“…and this was said to me by a cryptologist: If you think technology is going to solve your problems, you don’t understand technology and you don’t understand your problems.”
~~~ Laurie Anderson
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays and/or Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/15/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan25-the-15th-be-colourful/
Binghamton area folks are cordially invited to attend the Members Recital of our local chapter of the American Guild of Organists on Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 4 PM at the United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton, 42 Chenango Street.
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/05/29/one-liner-wednesday-wisdom/
(Photo credit: The Fenimore Art Museum website)
The recording of the staged reading of Eva Schegulla’s Fall Forever is now available on the Fenimore Art Museum YouTube channel for a limited time. It will likely be taken down mid-June 2024.
I wrote about the staged reading here. I know through reading Eva’s blog, Ink in My Coffee, that she has already completed revisions that grew from the staged reading and that she is submitting it for fully staged production. I’ll be sure to keep you posted when it debuts so that you can attend if you are in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, enjoy the recording for the next month!
I am honored to have been selected for the fourth annual Glimmer Globe Theatre/Fenimore Art Museum Write Out Loud performance on Saturday, April 20th. There were 22 writers represented with a mix of poems, short story, essays, and even a short play, all written by people living within a 100-mile radius of Cooperstown, New York.
My daughter T and I decided to make a weekend of it. We visited the Museum in the afternoon. Our favorite new exhibition was “As They Saw It: Women Artists Then and Now.” It will be showing through September 2, 2024. We loved how it demonstrated the power of women’s artistic expression over time, both as individuals and in relation to other women across the generations. We also appreciated viewing the thoughtfully curated Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, which has had a home at the Fenimore since 1995.
After a delicious early dinner at the Council Rock Brewery in a room filled with vintage clocks, T and I headed back to the Fenimore for the performance. We arrived early so that I could attend a walk-through. I had the opportunity to meet Christine Juliano, the actor who would read my poem, “Some Time Else” from my chapbook, Hearts. I admit that the whole evening was much more relaxing because I didn’t have to perform myself. It made the walk-through more interesting as I could observe the microphone adjustment and lighting cues without having to worry about dealing with them myself. It was also a good reminder that having a mike is not an excuse to dial back on vocal projection.
We had a good house for the performance, filling the auditorium, which was exciting for me who is more used to wondering if the readers will outnumber the audience! A brief bio from each writer was read as they or the actor reading their piece took the stage. There were also accompanying visuals projected behind the stage that complemented each reading.
The range of topics was wide and it was fun to have a mix of genres represented. While the age of the writers skewed older, we did have some younger folks participating. Quite a number of the writers had been professors or editors or directors of writing series, so I, totally lacking in academic English credentials myself, felt honored to have been chosen alongside them. Submissions for Write Out Loud are read anonymously so the individual piece is selected, not the author. I was also surprised that a large majority of writers had chosen to present themselves; one of the things that had attracted me to submit was the opportunity to hear an actor read my work. I must admit, though, that some of the writers were so evocative in their performance that I couldn’t imagine an actor would have done better.
I learned that Write Out Loud began as a virtual performance during the pandemic, which then continued as a live event when restrictions were lifted. This year saw the largest number of participants thus far.
I’m not going into too much detail about the program itself because, on Saturday, April 27 at 7 PM, the recording will be released on the Fenimore Art Museum’s YouTube channel. Update: The video of Write Out Loud 2024 is now available here. If you expand the description, you will find the program, helpfully indexed to bring you to whichever piece you select.
Thanks to the Fenimore Art Museum and the Glimmer Globe Theatre, especially Mike Tamburrino, Manager of Performing Arts Programs at the Fenimore Art Museum and the affiliated Farmers’ Museum, for including me in this special event!
My poem “Some Time Else” from my chapbook Hearts has been selected for performance at the Fenimore Art Musuem through the Glimmer Globe Theatre in Cooperstown NY on Saturday, April 20 at 7 PM as part of Write Out Loud 2024; the recording will be released the following week and I will be sure to post it here at Top of JC’s Mind.
*****
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/04/17/one-liner-wednesday-a-what-kind-of-ritual/
(Photo credit: The Fenimore Art Museum website)
It was my privilege on Sunday to attend a staged reading of Fall Forever by Eva Schegulla at the Glimmer Globe Theatre in the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY. It was part of the NEXT! Staged Reading Series, which offers readings of new plays by regional playwrights.
Eva is a friend and fellow member of the Boiler House Poets Collective, so I was especially happy to attend and to see her. Her writing covers a wide range, including stage plays, screenplays, radio plays, fiction, essays, serials, reviews, blog posts, and poetry, some of which are published under pen names. Her blog, Ink in My Coffee, just celebrated its 20th anniversary.
I had never been to a staged reading before. The actors read from the scripts set on music stands, although there were a few instances of characters moving around a bit. Another actor read the stage directions so that we knew where and when the scenes were taking place. There were also some sound effects, although a full staging of the play would include more. Although it is structured as a 2-act play, the reading was presented all in one block, which felt a bit overwhelming but gave me a new appreciation of intermissions.
The story revolves around the aftermath of the accidental death of Lily, especially with her sister Leah and husband Alan. I especially enjoyed the performance of Sharon Rankins-Burd, who read Leah. She is part of nearly every scene and, though having the script in front of her, Rankins-Burd was able to project who Leah is as she struggles with grief over her sister’s death and additional challenges that arise.
