Look Back in Anger -- Orfeo Group

I went to see John Osborn's post WWII  bombshell, which premiered in 1956, with "the girls".    We remember WWII, we were children then, and the attitudes towards women's agency that prevailed when we came of age. June was surprised because she had recently seen the movie and in performance the play seemed much more cruel.  I remembered it as very cruel-- cruel enough that I carried away a lesson from the play: beware. Stay away from brilliant fascinating men who feel entitled to make demands and heap abuse on woemn who don't meet them.  Orfeo's was an intense and impressive  staging, but I was not wholly absorbed.   I was remembering working on the script when I was very young-- and thinking at the time I was miscast as Helena and would have found Alison a more comfortable fit.  Now, I can see what it is about Helena that is more me-ish, though Helena's facade is so utterly unlike the woman I thought I was when I was 19 or 20 that the idea would have shocked me then.  Working on LBIA may have been in a class rather than a production. Although I remembered the plot and the sound of the words and and the shape of the scenes after all these years, none of it had the physical detail that a play usually retains for me if I've performed at least a short run before an audience.    Except for the ironing!  i do remember doing the ironing and trying to make it look "real".  When I saw Chris Hayes  (who just played the student actress opposite June's Olga Chekhova in "Russian Mast Class" ) as Alison ironing so badly, without a clue, I spent some considerable energy wondering whether it was an acting choice, showing a young woman raised by servants at home and in India-- or simply that ironing is now done so infrequently that none of the young women connected to the production has ever learned the technique.    Hopefully they needn't have learned the "lesson", either.   I would have stayed for the talk back to congratulate the director and actors, and even asked about the ironing, but the Factory Theatre's noisy air conditioning had to be turned off for the performance and between the heat and intensity and the late hour we were just too exhausted.

Carolyn Clay reviews LBIA in the Boston Phoenix

..."Gabriel Kuttner helms the period-faithful production on Cristina Todesco’s old-furniture-crammed set in a space so small that the testosterone-fueled fisticuffs, linguistic vitriol, sexual steam, and little-boy-lost remorse spill out over the audience like splashes from that non-existent kitchen sink....  And the performances are nicely calibrated to the space, so that you feel the friction of tight quarters but no one appears to be overacting.

The drama crackles despite its creaky three-act structure and vivid verbosity, and Daniel Berger-Jones (of Company One’s Mr. Marmalade) wrestles manfully with the problem of Jimmy, who, like compulsive theatrical misanthropes from Shakespeare’s Timon to Molière’s Alceste, both has a point and is hard to take. Scathing in company, he finds cruel satisfaction in humiliating his wife, who for him represents the enervated rapaciousness of her class. Tender in private, he turns to her for comfort, indulging in a marital game of bears and squirrels (also hard to take) in which the two pretend to be furry animals fleeing the pain of being human. Berger-Jones’s surly, soulful Jimmy leaps out of the small space, waving his natural superiority like a red flag, defying the other characters and a world that refuses to give him his due.  

Liz Hayes..  rises wrenchingly to the final scene, in which she describes to Jimmy the crucible he has always wanted to put her through. Two-time Elliot Norton Award nominee Georgia Lyman brings a cool containment, albeit one that melts down convincingly, to angry-young-man poacher Helena.... Risher Reddick makes a compassionate if occasionally slack Cliff..."

 Steven Barkhimer rounds out the cast as Alison's father, and is such a presence that one rather wishes this long play were even longer and had more Steve Barkhimer in it.

Platform series B -- Bisantz's On The Rocks

photos from the Bisantz-Carozza musical

Independent Eye seeks info RE: Theatre Blogs

This query on the Theatre Discussion List from Conrad of The Independent Eye:

"Are any of you using a blog, whether as promotion, as a means 
of community dialogue, or to document your creative process?  If so, 
we'd like to know.

Right now, The Independent Eye is involved in developing a 
co-production with a local theatre in Sebastopol, CA, of 
Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST as a live theatrical animation with 
puppets, digital media, shadows, lotsa stuff, for September 2009.  As 
part of this, along with community forums and a year-long 
developmental lab, we're planning to do a collaborative blog that 
both documents our process (with posts from staff, actors & other 

associated souls) and also invites public input.  Hopefully we can 

link with various theatre & puppetry websites and really contribute a 
model of functional documentation."
I'm sure others are doing this, or something like it, and I'd 
love to see what there is out there that we might build on.  Any 
leads, whether to your own site or to models in other arenas that 
might be useful in our planning?  Or initiatives that went 
ignominiously belly-up?

