Chance = Change

....yet, another production! The advent, last night, of http://www.evalynbaron.com/ !!! Peter and I stayed up really late into the wee morning hours, to get the first publication of the website at least readable, because i had composed it one way on my web creator program (Peter bought for at Office Depot), and I had no idea about web-friendly fonts...so when it came up on Peter's screen (as it will on others that are not
mine) it looked messy and ill-produced...so we went back, chose safer more
web-friendly fonts and fixed all the larger messes.....I have asked Paul, Julia J. and Ron O. to peruse it and give me "notes", so the "show" can improve! It is really
pretty elementary right now, not very sophisticated a site, but it tells a certain story, and says what i need it to say , so that, plus the amazing fact that I composed it all by myself (!), adds up to: hell yes! Let's PUBLISH!!!! And so , we have! I even learned how to import photos from wherever I have them stored and put them on the site...I mean this is all soooo advanced for me, I am really pretty proud of having learned this particular
"how-to". Peter and I only had a few major "knock-down-drag-outs" during the process, and we still love each other , so.....one small victorty for Middle-aged women! The Yonka parental units are leaving this morning after having spent a wonderful Christmas Holiday with us. They take with them my old set of flowered dishware (ordered during one particular Les Mis matinee from a catalogue) and 0ur old trusty oaken table, long and useful, after having served us well for a long time as both dining and craft table....we've ordered an entire new dining table and chairs from Kiser Furniture here in Abingdon and will take them home with us. So it is a morning of partings, and , since I have always imbued inanimate objects with both names and feelings, I just know the table is feeling sad too. I just know it. I can almost hear it sighing as I eat my last oatmeal on it. SO: ONWARD!! They are also taking our washer and dryer with them...they need them ,we cannot use them in the city, so , off they go!!!! Remember: LIFE IS CHANGE!! BREATHE AND EMBRACE IT!!!

Like in Elliot's ..Prufrock, measuring time..and it does become, as one grows older, almost a palpable substance, measurable and textured, each moment with its own smell, taste and feel. The fabric of time...cutting through with that subtle knife Philip Pullman speaks of...we pattern our lives like so much apparel..we cut, snip, make the time fit us..stretch it, shrink it, according to our desires and fears...color it with our emotions..explode it with our rages...and devour it with our appetites...time is our closest companion, always...see? ALWAYS! There it is again: TIME. It IS what we are. Since even Spirit is defined by how long we are conscious of it. The older I get, the more aware I become of time's material nature...there is an absolute comfort in that realization: that time is something.Some THING. That as long as we are, it is. And tonight being the Eve of yet another New Year, I am always particularly conscious of Time and its infinite meanings in a life lived. Thoughts of Time quickly dissolve into mental images of people, places, events, changes and emotions. Clear, palpable pictures, as if only yesterday: I sat in that Ladies Room and realized, as a young woman of maybe 16, that midnight is not that late...or the New Year's Eve when it snowed in my Atlanta hometown, my first, with Daddy still alive...images of the New Year's Eve parties my Mom and Daddy would always throw in the upstairs part of our Edison Avenue duplex, the floor where my grandmother Honey lived...Daddy would always make his special eggnog...2180 Edison Avenue...the smells of perfume and liquors, beguiling and so adult...the New Year's Eve I spent having a too expensive dinner with Chuck Abbott and Marina Sertis at the Philadelphia Sheraton, while we were rehearsing HOTEL SUITE...I made a wish for true love, and Peter came into my life very soon thereafter. The quiet, snow-muffled Eves at the Upstate House, with a huge fire roaring and no one around for miles....or, during the time I was doing Les Mis on Broadway, the utter oddness of Times Square, squared off for the thousands it was preparing to greet...it looked like an enormous stage set, with all the side streets roped off, so the casts of Broadway shows could get to their stage doors.gigantic floodlights everywhere..I would always scurry home fast afterwards, schlepping all the way over to 10th Avenue to get a cab Up Town...and there was the New Year's Eve Bob Friday was my date to a party thrown onstage at the Broadway Theatre when Les Mis was still there...so many memories crowding around each other...56 years' worth of them....tonight we are going over the annual party thrown by Rick Rose and Amanda Aldridge, our friends we love so much...we will stay up til dawn playing their infamous game of charades and we will laugh and cry as we realize the 2005 Barter Season will dawn without us! But we will laugh! Let's not forget that.

