Chance = Change

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