I REPLY:

 I have a blog -- http://stageblog-glhorton.blogspot.com/

It's a couple years old.  I guess in some sense it documents my  
creative process.   I try to track my theatre activities and musings,  
including some list posts that may be mini-essays, plus some OT  opinions. 

Sometimes I neglect it for months, sometimes I post  

daily.   I put on it the kind of thing I would put on my Stagepage web  
site if the site hadn't grown to be so complicated and huge-- photos,  
programs, commentary.   My blog is lonesome.  I don't know if anybody  
reads it. You'd be doing me a favor if you went to it: wearing a path  
to its door, so to speak.  I hope this query results in some interesting blogs and possible links to them.  The Theatre blogs I read-- connected to Terry Teachout's, which I read religiously at Arts Journal, that Blog Roll makes those easiest to click to-- are sporadic and not very interesting

Platform Series B is underway!

Joe Orrigo and Teagan Rose in "The Cell"

I saw the shows Thursday night-- well done, people !   Vincent Siders was terrific as a war-damaged Vietnam Vet in Gail Phaneuf's "Stop Request", set on an MBTA Bus.  I not only believed in the actor, but the character is close kin to some I put in my own 1979 play re: the MBTA, Breaking in on the T.  A pic from this play is on this blog from about a week ago.

I've grabbed a jpeg from Kelly DuMar's spooky piece set in a graveyard, The Cell.  Good acting in that one, too-- the acting level this year is very impressive. I hope other Series B shows will have pics to share, too. 

Come out and enjoy the Second Weekend of the Playwrights' Platform Summer Festival!  It's great to see everyone there lending their support, laughter and applause!  Thanks to everyone who has volunteered and helped make this another very successful year for the Festival and the Platform!  Bravo!  (We can't do it without you...)  Help us spread the word for the final two performances.  AND... Don't forget the party on Saturday night at the theater after the show!  **   -Gail

Kelly Dumar talks about rehearsing The Cell (series B)

On Kelly DuMar's blog:

The Cell

Written & Directed By Kelly DuMar                                    

Pleasant Lawn Cemetery, A Throne Like Bench—Seating for Two

TICK         Teagan Rose

CORT      Joe Orrigo

Our Journey to the Underworld

For the fourth time during a Playwrights’ Platform Festival I get to work with great actors to present a scene from my Away Message Series.  Last year, Bird’s Egg, Blue drummed up TICK’'s birth at the annual festival, and Clay gave us TICK'’s first kiss at the Our Voices Festival.  The year before, New Digs brought us to the cemetery so TICK and KIP could “do their goodbye thing” at Clay’'s grave.  The Cell is set in the same cemetery, but another dimension.

When I first met Joe Orrigo to “audition” him for The Cell it was at a sunny outdoor patio table at Panera, and he told me exactly what a playwright wants to hear: “Love the script.”  Even more encouraging, he connected with the mythological dimensions of the story and sparked my vision as director.  By the time we were done reading the script aloud, I was - along with the rest of the diners - scared shitless.  I drove home wondering if Joe Orrigo was really an actor or an ethereal visitor from another realm, and for a lot of reasons I hoped he would turn out to be a real actor, not the least of which was so that he'’d show up for rehearsal when I cast him.

He did.  It'’s been great working with Joe and Teagan who’s so fresh and eager and talented.  Joe'’s not afraid to try anything, and Teagan'’s not afraid to ask anything, so the three of us became collaborators in the truest sense of the word, inspiring and trusting each other'’s creative instincts.  

During rehearsal I told them I wasn'’t convinced I had found the right ending.  We agreed to trust the process to find it, and I almost blew it.  Out of habit, I kept ending the play in the same old place.  At the last rehearsal when I said “"done",” I realized Joe wasn'’t.  We agreed to run it one more time and Joe was free to end it wherever he ended it.  So, we got to the end, and CORT makes this seductive gesture—, "Come".  And TICK must.  That’'s what I'’m getting at: that as adolescents, certainly, —but also as creative people, we'’re compelled to follow our curiosity to the Underworld, the shadow elements of our own psyches, and we have to figure out, as TICK will, how to dance new life out of dead hopes, dreams, and illusions-- without sacrificing our souls.  