Today are the last two shows of the Barter Theatre 2004 Season, and the fact that I am not in the performances does not take away from the weird feelings I am having concerning the finality of it all. Peter has what will probably be his last show at this theater for a long time, since he is very intent on concentrating on what it takes to become a serious NY actor, while I, deeply fond of what i have discovered here at Barter, and also somewhat well-worn in the ways of the NY scene, may be back here sooner than later..BUT one really does never know. JERRY ORBACH , that lovely actor, died this past Tuesday of prostate cancer, and since i did not even know he was ill, it came as a shock. I liked him very much, always identified with him in some way...and he was quite warm and nice with me when i shot that LAW AND ORDER episode some time back. We laughed together, found things to actually talk about. I liked him. I admired the range of roles and types of plays, musicals and films he managed to do in his career, and he will always be "Lennie Briscoe" to millions of people. A genuine theatre man, who cut his teeth on, of all things, the original FANTASTIKS, 40 years ago, in the role of El Gallo...he was more than a working actor: he was a well-loved working actor, who made a damned fine living at what he loved to do.JERRY ORBACH. Rather the passing of an era, I would say. I am in my office today, and the small pile of things to complete seems continual and endless, but, i have made a lot of order out of the chaos I was presented with three years ago, so I am okay ,now, with however I leave it for Derek. He is a brilliant man who will soon make this office his own. To Ron O. and other playwrights who may tune into this blog: be in touch with Derek Davidson, and he will handle all your Barter Theatre needs!!! He's a great guy!

Last evening, at the lovely chapel of St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Main Street, Peter and I attended the wedding of Wendy Mitchell to Nicholas Piper: a Barter Theatre Wedding if ever there was one...lovely...the bride wore white, and her attendants were in various and lovely black dresses...they all carried small bouquets of deep red roses..the men were in tuxedos and it all looked very wintry and pretty. She made a gorgeous bride. And since they chose to have it between performances of MODERN CHRISTMAS CAROL, most of the Acting Company got to be there...the reception at the Martha was mostly family, I guess, as all the actors had to go do an evening performance. We stopped in briefly to leave our little envelope of gift money, and then Peter came home to change and I came home to do more packing for our move, which is quickly upon us!! It felt good to be in a dignified and celebratory chapel for a sweet reason, and even though neither of us is particularly in agreement with the Episcopalian philosophies , I found the service refreshing to my spirit. The Yonkas left yesterday with our washing machine and dryer, and our table, so the place begins to look sparser..and packing and moving look possible, at least. Today, I guess our last sofa will be picked up by one of the younger actors and that will be that! We do have gorgeous new furniture waiting for us at Kiser's, and the leather sofa will be glorious to have in our lives, but, since I tend to give inanimate objects names and feelings, I feel the sofa is sad to leave us, and that makes me feel bad...the new dining table will also be lovely...as will, finally, the gorgeous rolltop desk i splurged on for myself! I mean, one day, I simply needed something to make me feel better about leaving here, so I let myself want it and then a couple of days ago Peter went to see it again and told me to get it! So...it is travelling with us back to NYC!! It will help me feel better about all this change...material objects always seem to do that...sad, but true...at least, human! Well, back to packing boxes!

