Over There

Well my car, previously known as a 4 cylinder Saturn SL1, made it the 1200 miles to Seattle. (It is currently known as a 3 cylinder Saturn SL1) Whew. It was packed to the gills. Have I "moved" to Seattle? I guess. I call it relocating. The plan is to stay with the Lund family for a year as I continue to freelance and try to figure out some career and life stuff. All in all, I was ready for a change and think I am ready for even more changes. I want to work on all areas of my body, life and spirit and for some reason think this is the place to do that. I've found myself quite depressed though (this manifests itself by watching alot of meaningless television and going into my cave...yes, women have caves too...). As soon as I realize that uncertainty IS life, I'll be ok.

Right now I'm in Virginia for 7 weeks to direct OUR TOWN for Regent University. I really like the folks that run that MFA Acting program (and the BA program). Good people, kindred spirits. It's nice being back. They've put me up with a very nice couple (he's a playwright/teacher and she's a folk artist) and they live in an awesome neighborhood in a house that is an exact replica of 2 houses in Williamsburg. I'm living in the apartment above her store. While here, I'll get to see my friend Pat, go to a civil war re-enactment, see Harper's Ferry and DC, including tooling around Norfolk, Richmond and Virginia Beach.

There's a Trader Joe's here so I should be ok.I'm looking forward to seeing as much theatre as I can here in Seattle. Got to see Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize winning play RUINED at the Intiman and was so glad that I did. It was the original cast/set design etc. Saw MAN OF LA MANCHA as well at Taproot starring my brilliant friend Jeff Berryman. Saw YANKEE TAVERN at ACT in Seattle, a 9/11 conspiracy theory play. There were a couple of lovely performances. Play didn't do it for me. Also saw Harlequin's JEKYLL & HYDE which was well done and beautifully performed. Wish the script was shorter and tighter...Make it all count.

Right now I'm deep into OUR TOWN. Feel very strong about this play and it's message. There's something deep and eternal to grab onto and the cast of 26 students and 5 kids are rocking it. So fun to have such a great group of people to play with.

Hope the beginning of your fall is magical.

Falling

Ninety degrees today in beautiful downtown Burbank where I live with a killer roommate (killer as in capital K Kool versus a bloodthirsty lady; she also hates the letter K being used for a word like kute or krazy so she may cill me) in a house built for little people in the 1920's. (mini-ode to Faulkner finished) My mind is like a tree full of red, yellow and orange leaves as I declare this day officially fall. Now for folks like me who will be spending fall in LA; Thanksgiving and Christmas in Orlando, Florida (playing the mother in A CHRISTMAS STORY for Gramercy Theatre), fall must become a state of mind. I'm a fall kinda girl. All the promise of the holidays with none of the stress or let down they may bring. In my heart, fall is the scene from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD when Gem and Scout are coming home through the woods after a carnival in which Scout has appeared as a squash (I think). The wind is blowing danger all around them, haunted by racism and the changing south. Ok, fall to me is a crisp late afternoon in Greenville, Mississippi by the fabulous graveyard surrounded by the brick wall and dripping with ghosts disguising themselves as hanging moss from ancient trees. That's what I long for. The mystery, the snap of cool air and an ache in my heart. What is fall to you? By the way, the above painting is by the exquisite Wyatt Waters of Clinton, Mississippi.