~ Kelly DuMar

Artists in America -- economic stats

NYTimes reported on a US gov't study: 

...... In 2005 nearly two million Americans said their primary employment was in jobs that the census defines as artists’ occupations — including architects, interior designers and window dressers. Their combined income was about $70 billion, a median of $34,800 each. Another 300,000 said artist was their second job.

......The percentage of female, black, Hispanic and Asian artists is bigger among younger ones. Among artists under 35, writers are the only group in which 80 percent or more are non-Hispanic white. Overall, women outnumber men only among dancers, designers and writers....  Overall, the median income that artists reported in 2005 was $34,800 — $42,000 for men and $27,300 for women. The median income of the 55 percent of artists who said they had worked full-time for a full year was $45,200.

.....Over all, artists make more than the national median income ($30,100). They are more highly educated but earn less than other professionals with the same level of schooling. 

{like, half as much.  I know: I've worked jobs where I had to have my Master's degree, but made less per hour than a fully employed high school grad}

 They are likelier to be self-employed (about one in three and growing) and less likely to work full-time, year-round. (Dancers have the lowest median annual income of all artists, architects the highest — $20,000 and $58,000, respectively.)....

...About 13 percent of people who say their primary occupation is artist also hold a second job — about twice the rate that other people in the labor force work two jobs......

Pictures from Playwrights Platform Festival Series A

Here are photos from the Festival taken June 9th

Anabel Graetz and Geralyn Horton in The Entertainer by Phyllis Rittner

Lia Adams, Mike Haddad and T.Anthony Donohoe in Short Cuts  by Christopher King

Above: Rene L. Pfister & Anabel Graetz in The Entertainer

Opening Night! Playwrights Platform Festival, Series A

June Lewin as Marion and Jackie Davis as Evelyn in G.L. Horton's Best Practice

Hooray!  My play is up and running, and I couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out!

Here's the bios insert from the Platform Program: 

BEST PRACTICE      by G. L. Horton

CAST 

JUNE LEWIN (Marion)  has worked in Boston area theatre as an actor and director since 1986. One of her  particular interests is helping to develop new  scripts, and shortly after her move she directed G.L. Horton's full length set in a Boston abortion clinic, "Choices" and Rosanna Alfaro's "Martha Mitchell", which was recently revived and performed at NYC's West End Theatre in April.  June has continued to work closely with local playwrights and makes frequent appearances in new plays and in the Boston Theatre Marathon. Last season she was seen in Alfaro's "Sailing Down the Amazon" and Kate Snodrass's "Haiku" at the Boston Playwrights' Theater and the West End Theater in Gloucester.   Also at the West End, she performed in "Kindertransport"  and "Women and the Sea".   A few favorite roles: Mary in "On the Verge", Miss MacKay in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie",  E. M. Ashford in "Wit", and Valentina in "The Bay at Nice".  June has appeared onstage in New York City, Long Island,  Berkeley, California, and throughout New England, after receiving her early training at the Cleveland Playhouse, Barnard College and Boston University. She is member of, Actors' Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild, and on the Board of StageSource.

JACKIE DAVIS (Evelyn) is a member of Theatre Espresso and an Affiliate Artist of the Providence Black Repertory Theatre Company.  Directorial credits include staged readings of “Hurry Tomorrow” by Platform writer Frank Shefton, and "The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs. Mammy Louise and Safreeta Mae" for Roxbury Crossroads Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion.  Productions include: A Black Arts Drama Showcase in Boston and New Jersey, "BIRTH" for Bold On Labor Day at the Cambridge Y, and "The Eight: Reindeer Monologues" at the Factory Theatre.  Jackie served as assistant director/ choreographer during the 6th African American Theater Festival and as choreographer for the Lyric Stage’s production of "Crowns"; and won IRNE nominations for her choreography of Speakeasy’s production of "Caroline or Change" and AATF's "The Wiz".   At the PBRT she played Mrs. Breedlove in "The Bluest Eye" and Rashida in the World Premiere of "The Etymology of Bird". Choreographer for Company One’s "Assassins", she will be conducting summer workshops at COne. Theatre credits include: Tituba, New Rep’s "The Crucible; understudy, Huntington Theatre’s " Well"; "Wind In The Willows"; "Body & Sold"; "Spell #7".  Her  Ms. Olson in "Promises Promises" and Lady in Blue in “For Colored Girls…” won IRNE nominations.  Television credits include National Geographic’s documentary of Hurricane Katrina, and commercials national and local.  Jackie is a proud member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and can be seen in the upcoming Pink Panther Deux and Bachelor Number Two.