Your heart is at home with these Wise Women
A Review by Lynn McKinney
During the holiday season family is what you choose it to be. That’s the story told in Barter Theatre’s Stage II production entitled "Wise Women", a play by Ron Osborne, who also gave us another group of strong, real women in " First Baptist of Ivy Gap" earlier this season.
The choice of Barter Theatre Associate Director Evalyn Baron to direct "Wise Women" guaranteed lively and believable characters interacting in a spicy-yet-sweet story. Her contributions to the interpretation of the personalities made her, effectively, the fifth "wise woman", albeit offstage. If it has to be that she is not onstage, it is just compensation to the audience that Evalyn direct.
Four women share a house in the days counting down to Christmas, 1944, in Knoxville, Tennessee. A mother and her 17 year old daughter take in two young women boarders who are starting new jobs in the bomb-making local plant. The two boarders are newly acquainted co-workers, both 20 in age but worlds apart in background and life experience. Although only a few years older than the daughter, to her they seem independent career women worthy of emulation. Any mother might call it corruption and a bad influence!
We learn the personal histories, hopes, and fears of each woman gradually as the story unfolds. The mother, played with aplomb by Mary Lucy Bivens, tries to keep the edited version of her daughter’s father alive for the girl; a father who was out of the picture before the girl was born. Rose, the daughter, played sassily but sweetly by Gwen Edwards, builds memories of her father from the stories her mother tells her about him. But those stories are based not on her biological father who abandoned her, but on her mother’s one true love who was killed serving in the Great War.
Sweet and well-raised Sarah Ruth, played by Stephanie Holladay, has conflicts with her own father and tries to please him in all things. When her coworker friend Jiggs talks her into running for Miss Bombshell 1944 she freaks out when she makes the top five and has to perform in the swimsuit competition. Although she does not win, the situation is totally embarrassing to her and hilarious to the audience. She feels she must tell her father what she did and writes him a letter just before Christmas, with unintended repercussions.
Amelia Ampuero owns the role of bad girl Jiggs and flirts, pouts, cajoles and manipulates her way with everyone she encounters. Still, she is full of life and ready to jump into anything with both feet. She brings assorted, some of them positively sordid, sailors and Marines around the house, giving fits to mama Florence and ideas to daughter Rose. Her often bad choices in men again derive from her own relationship with her father in her earlier years.
Representing the men folk are Scot Atkinson playing Donnie, your mother’s worst nightmare of sleaze; and Matt Greenbaum playing shy, sweet and awkward Howard. These are two fun roles and the appearance of each livens up the four women in the household in different and of course conflicting ways.
Christmas approaches and instead of going their separate ways back to family distant in both miles and emotional attachment, the four women choose to celebrate the season in the closeness of their reformulated family, including even sweet Howard.
In our own times we see parallel families being formed by circumstances and choice in our military personnel posted overseas; in our police, fire, and medical service people drawn together of necessity; and in our social services community caring for the homeless and alone. Because family is really what you choose it to be and who you love.
The set, done by scenic designer Tim Bruneau, is so absolutely cozy and comfy looking that you’d wish you could settle in during intermission for a nap, or maybe stand out on the porch and watch the winter stars. Nineteen forties style apparel, including the scanty one-piece bathing suit with modesty-panel, sleek dresses made for dancing, Rosie-the-Riveter coveralls, and snappy military uniforms, all come via the brilliance of costume designer Amanda Aldridge.
At Stage II everyone is close to the players and gets the feeling of personal involvement and "being there" with these refreshing people and their holiday celebrations. May everyone’s holiday turn out so well as these.
Visit the Barter Theatre website: www.bartertheatre.com for upcoming productions for the 2005 season.

