An Inspiration Amongst Women: Wendy Hammers

Originally published at The Hollywood Times: https://www.thehollywoodtimes.today/an-inspiration-amongst-women-wendy-hammers/

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"If you knew this was the last day of your life, would you spend it worrying about whether or not your stomach was flat? Of course not, but you never really know when it’s your last day, do you?” These lines of dialogue are from the one-woman show “Ripe” written and starred in by the lovely Wendy Hammers. It’s incredibly profound; we know that our time is limited, yet we don’t spend our time acting like it. Hammers’ personal mission statement as a woman and as an artist is to help women celebrate their bodies and their lives and to really understand that we only have one life and one body and you should appreciate it while you can, at any age that you are, at any weight that you are, and any body that you’re living in. This is a main theme in Hammers’ production, “Ripe”. “Ripe” was written as a valentine to one of Wendy’s dear friends, the hilarious writer and comedian, Judy Toll, who passed away from cancer. Toll was an original member of The Groundlings and a writer on Sex and The City. Hammers’ wrote the play because she loved and missed her friend; she wanted to keep her memory alive. The play is about celebrating life; Hammers’ expressed that “so many young women spend time worrying about their body and worried that it’s not right; and when you see somebody that’s really sick and they don’t have their body anymore, you realize how silly all that is.”

Young women all around the world spend their days stressing about being this unattainable and airbrushed idea of beauty that doesn’t exist and that society has imbedded in our minds that we need to be. They feel that their worth is based upon the number that appears when they step on the scale. Hammers entirely rejects this absurd notion: “Please know that you’re in a body that functions, carries you through your life, and allows you to have great thoughts and ideas and allows you to make change in the world. If you’re only thinking about that you have cellulite on your legs, you’re not really going to make any movement in the world. These women feel like their worth is based on that; you can only have a really cool boyfriend if you’re legs are skinny? Are you kidding me? It’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.” She’s absolutely right. How are women supposed to embrace who they are and accomplish all the brilliant things they are capable of if they spend all their time thinking about “how come I don’t look this way?”

Hammers’ is currently starring in the Australian Theatre Company’s production of “Grey Nomad” at Skylight Theatre in Hollywood, CA. She plays the role of Val, a very sensual, beautiful, eccentric, loud, fun, and free woman whose husband has a terminal illness. Hammer’s had her own brush with mortality last year with pancreatic cancer: “There is some freedom in that experience, being so close to something so serious. What I told myself was that I will get better and when I get better I will do more acting because that was a piece of my life that was missing. So being able to do this character at this juncture of my career and in my life, is so precious and so important for so many reasons.” Today Hammer’s is 100% cancer free and leads a very happy and healthy life. Wendy is a great example of how women all around the world should lead their lives. Ask yourself, what will make your soul happy? If this was your last day on Earth, how would you spend it? Tell the people you love just how much you love them every day because you never know when your last day will come.

All of Hammers’ upcoming performances and everything she’s doing can be found here: www.wendyhammers.com. As previously stated, she is starring in “Grey Nomad” at Skylight Theatre in Hollywood. Ms. Hammers is also the creator of “Tasty Words”; a highly acclaimed and long-running spoken word salon she has been hosting and curating for the past 15 years. You can catch the show live or listen to the podcast at www.tastywords.com Also, coming up at the beginning of next year is the 20th anniversary of the play “The Vagina Monologues”. In honor of the play’s anniversary, Deborah Kagan and Wendy Hammers are producing a big celebrity driven production of the play in February of next year at The Broad Theatre in Santa Monica. It’s a fundraiser for Peace Over Violence, an organization that’s committed to ending violence against women and girls in Los Angeles, and then part of the proceeds goes to www.vday.org, which is an organization committed to ending violence against women and girls across the world. Stay tuned for all of Hammers’ future endeavors.