Sunday, March 20, 2005
2002 Diary Entry
"3-04-02 Abingdon, Virginia Cold, Grey...
So, my (now fiance) darling Peter and I are here at the Barter for the entire year 2002 season... knee-deep in rehearsals for the Spring Rep: MACBETH, ON GOLDEN POND, SOMETHING'S AFOOT...sine I have lead roles in POND and AFOOT I am hardly ever not rehearsing - and since Peter is in AFOOT and not only acting in MACBETH but is dramaturg and music writer as well, he is rarely at rest also...
A busy and happy (and tired) creative household.
Today, a day off , is filled with getting done an event we helped to create: the Tom Celli Memorial on the Mainstage. Joya, his widow has become a dear friend here and she lives right across this lovely field from us.
Peter and I came down here December 18th, 2001 and set up house at 138 Valley View Drive NE #6...our local phone is 276-628-2057..rehearsals did not start until February 12th so we had time to nest. On January 10th began my teaching duties at Emory and Henry, as part of the Barter Conservatory we are in the process of setting up there. 8:00am on Tuesday and Thursday mornings...wearying but mostly fun.
Driving there pre-dawn , i see cows eating their breakfast on glorious hillsides..bucolic and good..i have come to think of them as my cows! Calm.
Since rehearsals have started my days are very long, especially since they are building my costumes from scratch and they are complicated and elegant.Lots of fittings."
And that is how a typical Barter day was and is...from morning til night...a rare and challenging chance for theater artists to dive in headlong to the work they love...Rick gathers his artists and uses them fully. The theater organization hums with the sheer energy of it all. And the Large Hall, where Mainstage shows are rehearsed, is a room filled with decades of such work...if the walls could talk...i used to love to just go sit in that room, stretch on the enormous floors and let the room's vibrations speak to me...sounds nutty, but i felt in such good company in that room, even when no one else was there.
Oh yes, the Barter has ghosts and lots of them.
I used to envision an entire ghostly company performing the plays as we actually did them onstage each night. Our work gave them life. And their energies kept us all going. If theater is passion, and passion is energy, then I have no trouble believing that ghosts (pure energy , some say) are fully fed by the "power station" that is the Barter Theatre.
There's a play, a ghost play, in that notion. The undying need to engage in the stories of others...to use the stories to guide, teach, strengthen, inspire the living to carry on and live full lives...to assure. To remind.
Ghost light (that single one left onstage after all have gone home...) that time when the ghosts come out, discuss the evening's performance, act the parts. Perhaps they guide the destiny of the theater...or try to, anyway.Hmmm. Funny,but I never felt alone, ever, in that Large Hall.
So, my (now fiance) darling Peter and I are here at the Barter for the entire year 2002 season... knee-deep in rehearsals for the Spring Rep: MACBETH, ON GOLDEN POND, SOMETHING'S AFOOT...sine I have lead roles in POND and AFOOT I am hardly ever not rehearsing - and since Peter is in AFOOT and not only acting in MACBETH but is dramaturg and music writer as well, he is rarely at rest also...
A busy and happy (and tired) creative household.
Today, a day off , is filled with getting done an event we helped to create: the Tom Celli Memorial on the Mainstage. Joya, his widow has become a dear friend here and she lives right across this lovely field from us.
Peter and I came down here December 18th, 2001 and set up house at 138 Valley View Drive NE #6...our local phone is 276-628-2057..rehearsals did not start until February 12th so we had time to nest. On January 10th began my teaching duties at Emory and Henry, as part of the Barter Conservatory we are in the process of setting up there. 8:00am on Tuesday and Thursday mornings...wearying but mostly fun.
Driving there pre-dawn , i see cows eating their breakfast on glorious hillsides..bucolic and good..i have come to think of them as my cows! Calm.
Since rehearsals have started my days are very long, especially since they are building my costumes from scratch and they are complicated and elegant.Lots of fittings."
And that is how a typical Barter day was and is...from morning til night...a rare and challenging chance for theater artists to dive in headlong to the work they love...Rick gathers his artists and uses them fully. The theater organization hums with the sheer energy of it all. And the Large Hall, where Mainstage shows are rehearsed, is a room filled with decades of such work...if the walls could talk...i used to love to just go sit in that room, stretch on the enormous floors and let the room's vibrations speak to me...sounds nutty, but i felt in such good company in that room, even when no one else was there.
Oh yes, the Barter has ghosts and lots of them.
I used to envision an entire ghostly company performing the plays as we actually did them onstage each night. Our work gave them life. And their energies kept us all going. If theater is passion, and passion is energy, then I have no trouble believing that ghosts (pure energy , some say) are fully fed by the "power station" that is the Barter Theatre.
There's a play, a ghost play, in that notion. The undying need to engage in the stories of others...to use the stories to guide, teach, strengthen, inspire the living to carry on and live full lives...to assure. To remind.
Ghost light (that single one left onstage after all have gone home...) that time when the ghosts come out, discuss the evening's performance, act the parts. Perhaps they guide the destiny of the theater...or try to, anyway.Hmmm. Funny,but I never felt alone, ever, in that Large Hall.
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