Theatre is for everyone

I started to describe theatre for people who are blind, over 30 years ago. The concept of audio description was brand new.  There were a lot of skeptics, and people made extremely insensitive remarks.  But we persevered, and today, Audio Description is not only in theatres, but movie theaters, museums, and national parks.

I have always believed that theatre should be inclusive, not exclusive.  After seeing that a theatre in northern New Jersey paired with a local children's theatre to perform an autism-friendly show, I decided that we needed to do an autism-friendly show at McCarter.

Last night, after months of hard work, involving a wonderful group of McCarter staffers, of making sure that we had everything necessary to ensure a great performance, the Fiasco Theater Company performed "Into the Woods" for an audience of children and young adults with autism, and their families.

A social book was constructed and sent to the various autism services to hand out to patrons prior to last evening's show.  The social book has pictures and descriptions of everything that the patron with autism will encounter at the theatre, so that it would seem familiar and not alien.  We had two rehearsal rooms set aside - a Quiet room, and an Activity room.  We had 10 volunteers from Eden Autism Services who wore blue tee-shirts to identify themselves and carried "goody bags," filled with fruit snacks, popcorn, and fidgets.  Two McCarter staffers stood upfront, one on either side of the stage, holding green glow sticks.  The audience knew from the social book that when the glow sticks were raised, a loud noise was coming.

There was a quite space in the lobby with two bean bags chairs and some more fidgets, and stress balls.  The women's restroom became a family restroom.  We had signs everywhere indicating where everything was.

There was continuous seating - we had people entering the theatre 45 minutes after the show had started, and for once, theatre patrons were allowed to bring food into the theatre.

We had countless meetings with autism groups and had been told that some people might only stay for 10 minutes, but that those 10 minutes were a victory. Two families left during Act I, one about 40 minutes in and another about 1 hour in... Act I is 1 1/2 hours long.  About 25 people left at intermission, but the bulk of the audience stayed through until the end.  Not bad when you realize we started with 145.

This is a pared down version of "Into the Woods." 10 actors play multiple roles.  One of the actors attended a meeting in February with us at the Theatre Development Fund, which has successfully had 6 autism-friendly productions of Broadway musicals.  This actor had worked with children with autism and he was every excited about last night's show.

I have had so many wonderful experiences in theatre.  But I have never experienced the sheer wonder, the joy, euphoria, the high, as I did last night.  I was truly humbled.  I was at the front of the stage during intermission, talking to the two women holding the glow sticks, when the actors came onstage in preparation for Act II.  A young girl, about 12 or 13, saw the actors and ran to the stage, yelling "Jack! Jack!  Where have you been?  Hi Jack, it's me, Annie!!"  And "Jack" said hi to her and said a few words.  Then she saw Cinderella, and said, "Ooh, ooh, look at you!"  And Cinderella spoke to her also.  It was a magical moment.

It is not hard to see how difficult a life this can be for families.  Over and over again, we heard that parents of autistic children cannot go to the theater, they can't go to the movies, because their children are noisy, prone to outbursts and behavior that annoys other people.  How unbelievably humbling it is to watch the parents and their children sit in the theatre, mesmerized by the musical, and know that they did not have to worry about other people complaining.  

The actors cried as they took their bows.  So did all of us who had worked to see this wonderful day come to fruition.

We have next season's play picked out and this one will also include people with developmental disabilities.

See?  Theatre really is for everyone.

Now it starts, Claire

Congratulations.  What a great shot we saw on Facebook of the graduate.  I lie; it wasn't great, it was SPECTACULAR!

We actually see quite a lot on Facebook.  Jeffrey and Melodie are in Texas, Annie ate a burger in Yunnan, and somebody shot themselves while bowling, but since they weren't members of the family, I'll leave that to your Google searches.

We had a short visit south this week, but special.  Hard to believe we were only gone two nights.  First we headed to New Jersey where we joined Peter and Janet at a concert by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin.  All these years, and we've never seen Mary Chapin play live.  It was wonderful, especially the concept of the two singers on stage exchanging songs and conversation topics as if they were in their living room.  We had a nice dinner a Thai restaurant and a chance to catch up on all matters, that night and at breakfast the next day.  We heard that Johanna is spending a week at Martha's Vineyard and Sean was heading into his last exam.  He has landed a summer job in northern NJ.  Peter and Janet are planning a trip out to Seattle this summer.