After the reading, there was a talkback session with the playwright, the performers, and the production team. It was interesting to hear Eva talk about the growth of the Fall Forever from a prompt at a workshop with the Williamstown Theatre Festival to its current form, awaiting a final round of edits as the result of the reading to be sent out for submission calls. There were some questions that elucidated the choices Eva had made in the play and how the staged reading format had impacted the version of the piece that we experienced. It was also fun to hear choices of favorite lines from actors – and audience members!
A recording of Fall Forever by Eva Schegulla will soon be available for a limited time. I’ll share the link when it is posted. I hope you will find it to be as enjoyable and meaningful as I did. Update: The video is now available here: https://youtu.be/GSgrLP56Q3Q?feature=shared. It will be taken down in mid-June 2024.
Just a quick evening post today, because I’ve had a busy weekend with two performances of Twelfth Night with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton.
Both performances were well received by very appreciative audiences. As always, there are moments that don’t go quite as well as they might have but those aren’t noticeable to the audience, so they don’t matter in the long run.
I was happy to have family and/or friends at both performances. I loved the opportunity to share this music and celebration with them. After the performance today in Greene, there was a lovely reception, which afforded us a chance to meet some of our audience members. This was the first time we had sung in Chenango County, so it was nice to have new community connections.
Madrigal Choir now has a bit of a break before our next set of rehearsals begins for an American Songbook concert in April. Stay tuned!
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/08/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-8th-2023/
I will be performing with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton this weekend, my first time participating in their traditional Twelfth Night celebration.
If you are in or near Broome County, New York, please come join in the fun! Tickets are $20 in advance at www.madrigalchoir.com or at the door. There are also $5 student tickets available at the door only.
I’ll be in the second row, dressed like this:
Hope to see you there!
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/06/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-6th-2023/
On Sunday, T and I went to see a production of A Christmas Carol at Cider Mill Stage. This particular staging of the Charles Dickens classic was first conceived and produced in 1979 by Binghamton University professor John Bielenberg and the original cast as a play within a play, with the actors performing the story in the bedroom of a child who is recovering from an illness and must avoid crowds, something that seems even more ominous in our current pandemic days. Fortunately for the actors, there is an adjacent (and oddly well-stocked) attic that affords costumes and props for the impromptu performance, although one of the charms of the show has always been seeing a few caps and scarves and capes re-purposed to accommodate a range of characters and uses. A scarf is not just a piece of clothing but can also be a leash for a dog or the reins for a shaggy pony.
When T and I arrived, we were surprised and pleased to find a poster listing all the known cast and crew members of A Christmas Carol over the decades. This included T and her sister E who played the sick child, which also involves portraying Tiny Tim, for nineteen performances each in the late 1990s-early 2000s. E was in the cast the last year that John Bielenberg played Scrooge before his retirement. T’s Scrooge was Bill Gorman, who was also a member of the original 1979 cast. Their productions were directed by Tom Kremer and Carol Hanscom, also original cast members.
Because of our familiarity and past experience, the Cider Mill production of A Christmas Carol has continued to be close to our hearts but the performance Sunday was even more emotional. Tom Kremer, who is now portraying Scrooge, came out before the play began to dedicate the performance to Claus Evans, original and long-time cast member who had recently passed away. Claus had played the Ghost of Christmas Present, Mr. Fezziwig, and other ensemble characters for most of the first forty years. He had a commanding stage presence and a powerful voice, especially when singing. This version of A Christmas Carol, while not a musical in the traditional sense, does involve a fair amount of incidental music, both traditional pieces and new music composed by original cast member Susan J. Peters and current cast member Ken Martinak. I admit that I teared up during the Fezziwig party scene, remembering the brio with which Claus sang “Wassail! Wassail! All Over the Town”.
While not able to match Claus’s singing prowess, Brad Morgan did a fine job with Fezziwig and Ghost of Christmas Present. His first year in the cast was the year that E was in the production when he was quite a young man. I remember him struggling in rehearsal to accurately deliver the Dickensian language of the ghost of Jacob Marley. I was particularly impressed with his portrayal now, which has a chilling depth and pathos. Brad also deserves a lot of credit for keeping the production alive during some years of upheaval at the Cider Mill after the original Cider Mill Playhouse closed. Thankfully, the play is now back in the space for which it was designed under the name Cider Mill Stage. And yes, there is a cider mill in the front of the building, active in the late summer through early fall. The theater area was originally a storage space for apples.
I hope that A Christmas Carol will continue to grace the Cider Mill and the Binghamton area for decades to come, spreading its message of the importance for caring for one another, regardless of the season of the year.
“And, as Tiny Tim observed, ‘God bless us, every one!'”
As we are all dealing with COVID-19 in some way, I wanted to share a topical poem with you.
Anne Harding Woodworth is an accomplished poet who I met through the Smith College Alumnae Chorus. We have sung together for several concerts, including three performances of Mozart Requiem on tour in Sicily. This poem brilliantly references the Requiem in the context of an audience-less performance held recently due to COVID-19 caution.
The site where it appears is New Verse News, which publishes poems on current topics of interest. I appreciate that they make it possible for poets to publish work about recent or ongoing situations without having to wait months for journal publications.
You can find “Mozart Requiem Streamed in a Time of COVID-19” here: https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2020/03/mozart-requiem-streamed-in-time-of.html
Joanne Corey 