Well, today I had mine...Joan B. took out the little forms, and asked me all the standard questions, and I had to actually sit and think about why I am leaving Barter theatre, a place I have grown to love so dearly. Of course, life in NYC for me and my darling husband is far from bleak, as we have so many friends and loved ones there who care about us and wish us success and happiness...and New York City, despite its shortfalls , is one of the premier cities of the world, it goes without saying, and we have a gorgeous place to live there, our very own home. Our real home. A place that feels more like us than does the SW region of Virginia...we are not Virginians...we are New Yorkers...SO ...WHY do i feel so bad about leaving here? Why, indeed?Because, to my utter surprise, I feel really sad about leaving. Excited about what lies ahead, yes.But sad about not coming back here. Of course, I can easily come back here one day, if Fate has that in store for me to do...the doors are wide open, at least according to Rick R. Wide open arms. Both Peter and I will be missed, and I know we will be missed by many. I will miss so much here: the chances to do work beyond my dreams of ever being able to...the trust people put in me...the ideas I saw come to fruition, with my help...the magnificent ways I have witnessed people in our company and staff growing and expanding...the joys the audience here feel when we perform for them...the unstinting love the community gives to all of us who work at Barter...i have even grown to love Barter's detractors! Because they are part of a living, breathing, concerned and caring community that is Abingdon. I will miss the complex of problems ahead, that face the theatre as it grows to its next level of importance and artistic power in not only this community, but the larger one one as well...I will miss that damned haunted rehearsal hall, haunted i say, because so many brilliant actors and directors have worked in there, and their spirits linger, as do the energies of the work they have created over the years..Barter has texture and grit, depth and heart, sweat and love in its very fabric, and it clothes the community in that fabric on a daily and regular basis...we share what we do here, in the most basic of ways, because to not share it renders us purposeless...Barter has, to put it simply, HISTORY! ACTORSTORY!ARTSTORY! And we are, by nature, an engine for change. What we do here matters, no matter the obstacles, and so, whatever to pain: IT IS WORTH IT...IT IS ALL WORTH IT. And that is why I shall be sad on leaving, because how many places in our lives can we say that about with all capital letters? God willing, we will be able to say that on our deathbeds...that is all WAS WORTH IT! Meanwhile, Barter has reminded me that this is possible to know: the worth of tears and hardwork..the worth of creating, no matter the blood and pain it may involve. Like candles burning from both ends, artists are brilliantly used here.And finally, what more can any of us ask for?

..my true love gave to me: a chance to never get out of my jammies all day!!!! Peter and Charles (his Pop) stayed up til 4:30 am putting together the new CSI CRIME Jigsaw Puzzle Peter gave me for Christmas...the next step is to use the inlcuded UV light to solve the crime!!! So, Peter is still asleep and why not: he has two shows to day! While I? A lady of leisure...that is me!! YAY! My darling in-laws are here, and the past few days have idyllic Christmas ones, spent in love, warmth, abundance and sugar!!! Not to mention gifts, far too many...and fun opening them!So many, I got weary opening them...I seem to tire after the 10th gift or so...I mean , come on!!! How many "goods" can one person have? The entire Barter Theatre Company has had the past two days totally off, and so many fled the scene for that time and are all gathering back for the two shows of MODERN CHRISTMAS CAROL today. Pat and Charles will see the matinee, and possibly even the evening show as well...my WISE WOMEN closed this past week. And so my creative link with the Barter is offficially severed for now. It makes me feel really odd, but also strangely and healthily liberated as well, since change is cleansing, as well as being terrifying. I mean I adore this place, have never felt so needed and at home anywhere, and in the same breath I can say that the thought of being back in NYC is exhilarating and almost drunkenly exciting. SO...what's a girl to do? Being pulled so hard in two directions? I do believe my heart is large enough to contain it all. NOW: IF I can just stop eating everything in sight, maybe my heart will be the only thing large enough for the conflict! IF YOU ARE EDIBLE, GET OUT OF MY WAY, BECAUSE I WILL DEVOUR YOU! And so the Hoidays are sweetly (as in sugar) upon us, and not a cookie is safe within my sight! Well, you know what? I am old enough to know that all this will change when I want it to, and so I will not panic....well, maybe a little. I have received some fabulous and gorgeous gifts, wearable, spendable, playable. People have been far too generous, but that is the way they are , the people in my life. We spent many hours of yesterday opening and opening and opening presents, and int he middle we have a breakfast of Charles' buttermilk pancakes! YUM! (See what I've been saying?). And a large turkey dinner last night...and well, I MADE CHRISTMAS COOKIES and now they are all gone!!!! They were very delicious and artistic looking, but finally, now, all eaten up in a frenzy of sweetness and creaminess...not a crumb to be seen remains. Well, Peter and I have our work cut out for us in the next two weeks, and that should take some sweat and calories to accomplish...I will also sew my mouth SHUT! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