We got up the next morning and went to DC, where we had a great barbecue with Joe, Margaret, Andrew and Joe's housemate Greg.  Mary's friend, Gerry, at whose house we were staying joined us for a locavore sausage meal, where guess who ate too much?  Just one person.  Margaret made brownies with home-made caramel.  Guess who had two?  What's ll this talk about a cleansing diet?  Joe had just returned from an extended trip to India, filled us in on what he did there.  Margaret and Andrew recounted their hair-raising story of an intruder.  Everyone's busy at work.  

We had planned to spend the weekend there, but headed home on Friday as one of Mary's cousins passed away and the funeral was Saturday.  Patrick Hayes, who at 62, died of a heart attack.  In his service the priest noted that "out of weakness comes strength, and strength helps to deal with weakness."  Pat had been struck with a debilitating illness for the last several years, but he has a large and close family whose strength was everywhere evident.

Danny had come up for the funeral, and we saw John and Marilyn there as well.  They went from the church right to Lowell, as Colleen graduated, with a Masters in nursing, on Saturday,  Congratulations Colleen.  What a long haul, of work and study and showing dogs!  

Mary is at a yoga class right now; I walked five miles today with a pack on my back to get ready for the great Scotland adventure, which starts in a little more than a month.  I have to be in better shape.  This week, I go to a training for volunteer guides at the Herman Melville home in Pittsfield.  Hmm.  When I read Moby Dick, in September 1976, waiting for school to start in Lastourville Gabon, I never thought I'd a) be serving as a guide at his home, where that was and b) have finished that book.  Uggh.

Such are the twists and turns.  You got some?  

Love from up here.   

Green (almost)

No, not the color of money, but the yellow-fresh green on the trees, in the woods, in the lawn that's growing too fast.  I've already mowed.  And it's ready for another cutting now.  Too early to say uggh.

It's a travel month.  We had a surprise phone call today from New Delhi.  Joe called.  His meetings are over, and he's staying a little but longer for a little tourism.  Yesterday he went to the Taj Mahal, which he said he went to with high expectations, but even those were exceeded.  He also spent $40 for two drinks.  Lots of contrasts, but he says he's really enjoying it.  He'll be back on Monday morning.  He seems to have forgotten his nightmarish travel over.  Hope it's better coming back.

Annie is back in Yunnan, after a week-plus in Malaysia renewing her visa.  She sent us some photos; this one here is of a very ornate temple from a town outside Kuala Lumpur called Melaka.  Margaret is heading to Boston this weekend for her first ever visit to Fenway.  A pilgrimage!

And, we have a nice account from Peter and Janet about their spring trip to Texas.  Sounds great.  We think David and Paul are in New York city right now, taking in a play among other delights.   We had hoped maybe we had a reason to go there, but nothing came of it, so we stayed home.  Happily.  All this travel by you all is wearing us out.  

John and Marilyn are back from Florida, pretty excited by their new digs in Daytona.  Something to look forward to during the blah months in late fall and early spring up here.  Looks like a lot of fun.

Last weekend, Marj and Lew came up for Saturday night.  We had a nice dinner out with Mary's high school friends, one of whom was celebrating her 60th.  Looks like I am the last one to fall.  While the "girls" were up at MassMoca, Lew and I went to a talk by a historic restoration contractor and architect, who are piecing together what they think is the oldest barn in the country, dating back to 1697.  Pretty amazing.  This guy has a workshop in which he is putting back together two barns, the other one checks in in the 1790s. 

Mary is taking a couple of courses at the local community college, one of which is called "Flora and Fauna in the Berkshires."  She has been out taking hikes and is ready to be a tour guide for anyone coming up.  Today we did a little bit of the Appalachian Trail, and looked at the new growth in the woods.

She also had her swim team over for a potluck supper on Sunday evening, a cinco de mayo festival of sorts.  Well, we had margaritas, and while they may not have met Peter's Texas standards, it's hard not to enjoy one of those.  

Looking ahead, we see Sean's birthday and Claire's high school graduation!  And a very happy day to all the mothers! Yippee.

Love from up here.  

Hail, the Lone Star State!