GERALYN HORTON  served as director for her play-- which means that she was fortunate enough to get this stellar cast to take on the roles and has tried to stay out of their way. Geralyn started directing when she was a kid, and has directed on and off for half a century.  Most of her work has been with new plays written by colleagues or with the late lamented Arlington Street Light Opera Company in the church's basement, where for 25 years she applied the music theatre techniques she picked up working as Sarah Caldwell's Production Assistant during the Opera Company of Boston's 1971-73 seasons. 

Thanks to Kate and Marc at BPT and to the NPG and the Platform for feedback during re-writes

More Platform Festival actors and Series B

PLAYWRIGHTS PLATFORM

36th Annual Festival of New Plays, 2008

Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Comm. Av., Boston.

Tickets $14-$17 at 866-811-4111 or at www.theatermania.com

Series A Program: June 12, 13, 14 - Curtain 8pm 

Series B Program: June 19, 20, 21 - Curtain 8PM

CUT by R. Holly Jensen

Tradition! Or..? A Blessed Event threatens family chaos.

FORGIVING by R. Lida McGirr

A daughter's struggle to face her less than valiant behavior.

ON THE STRUT by Hortense Gerardo

Is a 2200 ft parachute jump a good time for lovers' confessions?

STOP REQUESTED by Gail Phaneuf

A stranger's perspective can open our minds and hearts.

THE CELL by Kelly DuMar

He's King of the Underworld: will she be his Queen?

ON THE ROCKS- musical by Jerry Bisantz and John Carozza

Sometimes that last drink really is the last.

WHAT WOULD DEBBIE DO? by Scott Welty

A TV show character as role model in a bank's moment of crisis.

FESTIVAL ACTORS: Lis Adams, Sandy Armstrong, Zele Avradopoulos, JerryBisantz, Jackie Davis, Laura DeCesare, T. Anthony Donohoe, Peter Floyd, Jennifer Fogarty, Scott Giangrande, Anabel Graetz, Michael Haddad, Geralyn Horton, Trudie Johnson, Eliot L Johnston, Spencer Klein, June Lewin, Jennifer McCartney Joey Orrigo, Alli Ritts, Fred Robbins, Liz Robbins, Teagan Rose, Dan Schuettinger Jen Shotkin, Vincent Siders, Stephanie Steinbeck, Steve Triebes, Andrew Wetmore

Grant Keener's Obit and Memorial Service

I don't know if anyone else is still around who was a member of Playwrights' Platform when Grant Keener was active.  We read several of his plays: I particularly remember the full length portrait of Nora Barnicle, Joyce's wife.  He has attended Platform Summer Festivals off and on until quite recently, when he had to give up his car. 

OBIT:
U. Grant Keener  89, loving father, grandfather and friend of Waban formerly of Cambridge, died on Friday June 6, 2008. He is survived by a sister Marilyn, four children; Robert L. Keener and his wife Betsey of Needham, Jessie Keener of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Matthew S. Keener of Los Angeles, CA and Amelia Pantaze and her husband Adam of Lexington, VA, his six grandchildren: Karina, Sarah, David, Grace, Ana Grace and Myles. Grant was born in Philadelphia, he grew up in Brazil and attended Columbia College. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia and was a professor at Bridgewater State College. During W.W. II, Grant he served with the U.S. Army. A lifelong writer, he was recently working on several plays and a short story. A Memorial Service will be held Wednesday June 11th at 7 PM at his Church, The First Unitarian Society in Newton, 1326 Washington St., Newton. In lieu of flowers, please donate to PEN New England

The Memorial was lovely: his bright and vital family from the 4 corners of the USA, church friends, handfuls of friends from Pen,  his Cambridge Pub Writers' group, 3 of us from the Platform, memories of the Poets' Theatre..... wonderful anecdotes and tributes.  The hastily assembled and rehearsed choir sang some of Grant's favorites -- we was a big choir fan, and would come early and listen to us rehearse. I'm sorry I missed hearing him telling tales of foreign adventure and spying in WWII-- I never dreamed Grant was old enough to have been in WWII: I was in a tennis class with him in the late nineties, when he must have been in his 80s already! 