...not a single day...without my thinking "HOW ARE WE EVER GONNA MANAGE TO GET OUT OF HERE???...so much to do...so hard to really actually leave...and today is Wednesday, two performances of A MODERN CHRISTMAS CAROL and I am in my Barter office, getting the last of various scripts straightened away for my departure, so Derek will not arrive and be swamped with old, leftover scripts to read and deal with. Just came from the Staff Secret Santa Luncheon at the wonderful Hardware Restaurant...I had Hazel's reknowned chicken salad, yummy as ever. And lovely gifts were exchanged..both Heather B. and I were neglected , invitation-wise, so when they finally corralled us to join (thank you Joan B.!) both Heather and I rushed to next-door stores and bought each other gifts! She got me gorgeous deep red crystal pin at the Plum Alley Bead Shop and I got her some pretty shiny silver snowman jewelry to wear on her ears and coat. So we did good. And the company was great and Rick was charming (and even admitted in public that he will miss me, that dear friend), so I feel sufficiently pampered to face the future! MEANWHILE: HONK pal (and writer)Anthony Drewe managed to snag me 4 house-seats for MARY POPPINS in London (just opened, big hit,la la) and all that remains is for me to call the man (Kevin Dwyer) to whom I must give my credit card number to secure the seats. This is a swell way to begin our journey to London, with good house seats for the latest great show. And,of course,I am so grateful to Anthony for the favor. The only other thing I know we want to see is HIS DARK MATERIALS, at the National Theatre, based on the children's book trilogy by Philip Pullman. According to Julia Judge (Andre Bishop's second at Liincoln Center), those tix should not be too hard to buy the day of...so...that is what we shall do. Wow. It is all coming together. And before we know it, it will be time to drive away from here, and we shall be headed home. Wow. I mean, really...wow. There is so much here I will sorely miss, so many people and processes and problems to solve and caring. My sincere intention ,dare I say "need" at this point?) is to stay well in touch with all that is going on here, and several people have promised to keep me well informed on all fronts. I want this , not because I am "nosy", but because I genuinely care, and want to be able to help in any way I can, whenever I can, and knowing more about what is going on in a true and basic way, will perhaps help me to be more helpful from afar. If even just as a sounding board for whoever may need one. And it will be a telling season: an astonishing selection of shows is planned and, with courage and good press, and steadfast management and superbly produced shows, it could be a stellar year for this wonderful theater. The Barter Theatre deserves all the good glory and attention it can possibly be given, as it serves an important part of this country of ours, and gives good live art to many thousands of people yearly. It is a treasure, is the Barter Theatre, and people around this region know that, and have known it for over 70 years!! Here's to a strong 2005!

