Now TOURING
"If there's one thing first responders do, it's tell stories."
- The Code Green Campaign
A site-specific performance touring to rural ambulance services to spark dialogue about vicarious trauma, critical stress and mental health resilience in emergency medical responders.
- The Code Green Campaign
A site-specific performance touring to rural ambulance services to spark dialogue about vicarious trauma, critical stress and mental health resilience in emergency medical responders.
Catch us on tour November 7th-9th, 2025, in Bath, Maine! Details and tickets coming soon!
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After responding to a fatal overdose of one of their own, rural EMTs and paramedics question the repetitive trauma and stress of their work. Based on EMS provider stories gathered across the US from 2016-2018, this performance grapples with the unique challenges faced by emergency medical responders.
First responders in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are ten times more likely to contemplate suicide than the national average. The most common reasons responders leave the field are burnout and psychological trauma as a result of repeated exposure to traumatic events. Over the past ten years, Faultline Ensemble has been working on this live continuing education performance about rural EMS providers struggling with and finding paths through trauma. Counting Pebbles is in active development, inspired by interviews, anonymous stories, artwork, physical improvisation and the artists' experience as health workers and creators of collaborative performances.
Created in partnership with Turning Point Wellness, the Code Green Campaign and Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, Counting Pebbles received its first work-in-progress performance in March 2019 at Yale University and is now touring to rural ambulance stations. We draw inspiration from the fields of community-based performance, narrative medicine, physical performance, trauma stewardship, drama therapy and theater of the oppressed. Through performances, participatory discussions and first responder mental health workshops, the project hopes to validate the unique struggles of first responders, and to celebrate the resilience, cohesion and pride that exist in the first responder community.
Created in partnership with Turning Point Wellness, the Code Green Campaign and Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, Counting Pebbles received its first work-in-progress performance in March 2019 at Yale University and is now touring to rural ambulance stations. We draw inspiration from the fields of community-based performance, narrative medicine, physical performance, trauma stewardship, drama therapy and theater of the oppressed. Through performances, participatory discussions and first responder mental health workshops, the project hopes to validate the unique struggles of first responders, and to celebrate the resilience, cohesion and pride that exist in the first responder community.
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Interested in bringing Counting Pebbles to your community?
We are currently planning partnerships and tour stops - view our touring prospectus below, and get in touch for more information:
We are currently planning partnerships and tour stops - view our touring prospectus below, and get in touch for more information:
This ongoing collaborative process is rooted in public health research on mental health support for emergency medical responders. Findings from this research are the subject of a public health thesis by director Taiga Christie, "Carrying Pebbles: Towards trauma informed theater with emergency medical responders." You can also read a 2019 review of the work in progress performance here, by the New Haven Arts Paper, and view more photos of our performances below.
RECENT AND UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
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November 7th-9th, 2025
Bath, ME In partnership with the Chocolate Church Arts Center and local first responders Check back soon for details and tickets! |
August 4th-6th, 2023
Rescue, Inc. 541 Canal St, Brattleboro, VT 05301 Click here for more information and ticket reservations |
July 23rd, 2023
Yale New Haven Center for EMS 77 Willow Street, New Haven, CT, 06511 Closed performance - YNHH Center for EMS students, staff and guests only |
Counting Pebbles was originally conceived by Faultline Ensemble with the support of Ann Marie Farina of the Code Green Campaign and the CoHo Summer Workshop Lab residency. We have received funding from the Network of Ensemble Theatres Travel Grant program, the City of New Haven Mayor's Community Arts Grants Program, the InnovateHealth Yale Fund, the Tsai CITY Center, the Schell Center for Human Rights at Yale Law, the Yale Public Health Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Fund, the Yale MacMillan Program on Refugees, Forced Displacement and Humanitarian Responses, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Brattleboro Town Arts Fund, and individual donors. We are so grateful for their support.
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