1-woman show introduces students to another side of Emily Dickinson

Paddy Lynn knows she'll never get through to everyone.

Try standing in front of a class of high school sophomores and sharing stories about the life of legendary American poet Emily Dickinson and you just know some kids are going to shut you out no matter how compelling your presentation.

But take those students into the poet's soul, try to show them the woman behind the often-dour image, and every once in a while something special happens.

Even in a 40-minute class, when you're scrambling to explain all the factors that fed the inner workings of a complex and brilliant character, you can almost feel something clicking with your audience.

"I know I won't reach every student," Lynn says. "But it's worth it if you can touch the hearts of even a few, or energize them to pick up the book to read further, or maybe write their own poetry, or maybe even put on a one-woman show."

That's what the Mundelein actress and storyteller was doing during a stop this week at Naperville's Neuqua Valley High School, where she's been making appearances as Emily Dickinson in teacher Gillian Schneider's English classes for the past four years.

Her one-woman show on Dickinson "basically explores her life experiences and what inspired her to write poetry."

It's also an effort to cast the "Belle of Amherst" in a slightly different light than you find in the average history textbook.

It's true Dickinson was a recluse and it's true that when she died at age 56 in 1886 only a handful of her more than 1,700 poems had been published.

But Lynn says too many historians paint the poet only in shades of black when, in reality, she was a woman of many colors.

"She was lovely and spirited," Lynn says, "not just the dark, gloomy, obsessed-with-death poet."

Indeed, she was a rare woman in a male-dominated field who rejected most 19th-century themes and techniques and resisted efforts by her mentor to edit her works into more conventional styles.

Dickinson's poetry, Lynn says, truly reflects her heart and soul - and that isn't a bad lesson for students to learn.

Lynn knows a little bit about following your heart. She says her first appearance on stage was during a holiday program in first grade - she was carrying a lollipop that was bigger than her head - and she was certain she had found her calling.

After finishing college she joined a theater group in Evanston, then helped form a children's theater company that went into Chicago-area schools.

She took a hiatus to raise her two daughters and then launched into a solo career as a storyteller.

She started with productions aimed at children ages 3 to 10, combining her acting and storytelling abilities into something she called "storyacting."

More recently, she's begun doing work for adults, including the one-woman performance about Dickinson.

She says she was inspired to share the poet's story by a friend who had worked as a technician for another actress presenting the one-woman play.

Delving into Dickinson's background, she found a kindred soul who was both "fascinating and extremely spiritual."

As someone who grew up in the South suburbs as part of a solid Catholic family, Lynn says she found it easy to relate to many of the poet's words, and she slips into them easily.

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church

I Keep it, staying at Home

With a Bobolink for a Chorister

And an Orchard for a Dome

"I was on my own spiritual journey when I found her," Lynn says. "I never could find a (religious) denomination that I felt strongly about.

"I struggled with that and I wanted to explore that a little more and I found it with Emily."

Now she brings Dickinson to places like Neuqua to introduce students to the soul of a poet and perhaps start them on their own journey.

Certainly they won't all become poets, but perhaps some will discover the joys of an art form that can transcend what they learn in class.

Lynn knows she won't reach everyone at Neuqua or any other school. But she relishes the chance to try.

"It's been a wonderful career," she says. "It's not really a job; it's like living your passion."