Cold as bloody hell today...sunny, but visciously cold...a productive day...booked a 24-foot truck for our move home...Budget Rentals....went by Kiser Furniture to make sure our gorgeous new stuff was not destroyed in the warehouse fire they had last night...our leather sofa, chair and ottoman, dining table and chairs were nowhere near that particular warehouse, so were spared the fate of so many people's Christmas furniture gifts...millions of dollars worth of furniture burned to ashes...a lot of people will be minus one large gift under their tree...sad. The Kiser folks are so nice, I hope the customers will not be too upset and mean to them today. Talk about a stroke of good fortune for us, though...The gods must want us to have a successful journey home. I also had a 1:00 Staff Meeting, my last, maybe ever, here...I feel increasingly like a fifth wheel, as projects and casting and various things I am usually a part of pass me by..today I left the meeting feeling like no one there cared what i did with my life...that i have already disappeared from their radar...I mean, people are perfectly lovely to me...but finally, i am left with the feeling that since I am leaving, no one particularly likes me! I realize how silly that sounds...but...well..I mean, we are leaving...we are choosing to do so...and I know I feel, among other things, guilty about the decision because I have been given many wonderful opportunities here for creative expression and growth, and to leave seems so disrespectful and ungrateful. I know...I know...this is all a figment of my mind...suffice it to say: I left the Barter Offices today feeling pretty rotten. Ah well....2005 is an enormous and challenging year for all here: rather a make or break sort of thing..and here I am leaving....all departments face large mountains, but the spirit and know-how of all these people is tremendous and though it may feel dark at times, I know they can pull it off...I just know they can! As one of our actors is fond of saying: GO TEAM!! Naturally, a part of me is thrilled to be leaving for new adventures...especially England and Scotland...and going back to our terrific place on West End Avenue...why, then do i feel so BAD??? Silly stuff takes over my mind: Why have certain friendships grown old and stale here? Just how capable is this group of actors that I have come to know and love so dearly? We all work so very hard here, it is possible to lose perspective I know, so I have lost the ability to know what our particular talents are, since my judgement has become clouded by familiarity...so getting away will be good for that too. But, all these things trouble me, and then I feel guilty for even thinking them! So, a cold day today...and a troubling one in my mind.

...and dark enough outside on this dismal day to have our Xmas lights and tree on, making it warm and at least glowy in our little home...Peter has a 3:00 matinee of MODERN CHRISTMAS CAROL...and we're going to Derek and Melissa's tonight for sort of a farewell visit. All the Barter Acting Company is so busy rehearsing together and doing show after show after show together, that when we have free time, we rarely spend it with each other, so tonight is an attempt at making up for that a bit. This really is, by sheer necessity, a very un-social group of actors.We simply spend too much time together, by contract!!! It's not that we do not like each other. We do. It's just boring, because all we have to really share and talk about is our work, and since we all do the same work at the same time with the same people, what is there to say?I mean, finally, after three years (or more, in some cases) of day in day out being together in all the same rooms (on or off stage), I guess we all need our private spaces..and this is a company that loves each other!!! it's simply human nature, I guess. That's one of the important things about our friendship with Rick and Amanda: we talk of so many varied things always. Wow! It's really coming down out there. A very wintry day. Peter is packing some boxes of DVD's and movie CD's and tapes int he bedroom. I have just finished another batch of Christmas/Moving Notice cards to yet another large group of people who should be kept informed. And I am glad I do not have to do a matinee!! In fact, I feel great not performing these days...GYPSY did me in!!!!

As Associate Director here at Barter Theatre, it has been my job to listen to all new musicals that are sent us and read all new plays that are even proposed, and so it has been. Hundreds and hundreds of proposals for new works, most of which are not even vaguely right for our audiences, and so i send a lot of "thank you but no thank you" letters. Every now and again, however, i will ask for a full script and we have even produced some of the works that have come to us that way. I shall miss this part of the job, because i adore reading new things, and here at this theater we have the ability to really help them go the next step. There is certain real satisfaction in that. Right now i am listening to a new musical of Shaw's YOU NEVER CAN TELL. Is it right for us? Not sure yet. But it is surely fun to listen and read. I even bought a rocking chair made of gorgeous bent wood for the special purpose of sitting, reading and listening here in my cozy office, which i also shall miss. Production meeting this morning...my last , at least for a while. Every single one of those meetings (every Friday morning at 9:00 am) I have learned something new, and I shall miss them for that reason alone. I really do wonder if I shall ever come back to work here...? Life is odd...one really NEVER CAN TELL...who knows what the future actually will bring? I do know that these several years have been truly wonderful for me. And to Rick Rose and so many others here, i am grateful. Deeply grateful. It is a bright and splendid winter day outside today,mountains clear on the rim of the town. Another thing to miss. But the future shines as well, and Peter is a wonderful man to anticipate sharing it with, no matter how scared i may feel. And at my age (older than so many of the bloggers I am reading online), change is good, essential even, to keeping open and awake and aware of life's surprises. I feel that the advent of online blogging, of the internet altogether, is such a miracle in my lifetime, and that already there are generations of people born for whom the Internet is a given in life, they have never been without it..my Momma would have been truly astounded by what it has to offer. Maybe in a future lifetime, in the karmic dance she and i undoubtedly have not finished, we will be able to share more of such wonders. I think of her everyday. And it has been 4 years since her death. It helps that my doggie is named after her: SALLY. And Peter calls her SALLY MEYER, my mom's maiden name...I am sure her spirit is alive in this amazing pup. I choose to believe so.

