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Journey to Joy, Again
By Marie Cooney Stories
Created by Marie G. Cooney
Playing at
Show Description
In this one woman show, Marie dives into her deeply personal journey through devastating loss & despair to finding hope, reasons to live, and joy again, after sustaining a life altering Traumatic Brain Injury.
Genre and Content
Comedy
Drama
Horror
Solo Show
Spoken Word
Storytelling
LGBTQIA+ Content
Political content
Religious content
Content Warnings
The creators say this show is appropriate for ages 16 and up
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Seat Reservations and Show Tickets
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Video Trailer
Cast and Crew
Marie Cooney
Producer, writer, performerMore Information
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Access Services - ASL Interpretation on Saturday, 8/9 at 5:30
Tickets are FREE for audience members using Audio Description or ASL Interpretation access services. Need a show that has Audio Description, American Sign Language Interpretation, or Open Captioning? Check out our Accessibility Page for a complete list of shows. Patrons should proceed to the Box Office and identify themselves as an audience member using access services where they will be greeted by the access provider and offered early entry and priority seating to ensure the best vantage point for using the services. These free tickets will be available at individual box offices until 5 minutes prior to show start. If the show is a potential sell-out, patrons can make a Passholder Reservation ($5) online to guarantee a seat at that performance. Please reach out to boxoffice@fringefestival.org if you need ticketing support. Fringe will assist patrons self-identifying with a disability with local transportation costs to any venue in the festival in order to attend a show where ASL or AD services are being provided. Please indicate your needs by contacting us at least 24 hours prior to the show time so we can help make arrangements. If you have questions about Fringe accessibility or to request reservation / transportation assistance, please contact us at access@fringefestival.org.
LAVENDAR MAGAZINE - preview article June 12, 2025
‘We don’t survive unless we have a sense of humor’
June 12, 2025•
“Journey to Joy, Again” — Marie Cooney Stories
After recovering from two traumatic brain injuries, storyteller Marie Cooney says she proclaimed at a family reunion, “Coming out as a lesbian was easier than coming out with having a disability!” Her family laughed, but as Cooney’s one-woman Fringe show “Journey to Joy, Again,” will show, it’s a true statement for her. "The show will explore what it meant for me to be a very outgoing, capable person who suddenly wasn’t anymore,” she says. Cooney says that despite appearing able-bodied, she is very sensitive to bright lights and always wears a visor or dark glasses. She says she also struggles with losing her words, forgetting names and finding her way home. “People didn’t understand what had changed,” an experience she says is similar to passing as straight as a queer person. After years of recovery, Cooney says she finally feels capable of doing a full-hour performance relying on an outline of her story that she can adapt to with each in-depth, highly personal performance. “I feel like I’ve arrived. I am whole again,” she says. Cooney also used her experiences with her injuries to push for accommodations at Fringe for other people with invisible disabilities, such as providing a warning before each show that contains “strobe-like lights,” not just strobes. While “Journey to Joy” will be emotional and vulnerable, Cooney says humor is still instrumental in conveying the story’s key theme of hope. “We don’t survive unless we have a sense of humor,” she says.
Journey to Joy, Again! - Marie Cooney
World Premiere at Minnesota Fringe Festival, August 2025
By Marie G. Cooney, Storyteller & Solo Performer
Seriously! Coming out as a person with a disability was harder than coming out as a lesbian woman. And that was not an easy task. I fell in love with my best friend in college in the 1980s, kissed her and discovered my feelings were not reciprocated. Nevertheless, I found the Joy of Lesbian Sex, not only in the book but in the arms of other women.
After a trip to Minnesota in 1991, I decided to move here from New England in 1992. I say New England, because all the Northeastern states are approximately the size of Minnesota and although I was raised in Massachusetts, I spent a lot of time throughout New England.
“You won’t get a job there until you move,” a stage manager from Hartford Stage warned me. “Minnesotans are proud of thriving during their extremey cold winters and they don’t believe anyone else will survive them.” So, I jumped off the high board into the deep end of the swimming pool, and I moved without a job.
My first job was at The Guthrie, at their original location. I showed up at the stage door, wearing black jeans and a Rock & Roll tee-shirt with a crescent wrench in my back pocket. “Hi! My name is Marie Cooney. I just moved here from New England, and I’m looking for a job. Could I please drop my resume off with the TD (Technical Director)?"
I know! Most people would not drop off a resume dressed like I was, but I was in costume and ready to work. “Are you available today?” I was asked. “Yes!” And so it was that I began my first job of freelancing. Garland Wright was the beloved Artistic Director of the repertory theater with a resident company, and they were behind the build of three shows.
Joy, joy, joy! My timing was perfect. My one-day job turned into a three-month introduction to the Twin Cities’ theater community. I was in heaven and could not be happier. My partner and I lived in Smalltown, USA where she was a minister...
A few years later, I sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in a work-related accident. I saw the light, not theatrical lights, but the light, the all-encompassing, brightest, tunnel to another reality light, and was met by my deceased father. Obviously, I survived because I am here to tell you about it…
@followers, Minnesota Fringe, World Fringe, #stories, #soloperformer, #theatre, #stagehand, #braininjurysurvivor, #neardeathexperience, #joy
Flags at the Capitol - Meeting Rep. Karen Clark, DFL
I met DFL Congresswoman Karen Clark at the Minnesota State Capitol. She came out to meet me, the Human Flag Pole, during a Gay Marriage rally. Security guards had surrounded me, and I had to ditch my flag poles, because "poles are not allowed". "I'm Irish, not Polish," I responded. They were not amused. My poles were confinscated. Representative Karen Clark, an out lesbian woman, laughed as she explained someone could shoot the nose off a historical statute at the capitol, but I was more of a threat because I could damage the marble floors. Flag poles? Weapons of mass distruction to marble floors! Apparently, I, an out and proud lesbian woman, transforming myself into a human flag pole was a greater force to be reckoned with.