I'm a little late, but here are a few highlights from our trip to Texas. We flew into San Antonio, spent a couple days there, drove around the Texas Hill Country for a few days and then went down to Houston. We spent a day driving along Galveston Bay and Island. We then drove back to San Antonio for our flight home.
1. Debbie and Rod Barnes. They have a nice guest room and pool outside, they serve up a really nice barbecue dinner, and daughter Jennifer, son-in-law Ron Jones and grandson Parker all live nearby.
2. Jennifer Barnes Jones and Ron Jones. They joined us at Debbie's for dinner. Jen was a little stressed out about her new job, but they are a really sweet couple (especially considering that Ron is an FBI agent!) and Parker is a neat kid.
3. Sarah Barnes Stellges and Brandon Stellges. They took us out to a REAL Mexican restaurant, where I had the absolute best Margaritas I've ever had. (First ones, too.) Sarah is well along in her pregnancy and we had a really delightful evening with them. We had lunch the next day and went into a Lucchese Boot shop – the least expensive pair was $775. That's about as much I have paid for all the shoes I have bought in my entire life. (Almost.) But Sarah gave us a recommendation for another store which was on our way out of San Antone and I got meself a mighty fine pair of Tony Lamas – and a Lucchese belt, which Janet picked out.
4. The LBJ Ranch in Hill Country, along a river spelled "Pedernales" but which everyone pronounces "purrden-alice." It's a moving visit.
5. Riverwalk in San Antonio. Mobbed (including many cadets from a nearby Air Force base), but worth it. We had dinner one evening in SA and went back for our last dinner.
6. Alamo? Meh. But south of SA is Mission San Juan, a well-done Park Service site which educates you well about these missions, which were designed to domesticate the Native Americans so as to settle the area, since not enough Spanish could be persuaded to come to the New World.
7. Hill Country. Pretty. Very pretty. Lots of bluebonnets. Almost every river and creek bed was bone dry. They really have a drought problem.
8. Hill Country wineries. I had no idea there are so many, and they use Texas-grown grapes. As is the case with so many small wineries, the locals get all the good stuff. We had some truly marvelous wine.
9.  We decided the fool-proof way to foment an armed rebellion in Texas would be to prohibit (a) pickup trucks and (b) fences.
10. Galveston, on the Gulf. It's getting more built up and touristy, but the views of the Gulf are pretty amazing. We had lunch in a great little honky-tonk crab shack right on the water. Gives new meaning to the term "eat local."
11. Houston traffic. Bad, bad, bad.
12. Hugh and Judy Thompson. Hugh was a roommate (for one year) and good friend at Princeton, but we've had no contact since graduation. They served up a nice dinner at their house, just 15 minutes from Debbie and Rod.
13. LBJ Houston Space Center? A real bust, all Disney-fied. Phooey.
14. Fredericksburg, in the center of Hill Country. A town settled by Germans. First night: the worst sauerbraten I've ever had. Second night: much better sauerbraten.
15. Rod Barnes. You gotta love this guy. In my foolishness, I had thought we would take three of those wines back on the plane. Oops, 3 oz. limits on liquids. We didn't want to check any luggage, so Rod offered to pack up the wine (and two glasses) and ship them to us. They arrived a week later so hugely armored that a direct hit from Kim Jong-Un wouldn't have done anything.

I'd definitely go back. Thank you Debbie, Rod, Sarah, Brandon, Jennifer, Ron, Hugh and Judy.

News flash from Illinois

Rumor has it that Bill and Jen have posted on Facebook news that they are expecting another child.

That is WONDERFUL, FANTASTIC, even!

Love

Finally

What is it about spring that when it finally comes, it is so new and joyous, as if it doesn't happen each year, round about the same time?  Today, the temperature reached 70, and we did a little yard work, cut some grass, cleaned the porches and planted some marigolds (in trays, inside still, but getting ready.)  We've even seen the groundhogs.  They're getting ready for our new garden.

Dan was here for the night, as he joined us to attend cousin Peter's 60th birthday party.  It was a surprise party, and he was surprised.  Many cousins and two Collins aunts were there, as well as many of the next generation, and the one after that.  Nice family, that knows fun.