In my office here at Barter Theatre,(listening to Brad Ross' LITTLE BY LITTLE) continuing the campaign to clean up and make sense of all that is here, so that when Derek Davidson takes the office over, he doesn't faint! It's just that so many new plays have been coming to me in the past 3 years, so many new writers to get to know, and i have taken these relationships seriously enough to want to not neglect them and keep them waiting in piles forever, so my routine has been fairly consistent: the summaries i am sent that do not impress me as right for Barter Theatre, i send back as soon as i can with a polite note to that effect. I have a detailed alphabetized list on my office computer tracking all these (what i call) SNAF (Script Not Asked For) transactons, with the date when i sent the rejection letter.
THEN, there are those I love, so i ask for full scripts and ,if necessary, accompanying music samples in CD form. I carefully mark on my computer when this material arrives, and another pile is started, which grows larger and larger until i have a chance to actually read and listen to the full script. A bunch of writers send repeatedly, new script ideas,etc. and I appreciate their perserverance. The plays I red and love I write up an evaluation and put the script in Rick Rose's office for him to read. If it is especially wonderful I make sure he knows it and reads it sooner than later. Barter includes many new works each year on both its Main Stage and Stage II programs, and i am proud of how we have discovered some really good new writers. Audiences here appreciate new coices, and our box office figures reflect that. Ron Osborne, (we did 2 of his plays this year...one of which I was in (FIRST BAPTIST OF IVY GAP) and the other I directed (WISE WOMEN). Both ahave been popular. he knows how to write women!! A very swell guy too, as is his wife Melissa!!

Labels: Barter to NYC 2004

Or is it really one day less...? One day more closer to our moving back home to NYC, but one day less here, of course...odd about time and the way it does actually pass..time does pass...things come to pass...nothing occurs that does not pass by...like sands in an hourglass, so are the days of our lives...that thing about measuring it out in teaspoons, as Elliot says in "Prufrock"...time flying when you're having fun...of course what is too true is that the older we get the lesser is the ratio between time we have lived and time we have left to live...so no wonder it seems to go by faster...but i digress.... Peter and i have spent the evening getting out more of the 200 some cards we are sending to both celebrate the Holidays and to inform people we are movingback to the City...Peter printed out the most cunning labels, making the whole adressing thing so much easier, and most of them are ready to mail. Also, we have made room for THE TREE!!..Here we are, packing our guts out...awash in boxes and piles of our stuff to get organized, and Peter wants A TREE!!! (Actually, so do I)...we love the lights of the Holiday in this house, starting with the candles of Chanukah, and layering all sorts of electrics colorful and bright wherever we can stash them...our front porch is rather outrageous right now. SO WE SHALL HAVE A TREE...for a brief while...and then take it down before we load the truck for travel. I do love this man I married. He will keep me young, (probably far longer than I want to be kept that way), but still....i adore him...there is a story there I should probably share in good blogger fashion, and one day I will do so...there is much to this blogger deal i have yet to learn. I think, however, i am over the idea that anyone would ever want to read this blog...I mean, really, why should they? So I have to find a way to be as much "me" as I possibly can, so that maybe one day something I say or some story i tell may help someone else who may chance to read it...I remember being so deeply impressed by Alice White's online writing about her initial bouts of cancer...deeply inspiring and , well, oddly enough, happy-making...her spirit came strongly through the words she typed ...I wept...she lives large that wonderful woman, even in illness. I could blog only about the amazing women I have known, and that would be blog enough! Alice is definitely one of them! Well....goodnight. OH MY GOODNESS: I FORGOT TO MENTION: a group of actors from Barter came over and serenaded us with carols this evening...I made hot chocolate for them! Mike Ostroski, Jim and Seana Hollingsworth, Melissa Davidson, Liz McKnight and Ben Mackle!! Lovely!

