What is summer without theatre?

      I can barely remember the last time I had a summer that did not include theatre.  College, graduate school, and most years since, summers have meant theatre in some of its most concentrated forms.  There have been summers filled with musicals, or Shakespeare, or modern comedies and dramas, or some combination of all. I have done theatre on showboats, in heatwaves, during hurricane or tornado warnings, while seven months pregnant, inside and outside, with casts of two to thirty.  

     This summer, with theatre closures due to the pandemic, I am not racing to sit in a darkened theatre for tech or dress rehearsals. It is very weird, and oddly, I am getting less done this summer than I normally do.  With no pressure to work around fittings and rehearsals, it feels like I have all the time in the world, and yet, my living room is still not stripped of its old paper, the dining room floors are still not refinished, and the bathroom still not repainted.  But books have been read, and conversations had, marshmallows roasted over wood fires, wine sipped slowly in the warm evenings, and family dinners have lingered long after the food was consumed, so I would call this a success.

       We have tended our sheep, hayed  the fields,  eaten fish caught from our pond, created paintings and collages, taken walks and had long talks. So much of this would have been bypassed with our normal frantic schedule.  Do I miss creating amazing productions with my theatre family? Of course.  I would have had five shows in two different theatres, but  I would have missed the evening the boys and I went fishing in the Susquehanna, watching the sunset over the swirling water.  I would have laughed with my actors friends, but perhaps missed hugging my youngest son as he navigated the first rough patch with his first real girlfriend. 

       Now, as one of our children heads off to law school in two weeks, we are happy for the gift of family time that COVID-19 has afforded us by forcing our schedules into a lower gear.   With all the sadness and anxiety brought on in this dark time by this virus, we are grateful for the silver lining.  

   Be well, my friends.  

It's been a long time!

     It has been over a year since I wrote anything for this blog - too long, my dears, too long!  The last year was filled with the second semester of the new job, writing grants, traveling to Italy to spend two incredible weeks in Commedia delle 'Arte workshops - clowning and mask making during the worst heatwave Europe had seen in a century,  as well as having a glorious weekend in Genoa and Rapallo.  I designed seven shows, mentored theses, designed and taught several new classes, and still managed to keep children, dogs, cat, chickens, and sheep alive.  I am finishing my second year at Hartwick College, where I taught an intense Asian Theatre class in the three week J-term, and was knee deep in the Spring semester and show designs when the pandemic closures started. Switching to online learning has been both fun and frustrating but my students and colleagues are wonderful and have stepped up to the challenge.
    We have been lucky that the immediate family is all together and healthy.  The birth of lambs on the farm keep us busy and have been keeping our spirits up.  Life is good.

    So let's see if we can do a bullet point of the past year.

 .     .    Took a  collage painting workshop at Snow Farm in Massachusetts in June.  Wonderful teacher and great place.

      

Took Danny to NYC to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,

Took Danny and Nick to NYC to see King Kong and watch my former student, Eric William Morris, in the lead - only to find that we had gotten tickets at the time he was on vacation.  Still, we LOVED the puppet work on the ape.

The Three Musketeers of Drew, Barby and Todd were together again when Todd and his family came north for a visit.

 


Spend two glorious weeks in Florence. 

My flatmates and I in the Florence studio with some of our mask creations.

Paints, wine and a view to die for! My special weekend at my friend, Kiara's villa on the Italian Riviera.

Saved many sheep from barberpole worm while Drew was away at conferences.

Had normal farm chores that happen in summer - like haying.










Designed some shows like
Silent Sky

Billy Bishop Goes to War

Managed to spend some family time together on the farm.

A busy 15 months or so, but as always, when I write it down, I realize that I am a very lucky lady.