Bright Night Providence includes Joan Merwyn.

One of the over 40 acts offered at Bright Night, Providence 2004, will be Joan Merwyn's new one woman show Cho?ces. Cho?ces includes mime, music, new vaudeville, and physical theater in hopes of illustrating some of the pivotal life choices young people encounter. Merwyn is a Rhode Island native that has spent the past 30 years spreading messages through movement.

"There is no right or wrong interpretation to what I do," she said in a telephone interview from her home in New York City last Thursday. "Different people will see different things â?" but they're all right."

But this isn't a sermon, she said. Rather it's something of a thought-catalyst.

"It doesn't give any didactic solutions," she said. "It suggests. And I hope that it will provoke thought and discussion about making healthy choices."

Above all else, she said, the show has proven to delight audiences of all ages.

"The show is funny, it's entertaining...it's very imagistic," she said. And it's universal. "I've had two year olds up to 92 year olds...what's interesting to me is their feedback."

Merwyn has already performed Cho?ces throughout many New York venues.

Besides being an award winning performance artist, Merwyn is a teacher, adult workshop instructor, independent stage director and choreographer and works with the mentally and physically handicapped.

She has found that imagistic movement can reach people in ways that defy language, age, and cultural barriers.

After all, her performance movements themselves have been developed from inspirations around the world.

Merwyn, who was born in Providence, began her movement studies in India in 1970.

"What I did, basically, was I went all over the world and trained with the masters."

She spent two years in Europe, five on the West Coast, made her way to Montreal, Canada and the Midwest. Her abstract mime and experimental movement are inspired by masters like Etienne Decroux and her style is inspired by silent movies and new vaudeville.

For more information on Bright Night and the 2005-2006 performers visit the event's Web site at www.brightnight.org