North Again

     As the turmoil of settling into the new house ebbed, I took the opportunity to head north to handle a couple of business related issues.  There are no direct flights from Durham to Albany.  I usually take a flight that stops in D.C. and then on to Albany.  This time I wound up going to Charlotte first, then boarded a plane to Albany.  It always seems a little strange to go south to get north, but it was a beautiful day, had no seat mates, and managed to get the picture below of West Sand Lake.

    You can see Crystal Lake just above the engine, Reichards Lake on the left edge in front of the engine, and the village of West Sand Lake.  The brownish-white area below Reichards Lake is the Bonded Concrete operation.  From the air you can get a pretty good idea of the extent of their gravel mining operation and the scar it has left on the land.
    After taking care of business, David and I got a chance to play a round of golf over at Skyline Country Club in Lanesboro, Ma.  I hadn't played the course in probably 30 years, and it has grown up(well the saplings that lined the fairways back then are now mature trees anyway).  It still has great views of Pontoosuc Lake in Pittsfield and the Berkshires in the distance.

      David and I also got a chance to go to a Tri-City Valley Cats play-off baseball game.  Although they lost the game, they went on to win the NY-Penn League Championship.  Sitting behind us was Pat Valiquette and his son.  Pat and I served together on the  All-Tournament Team Selection Committee when RPI used to host a holiday hockey tournament.  It was good to see him and chat about our lives.  His son just completed law school and is waiting for the results of the bar exam to be released.  You take the bar exam in July and don't get the results until December.  It's tough to be in limbo that long.  David bought a Valley-Cats hat and coordinated his golfing outfit around it.

     The trip north ended on a high note as I attended the Actors Equity Association 100th anniversary celebration at Cap Rep in Albany.  It was great to see a number of people I've worked with over the years and share a drink, food, and some good conversation.  The party also featured the best decorated cake I've ever seen.

 
     Yes, that is a cake.  Amazing isn't it.

Settling Back In

     There are always issues surrounding getting back in the swing of things as we go from our summer home up north to Nan's working down here.  As indicated in my previous post, having a new place to live presented some stressful challenges which I won't discuss here.  The house is very large and allows us each to have our own work space.  In addition to the new dwelling, Nan is teaching a new course.  It's a service-learning course in which the students are required to provide a certain number of community service hours in addition to their regular scholarly efforts.  Since we both volunteer at the Durham Animal Shelter, Nan decided to pair her course with APS(Animal Protective Society) of Durham.  Duke also has a canine cognition center, and she has been able to get their cooperation as well.  It's been a lot of work, as getting the students to and from the shelter has been a problem.  I take a carload over and back twice a week and have met some pretty neat kids(oops excuse me, young adults) 
      Anyway,  one of the first APS events we were involved in was the annual dog wash fund raiser.  It was held at the Durham Car Wash.  Before you get a picture of dogs being put through an actual car wash, let me say just say it was all hands-on.

    We always try and do something out-of-doors for Nan's birthday at the end of August.  This year we went to Jordan Lake recreation area, which is just south of Durham.  We found a nice six mile hike through the woods and along the shore of the lake and Nan went swimming.

      As far as cultural events were concerned, we went down to Chapel Hill to the Forest Theater and saw a presentation entitled Invisible Earth performed by the Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Dylan Alexzander Turner is a member of the troupe.  Dylan played my son several years ago at Oldcastle and I've know him since he was born.  I did at least five show with his mom, who is a special lady.  Dylan sat with us during the performance(he had stepped on a nail and was recovering) and explained the mechanics of some of the huge puppets.

     If you're interested in seeing more of this group's great work, you can visit their website at paperhand.org.
     Our first month back wouldn't have been complete without a trip to see the Durham Bulls in action.  They made the International league playoffs and we went to see them with our friends Jeff and Jane.  They won this series and went on to win the AAA World Series.

It's Been Awhile

   First, let me apologize to my legion of readers(that's Krista and Nan, sometimes I think) for not entering a post since July.  We had a busy last few weeks of summer, with a trip to Rhodes Island for a visit with Karen, Jack and Lena.

In addition to seeing them, we were able to reach the highest point in Rhodes Island.

Then a trip to Maine to visit Tom and Dag. On the way, we undertook a slightly more arduous climb up Mt. Ascutney in Vermont.

    Managed to get up to my sister and brother-in-law's camp for an overnight.

     We also met them for Shakespeare in the Park in Saratoga (a production which featured our friends Brenny, Yvonne, and David)

     We came back to Durham early because we were moving into a new house.  The apartment had gotten small and we wanted something larger with a fenced back yard, as taking the dogs up and down 3 flights first thing in the morning and last thing at night was getting old.  We had quite a stressful time with the move and getting the house livable.  Anyway, that was the rest of our summer.  We're back and I'll continue to get everyone(both of you) caught up in subsequent posts.