LA Times on marketing movies for women

Hollywood rethinks chick flicks

By Rachel Abramowitz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 

June 11, 2008

...half of Hollywood is trying to parse the lessons of the resounding success (unexpected to some) of the "Sex and the City" movie, the event film for women.

A $57-million opening weekend? And $192 million worldwide within two weeks? Chicks en masse go to the film as a religious experience. Is there a stampede to knock off other hit TV shows, figuring that TV is to women what comic books are to men? A product with pre-established awareness and mythic potential? Or will "SATC's" hitdom be chalked off as a periodic anomaly, just like "First Wives Club," "Fatal Attraction" and, of course, the bestselling movie of all time, "Titanic," whose tidal wave of gross profit was driven by human beings lacking the Y-chromosome.

...... "I hope ['Sex and the City'] will at least bring about more of a trend toward films made specifically for adult female women," says Donna Langley, Universal's president of production, who ran out opening weekend to catch the film, both as a consumer and a professional. "You would hope, given the success of 'Sex and the City,' people will remember there is a huge female audience out there, and, judging by these numbers, they're clearly starved, for the most part.....I hope the film's success encourages not only studios to make more films for women but more female writers and directors to step forward with their own unique voices,' says Langley"

Step forward?  From where to what?  Every woman playwright I know has written at least one screenplay, and would happily write others if given the least encouragement!  As for directors, it's not as if there are women turning down opportunities.

Additional pics from Platform Series A

Jennifer McCartney, Scott Giangrante, and Sandy Armstrong in P.A. by Lydia Bruce and Sandy Burns

Photos taken June 9th and 10th

photos from The Entertainer -- tech rehearsal

Here are some pics from last night's Playwright's Platform tech rehearsal of Phyllis Rittner's "The Entertainer" at Boston Playwright's Theatre

Liz Robbins as Edith and Geralyn Horton as Gertrude

Rene Pfister, The Entertainer

Anabel Graetz as Maxine, Geralyn Horton as Gertrude

Geralyn Horton, Liz Robbins, and Zele Avrodopoulos as Ruth

Anabel Graetz and Rene Pfister

Florida Playreading Group Offers feedback

Hello.

I am a member of an informal drama group of about 4-5 women and 2-3 men. We meet once a month in each other’s homes.

I found your website, and would like to use your plays in our readings. We have not performed publicly, and at this stage, don’t plan to in the near future.

Our reading group is just for our enjoyment.

 

Would it be all right to use your plays?

I said "sure" and added 

I'd be interested in what you choose to read and if it goes well.  I try to keep track of which sorts of plays appeal to which sorts of people.  I occasionally get asked:  "Which of your plays do you think will appeal to our audience of retired bookkeepers and their teen aged grandsons?" and having a record of who has laughed at X or wept at Y is very helpful.

and got a report back:

 HI, Geralyn.

Our drama reading group met last Friday night.

There were 6 of us—4 women and 2 men.

 

We read two of your plays: “Showtime” and “Rehabilitation.”

 

The first, “Showtime,” had mixed reviews. We all enjoyed it to some degree. One of the men said it was “interesting.” I think we were all surprised at the mention of the sex toys. We are for the most part a conservative group. One of the women, MaryBeth, said she enjoyed doing the reading—“I thought it was fun!”  We all laughed all the way through it. MaryBeth and I have a history of NOT reading the plays that we choose ahead of time. So we always are surprised at what happens when the group gets together.

“Rehabiliation” was a nice contrast to the first. Everyone thought it was very timely. We all enjoyed Deena’s forthrightness.

 

We plan to read “A Late Lunch” at the next meeting on July 11.

 

C. R., Librarian
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University; Fort Pierce, FL

Next productions: Playwrights Platform Festival

I'm directing my own play, and acting in The Unveiling and The Entertainer


Playwrights' Platform 36th Annual Festival of New Plays, 2008
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Comm. Av. Boston.
Tickets $14-$17 at 866-811-4111 or at www.theatremania.com
www.playwrightsplatform.org


Series A Program: June 12, 13, 14 - Curtain 8PM

SHORT CUTS by Christopher L. King
How is friendship like a haircut?