Labels: Barter to NYC 2004

SO much to get done in the next few weeks, and FORGET CHRISTMAS!!! Our private little Chanukah was sweet, and each night a gift, as usual , from Paul in NYC ,each one sillier thant he last...the very last one on the 8th night, was a keychain with a little black-clothed rabbi, singing HAVA NA GILAH to the accompaniment of a kletzmer band!!! This is one I must keep! Paul has made an art of finding every possible Chanukah -related gift item and giving it to Peter and me: dishes of all sizes and shapes with menorah on them, entire tea sets with large Jewish stars, dancing and singing menorah, dreidels with stories to tell, rubber figures of Mr. Chanukah and pals, and on and on....I mean...potholders, towels, table cloths,et al...I envision a closet where he stores all these items he finds for years until he can wrap them up for the next Chanukah...God Bless Paul....who else buys these things? Anyway, each gift is a genuine delight, and, thank God, this year, SMALL, so we have nothing to pack, since already we are overwhelmed with boxes stacked everywhere in this small condo, as we prepare for NEW YORK CITY. Right now, as Peter finishes up the last several weeks of MODERN CHRISTMAS CAROL at Barter Theatre and I get my Associate Director office straightened up for Derek to take over, the project is to get the some 200 Holiday cards with address change info in them out to all our pals who may care. Peter made address labels (very spiffy red ones) for our entire list and for the return labels at the upper left corner of the envelope? He made labels starring our pups Sally (in a Chanukah crown of blue) and Cyrano (in a Santa Hat of red), featuring our NYC address for all to see. Therefore the envelopes look swell, and for a lot of the cards, we put a photo of Peter and me in the "frame" and those particular recipients will receive that photo of us happily embracing..a lovely thing, I must say...a product of the photo session we had in Kingsport with Kim Miller and Paul Bishop,wonderful photographers .

Labels: Barter to NYC 2004

Back to that chance>change idea, and also responding to people who want to know what Peter and i are up to as far as the immediate future is concerned...this is for you!!

OUR PLANS:

We leave Abingdon,VA. on January 6th, 2005, after several deeply satisfying years as Acting Company Members of the Barter Theatre (and my couple as Associate Artistic Director as well) and head home for NYC!!! We shall move back into our beloved 890 West End Avenue Apartment 9B co-op apartment on the morning of Friday, January 7th!!!! AND NEW ADVENTURES BEGIN!!!!
WE go to London and Edinburgh for the month of January, to see shows and sleep and get re-inspired, then return to NYC and LIVE!!!

We are pleased and excited to be getting home.
More on all of this to come...there is so much to say...

Labels: Barter to NYC 2004

Odd. I've lived with the two words "chance" and "change" all my life (haven't we all?) and today is the first time Ive noticed that there is only one letter differentiating the two words. I've kept private journals since I was 15 years old, have gotten into the habit of writing whatever comes to mind, have, in fact, become sort of cavalier about my outpourings, and suddenly was faced with having to NAME this blog!!! How to be clever? New? Entertaining and engaging? And all that came to mind is what is now happening most prominently in my life: CHANGE, as P. and I move back to the Big City, and I suddenly understood this was a CHANCE to re-open the doors to life and breathe in the air of..what? CHANGE. So, from there evolved the blog name: chance>change. More honestly, however, on reading the 1st blog entry of my friend "Johnxiv", I was moved to reply and discovered that in order to do so most effectively, I had to take the same chance he did and let myself be known, and so...here we are. Thank you John. And thanks to ..whatever...Whatever?...for another chance to change. Love to all and to all a good blogging.

Labels: Blog Matters