June and Jorgy

     The month of June was almost totally committed to a production of  the play "Other People's Money"(OPM) at the Oldcastle Theatre Company in Bennington, Vermont.

      It's been a few years since I've been on stage, and it was great to be back at Oldcastle working with some old friends and making new ones. Fifteen or twenty years ago I was scheduled to play the role of William Coles in OPM.  That production had to be cancelled for some reason, which turned out okay for me as I was cast s Greg in Pete Gurney's play "Sylvia".  Aging into a part is something I hope I've done gracefully, as being cast a Jorgy put me in a part close to my actual age.
     It was a great cast to work with, and with Eric Peterson directing it was a very comfortable rehearsal period.  It was also a pleasure to work with Sophia Garder as stage manager.  I've worked with her before when she was acting in shows but this was the first time as stage manager. She did a very professional job. Here is Sophia with the infamous "Donut Wheel" which was a prop Paula and I had to use.

     The cast included Rick Howe(I can't count the number of shows we've done together), Paula Mann, Jenny Strassburg, and Paul Romero.  There was a special connection between cast members.  Paula and Jenny had worked together before at Dorest Theater Festival.  Both were great to play opposite.  Thanks to Jenny for putting up with my interchangeable use of "shareholders" and "stockholders", and to Paula for being such an interesting donut thrower.(Of course I was the one who threw a donut off a piece of the scenery and had a careen into the front row - Paula only bounced one there.)
     Paul Romero had a wonderful sense of humor and was a force as Garfinkle(the corporate raider).  His portrayal kept your attention throughout and he listened.  I love it when you know an actor is listening to you and not thinking about his/her next line.  He was a pleasure to work with.  Here is a  picture of him with Paula.

     This was my first appearance in a play in the new Oldcastle space in downtown Bennington.  It's an interesting place to perform in that the audience is so close.  I had a long monologue at towards the end of the play in which I had to address the audience.  I tried not to look at anybody I knew, but it was hard to avoid eye contact.  The theater has movable seating, which allows the company to do shows in the round if the want.  Our set had audience on at least one side and in front.. It makes you very conscious of body position as you perform - trying t stay open to a s many people as possible.

     It was a short run -only 10 performances, but very enjoyable.  We also got great reviews.(See http://oldcastletheatre.org).

Movin' On

    Since we moved to Durham almost 4 years ago, we have lived in a 3rd floor apartment.  Although the 4 years were not without issues(cigarette smoke wafting up from the apartment below - leaks in the closet - etc.), it was a nice place to live.

     The third floor location was, however, getting to be a pain, particularly when having to walk the dogs at 6 AM every morning.  To be totally truthful,  the morning shift is Nan's.  I would do the "before you go to bed" shift.  The other issue was sharing office space.   We converted a bedroom into a joint office, which proved problematic on occasions.  Anyway, we decided to look for a house with a fenced in backyard. This would allow us to open the backdoor and let the dogs out at 6 AM instead of taking them for a walk.  Our search was lengthy but wouldn't you know we found a place two blocks from our apartment complex.  It's probably bigger than we need, but we like the area.

     The only problem with the move was that the new house isn't available until August 1st.  This required us to put everything into storage for 2 months.  In essence then, we have two moves to deal with.  The first was bad enough.  Who knew we had accumulated so much in 4 short years.  We estimated 20 boxes and it turned out to be double that.  The moving company is Durham based and runs a storage facility as well.  It is actually operated as a not-for-profit using recovering addicts as employees.  They did a great job.

                                            
                                                                     BEFORE

                                                                         AFTER

     We completed the move around 2 PM, and then headed North for the summer.  To avoid rush hour around DC, we went the "back way" spending the night in New Market, VA.  That left about 8 hours back to AP.

Quick Trip North

     Early in April I applied to participate in the 24-hour theater festival sponsored by WAM Theater in Pittsfield and the Mop and Bucket Improv Group from the Capital District.  I was fortunate enough to be among the 20 or so actors selected for the event.  I drove up to Averill Park from Durham a few days before the event.  It was a gorgeous Spring day, and I came up the "back" way, I-81.  This route is always about an hour longer than using the I-95 corridor, but it is certainly more scenic and less hectic.
     The festival, which was originally planned to be held at the GE Theater at Proctors in Schenectady, had to be moved to Schenectady High School.  Located at that facility is the John Sayles Theater, which is a large "black box".

     The event started Friday night with a "meet and greet".  Several of my theater friends were also selected and it was great to see them.  The whole procedure is really interesting.  Here's how it worked.  When we arrived we put our names in a hat.  All the actors put their names in an actor's hat, the directors in a director's hat, the stage managers in the stage manager's hat, all the assistant stage managers  in the . . . well you get the picture.  The tricky part is that there were also 5 authors present.  The author's went first picking names out of the director's hat.  The authors also picked out of a hat that contained the numbers 3, 4, or 5.  These figures represented the number of characters that had to be in the play the author would be writing.