POLE DANCING by R. Eliot Ramsay
Backstage, a dancer's dressing room: an erotic confrontation.

BEST PRACTICE by G.L. Horton
Why does Evelyn get to decide how Miriam lives - or dies?

A BAR, A MAN WALKS INTO by Bob Boulrice
Whimsy featuring the Son of God as a bartender.

THE ENTERTAINER by Phyllis Rittner
A struggling musician plays the gig of his life at a nursing home.

PAVEMENT PICASSO - by Richard Pacheco
Two road line painters clash over what a man’s work means.

P.A. by Lydia Bruce and Sandy Burns
A powerful addiction is sweeping America.

THE UNVEILING, by Ellen Sullivan
A family discovers their loved one is buried in the wrong place.

Halcyon Theatre schedules 100 years of females!

June 6

I just got this on an e-list!  WOW!!!

Anybody with a sofa to spare in the Chicago area?  I'd seriously consider a trip to see Cowley and my "subject", Centlivre.

  (no immediate offers from ICWP sisters....)

In June and July, Halcyon Theatre in Chicago will present it's first annual

Alcyone Festival. This year we are presenting almost a thousand years of

early female playwrights in rotating rep.The line up includes:

*Aria da Capo* by Edna St. Vincent Millay;

*The Belle's Stratagem* by Hannah Cowley;

*A Bold Stroke for a Wife* by Susanna Centlivre;

*Callimachus* by Hrosvitha;

*La Hija de las Flores o Todos Están Locos *(The Daughter of the Flowers or

Everyone Is Crazy) by Gertrudis Gómez de  Avellaneda*; *Performed in Spanish

with projected supertitles.

*The Massacre* by Elizabeth Inchbald;

*Orra* by Joanna Baillie;

*Safe *by Georgia Douglas Johnson;

*Spreading the News* by Lady Augusta Gregory;

*Trifles* by Susan Glaspell;

*The Yellow Wallpape*r by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; adapted and performed by

Chicago DanzTheatre.

For more info: halcyontheatre.org/alcyone

Young People put my words and their voices/bodies on YouTube

Google Alert told me about these, which are linked to a couple more.   I don't remember anybody asking permission to post them, and I'm not sure how many people I'd want to see them...  as video, they are not quite ready for prime time.

But if the actors and their private circles of friends are happy, I'm not complaining.  If I were long dead and my scripts in the Public Library, I'd hope young people would want to perform my stuff. 

Video 1

Video 2

Report on the Sunday service June 1st

I've sung in Unitarian church choirs since I was a child.  Choral singing is much less nervous-making than soloing-- almost as relaxed as songs around a campfire. No so getting into the pulpit and Preaching, even as part of a group.  Why is a congregation of 300 people some of whom you know more daunting than an audience of 30 to 1300?  I don't know.  I seldom suffer stage fright, but I was so nervous I shook when I delivered my segment of the lay service on Our History at First Unitarian Society in Newton.  I was afraid that when I went to sing the snatches of hymns I used as examples of the evolution of texts and music in UU Worship Services a tuneless croak would come out, or I would forget where I was in the piece and try to match the words to a different section of the melody....

But it went well, and the whole group of us, though carrying on a tad longer than optimum, were well-received. 

"REVIEW" Sunday, June 01, 2008 4:21 PM

Subject: today's service

Dear Noreen, Alan, Geralyn, Linda, Gayle, Jackie, Peter, Anne W.B. and the Gospel Choir,

So one of the very first people to speak to me about the service this morning left me feeling satisfied that mission (at least my mission, or hope for this service) was accomplished. She said something like, "Hearing all of those stories was so wonderful, it brought the big picture into view and helped me to see the many changes we've endured over the years. The subliminal message that came through is that everything is really going to be okay. We can do this just fine." Hearing what she took from the stories made my heart sing.

 I feel that the depth of feeling in each reader's message showed the relational/spiritual value of each facet of the community. I am also glad that at least this one person did feel comforted by taking the long view of FUSN 's history, I think we can assume others did as well. We can only hope that we took a step or two this morning toward getting folks in the mood (girding our loins?? hoisting our sails??) to meet the changes ahead with confidence and happy anticipation.

Deep thanks to you, Noreen, for tending this service so closely, and to everyone who contributed, for being generous with your time and hearts. I think it turned out to be a lovely, community sustaining service.

Holly (and the Worship Committee)