Soon, I'll know fun again, as I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel for this spring's classes.  Today was the first day in weeks that I did  not spend the first hours on the computer writing.  A month ago, when we went to Washington, I couldn't see a way to the end.  Now I am closing in on completing three projects: a book proposal on history and memory in the Foreign Service, a national registry nomination for the mill next to our house and an exhibit on Pittsfield in the Civil War, for Arrowhead Museum.  Let's hope something comes out of each of those besides a class assignment.

Last weekend, Mary and I went to Ottawa for five days!  The national public history conference this year was in Ottawa, too big a temptation to forego.  And, we stayed in our old house, thanks to the Nealons, friends who joined the Foreign Service at the same time as us, and he is now the DCM.  And, another couple also from our class, the Dickmeyers, came up from Toronto where he is Consul General.  Time flew by.  The photo is in the backyard of our old house.

Speaking of flying (don't you just love the transitions?), Joe is flying to India this week, as he accompanies a delegation going to the Asian Development Bank meeting.  He has been uber-busy with preparations for that meeting.  Margaret too has been busy at work, as it is getting close to summer when all the Fulbright orientations she;s been working on take place.  And, Annie flew too, to Malaysia, to get her China visa renewed.   

Big news from Florida, as John and Marilyn bought a house, their winter escape in Daytona.  Looks nice; they got a great deal and have extended their trip south for an extra week, to get it ready.  

We talked to David, who was on his way to Albany, and then this week went to New York City.  He had some business, but he and Paula were hoping to go see a play.

Mary has been busy with one last class to renew her certification for teaching.  She's hoping something comes up this summer.  She had a swim meet yesterday, in southern Vermont.  In one race, it turned out she was going to be swimming by herself.  When she threatened to back out, the two coaches, both champions swam with her.  Go team.  

May starts this week.  Hope returns.  Love from over here.    

Turning the corner and

Rounding home.  It happens every year.  Baseball season.  You thought I was going to say spring.  Or April showers.  Or crocuses.  (We actually have our first struggling to stay out when the temps go down below freezing every night still.)  No, baseball season.  It makes me wonder what I've been doing with my life for the last 5 months.  And some of us have even gone to the park to see a game.  Mary and I went to see "42" the movie - very inspiring.  The normally staid audience here in Pittsfield broke out in applause a few times.  

I know what I've been doing, trying to keep my head above water at school.  Are you ready for this next year Annie?  How are you holding up, Tina and Sean?

It's been a while since the last entry, so there's much to catch up on.

First of all Easter.  Hope everyone had a great day.  Margaret and Andrew came up for the weekend, and were hoping to bring Joe who couldn't come at the last minute because of work.  Too bad.  Dan Boyle joined us for the night, and we had our now traditional Easter dinner at the Red Lion Inn.  It's a tradition if you do something three times, right?

Dan brought news that Patrick had returned from Colorado and was planning to get a job back east, maybe go back to school at some point.  Kathleen has a new job in Boston.  And Maura got into nursing school.

Speaking of Boston, it's hard to write the usual family news without a quiet prayer for those hurt in the senseless attacks at the marathon finish line. 

We have heard a couple of times from Annie, who has moved to western China, the mountainous province of Yunnan.  Her pictures look beautiful.  She is planning a trip to Malaysia to renew her visa.  So many places.  Exciting.

Speaking of places, Joe is headed to India in May for a meeting of the Asia Development Bank he is helping prepare for.  

We spoke with David and Paula since their return from a three-week swing all the way to Florida.  They attached the sun to the back of their car and brought it back with them.  Travel tip:  Florida Keys may not be worth it.  

John and Marilyn are down in Florida for the month of April.  We keep texting them about the snow showers and freezing nights to make them feel good about their decision to go south.

Spring also means burn season, so last week we burned our big pile of brush which had accumulated over the summer and fall.  Good thing we chose Thursday, because it snowed on Friday.  Last year, Joe was here to help out.  Miss it?

Out in Dundee, it sounds like everyone is plugging away, at school, at work and at sports.  Claire, are you having a bout of senior-itis yet? 

Tomorrow, Mary and I head north, since we haven't had enough of winter.  Mary will put aside her yoga, swimming, photo and guitar classes to join me back in Ottawa where I will be taking in a public history conference.  We'll be staying in our old house.  Last time I think.

And, next week is Peter's birthday.  Have a hap, hap, happiest day.

That's all from here.  Love