'     My name was pulled to participate in a play to be written by Kat Koppett and directed by Michael Burns(they are the co-founders of Mop and Bucket and just happened to be married - luck of the draw). Our play called for 4 characters, and I was joined by Brendan Cataldo, Dana Harrison, and Jacinthe Connor.  We were all interviewed by the playwright.  We discussed a bit about our backgrounds, characters we would like to play, and interests.  We then went home.
     By the time we returned at 9 AM Saturday, Kat had written a beautiful 20 minute play.  Using a physical similarity between Brendan and I(height, weight, and glasses), she crafted a story that was part "Its a Wonderful Life" and part "Topper". It used some of the information we had provided as part of the interview process. It was a creative piece of work that I found very moving.  Fortunately, we were able to use our scripts in the performance(although  Dana, Brendan, and for the most part Jacinthe were "off book".  I just didn't trust myself and I felt the material was good enough that it should be presented as written not paraphrased.  Anyway, many thanks to Rachel McEnany, assistant director, for words of encouragement when I got down on myself.
      My fellow actors were tremendous and really did great work.  It was a pleasure to have met and worked with them. The whole process was extraordinary - kudos to all involved.  A slideshow of the process can be seen at http://bigez.smugmug.com/Events/24-Hour-Theater-Project/29497847_NBK4V4#!i=2520692287&k=kxhPXgR
     While I was up North David and I played a little golf and picked-up a canoe given to us by our friends Chase and Mac.  Chase and Mac are in the process of selling their home in Hillsdale and when David and I went down to pick up the canoe their flowering tress were glorious.

      

Another Semester Down

     It all went so swiftly.  Classes ended in April, we made a quick trip to the Smokies, and have spent the rest of the month looking for a new place to live in Durham.  The weeks leading up to the end of the semester are always busy, as most of the campus organizations have special events to bring their year to a close and highlight the work they've done.  In addition, the group I sing with, The Eno River Singers, performed in a couple of concerts.  The month was made special by visits from friends from NY.

     First, Victor B. came down from NYC for a weekend and we had a great time.  We went for a walk in the Duke Gardens(which was in full bloom), had a nice meal at a Mexican Restaurant downtown, and went to a concert.  The concert featured a group named Avante, which is directed by the choral director of the Eno River Singers.  We had seen a prior concert given by them several years ago and I'm happy to say they've grown.  The a cappella double quartet performed a wide variety of material - everything from a choreographed "Bollywood" song to traditional American Standards.  They did a great job.
     In addition to Victor, our friends Helen and Larry stopped off for an afternoon as they were driving through to their new home in Florida.  We had a nice lunch, a Mexican Restaurant(do I see a theme here), and took a walk around East Campus.  It was good to see them and talk as they transition to Floridians.
    As I mentioned above, the Eno River Singers had a busy month as well.  We sang at church, were part of a UUC choir festival in Chapel Hill, and sang at the Eno River UUC fund-raising gala.  The last gig featured a number of outstanding musicians.  Kate Lewis, who usually accompanies the Eno River Singers, played pieces by Liszt and Chopin.  She is an excellent musician and fun to be around.  William Adams. who is a member of Avante, played the sax for one set and then sang for another.  The show closed with two arias song by tenor Jason Karn. who blew the roof off the place.
    On campus we got to see the Duke Symphony Orchestra, which continued their celebration of the works of Verdi, Brittom, and Wagner.  Conductor Harry Davidson had invited two sopranos to join the orchestra and sing Verdi arias.  He had worked with both of them at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Catheryne Shuman sang an aria from Othello and Heather Engebretson sang from La Traviata.  Both were excellent, with Ms. Engebretson winning kudos for acting as well as singing. 
    Speaking of acting, we managed to get to a few plays during the month, both on campus and off.
On campus we went to a Duke Theater Department's presentation of Jen Lee's Lear. Set in the palace after the children have banished Lear, it explores humorously the insecurity of Lear's children.  Ms. Lee is the author of the play The Shipment, which we saw in Chapel Hill a year or two ago. That play was a well-crafted, jarring stunner. Lear wasn't.  The other play we saw which did not live up to our expectations was Walt, a look at the life of Walt Whitman.  We visited the Carrboro Arts Center for the first time to see this play.  The facility is great, but the play was a bit of a jumble. When the high-point of the evening was the presentation by two Whitman scholars prior to the show, you can guess how we felt about the play. We had a better time seeing The Homosexuals a play by Philip Dawkins at Manbites Dog Theater in Durham.  The play takes a backwards look the relationships of a group of homosexuals in NYC from 2010 to 2000.  Witty and well-acted(several of the cast had worked with Nan when she did Titus last year).  It was worth the price of admission.