tickets, visit the Westminster First Congregational Church website or call the office at 978-874-5790.