Directeur Confit’s Blog

40 Years and...

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:27:19 -0500

Forty years and counting! Not counting down, oh, no! Counting up! Let’s count up what we’ve done.

We’ve worked with tens of thousands of young people in mid coast Maine and around the state, around New England and even in the Midwest. Tens of thousands? Yes, in school classrooms, at rec centers, at camps in the summer, in programs at the Theater Project on School Street in Brunswick. Before we found our home on School Street, we conducted summer programs at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham, in Codman Hall at Brunswick’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, on playgrounds and at the Chocolate Church in Bath.

Plays? How many have we done? The other day I ran into Mary who I didn’t recognize. She reminded me that she had been in the Young People’s Theater, in a play about a tree and… ‘WHERE THE WIND BLOWS FREE,” I exclaimed. It was our first play. Mary and I have aged in the forty years that have passed, I much more than she, but no matter. What fun to meet her after all those years! We have done at least 150 productions with high school actors, now called “the Young Company.” We have done many many plays with middle school actors, now called “the Young People’s Theater,” or “YPT.”

And then there are the Company productions, those with adult actors. We have done, perhaps, seventy-five adult productions, from PENTACOST to SHIRLEY VALENTINE, from MACBETH to ELECTRA, from JACQUES BREL to WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ART? Original plays, Maine premiers of major plays, classics and contemporary plays, edgy plays and comedies and Winter Cabaret! What fun we have had in “the little theater on School Street” that some people still don’t know about. Those who do often say “what a gem” it is.

We believe that. It is a gem and our program is impressive. I don’t believe we toot our own horn, but we do stand by our work. Hundreds of young people have gone on to try something they want to do partly because of what they learned with us. We are proud of that. We do want to empower young people and we want adult actors who come to the Theater Project to feel supported and excited and comfortable working here, and they do and tell us so. We learn from them because they find they can trust us and take chances that show us new ways to do better the work we love to do.

And now we have a $100,000 challenge! An anonymous donor has pledged matching funds of up to $100,000 to the Theater Project. So we need to raise that $100,000 that will transform into $200,000 with the match. We’re not greedy. We run our theater on a very tight budget and we are always scrambling to stay out of debt. For thirty-nine years we have managed to do that “with a little help from our friends.” Now we have a major goal: $100,000 to make $200,000.

$200,000 will enable us to pay people a little more to do the good work they do. (We have one full time employee, Wendy, our Executive Director, and one part time employee, Joanna, our Manager.) These two do amazing work on School Street, leading and reflecting the work that goes on there. We at the Theater Project and the Brunswick community and its environs are lucky to have them doing what they do!

Please help us raise $100,000 this year. We need you, and I believe the community needs us to be the welcoming and stimulating community it is.

Al

June 2011

Wed, 1 Jun 2011 09:56:05 -0400

Spindleworks, a remarkable program for and with artists with disabilities, and The Theater Project are collaborating to produce WEAVING OUR STORIES at The Theater Project in Brunswick, June 17 and 18 at 7:30 and June 19 at 2:00.

WEAVING OUR STORIES is a collection of vignettes derived from stories we have shared about our work and our lives. Spindleworkers Diane and Earl Black, Kim Christiansen, Nancy Scott, Lloyd Whitcomb and Sam Eberhart and Theater Project regulars Jim Hall, Jean Shaw, Don Weatherbee and I comprise the ensemble that has created the narratives that are woven into tapestry of movement, rhythm, mime and clowning.

I seem to be writing a press release; however, my intention is to use the announcement in the paragraphs above to introduce some ideas about story telling and how we live and express our lives.

Before WEAVING OUR STORIES goes on stage, high school students, collaborating with director Wendy Poole, will produce VOICES IN THE MIRROR, a potpourri of vignettes that express some of their views of the world around them. Their tongues are in their cheeks and their wits are sharp in their observations of that world, providing very witty answers to the common question: “What are they thinking?”

In both shows, people are telling stories. To tell these stories, they have had to examine their experience and their perceptions and then create ways to express those experiences and perceptions, ways to express themselves.

What is the value of this? Self expression. Observation and evaluation. Risk taking. Collaborating.

When we collaborate, we learn to listen. If we’re only giving our ideas, we’re not collaborating. We learn to express ourselves, to think: “How can I say this so they’ll understand.” We express ourselves, hear others do the same, give and get reactions to what people have said. Then we evaluate: “What shall we use? Is this a good story? Is that a good idea?

All this time, we are taking risks. “What if my idea is not very interesting? What if I don’t say it clearly enough? Why can’t I think of anything funny?” We learn that some ideas and stories are better than others and begin to learn that if we don’t try them out, we have no way of knowing what is worth pursuing then and what isn’t. We learn that failure is not something awful that may kill us. Not only do we live, but we realize there are better ideas and the way we find them is to try them out. If we don’t express ourselves and listen, we have no way of determining what works and what doesn’t; what is worth pursuing at that moment and what isn’t.

If we don’t try ideas, we won’t learn how to listen, and listening is at the heart of learning, of self expression and of any good conversation.

Wow! Self expression and listening and taking risks and… We can learn these through art? Oh boy, can we!

A few weeks ago, Brunswick held it’s second annual All Species Parade. Instructions were to come as an animal, any animal. Create your own masks, costume and props. Spindleworks started this last year, collaborating with Brunswick second graders. 600 people turned out in costumes celebrating our planet’s species. 600! And this year there were more! I said to my friend and collaborator, Gary Lawless: “Where are all the people? We need more people watching.” He replied: “They’re all in the parade!” He was right.

Spindleworks took chances, experimented, led the charge and the community turned out to celebrate the species we share this planet with. Kids, parents, artists and adults who probably don’t think of themselves as artists got involved. Spindleworks, an artists collective, spoke and the community listened. The result? A wonderful community event that people have taken note of.

Share your ideas and listen, two essentials of good education and good community building.

- Al

January 27

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:07:30 -0500

Why are the arts important in education? And, if they are so important, why are they first in line to be cut when there is a budget squeeze? (Is there ever not a budget squeeze?)

The arts are important in education because more than any other subject, they help children develop essential skills, curiosity and self confidence. The arts are not an alternative to science, math and language learning, nor an alternative to sports. Not only do we have room for all of these, we need them in our schools.

What are the essential skills we want our children to learn? I believe we want them to be able to seek answers, find support for these answers, work with others to solve problems and be willing to take chances, to risk failure.

If children want to know, they will seek answers. How do we get them to want to know? If you ask a student to draw or paint what she sees, she will try to figure out how to do that. She will seek a way. If you ask a group of students to tell a story about a time they were scared or lonely or surprised or confused, they will come up with stories, good stories, though they may have said, “I don’t have any stories about that.” If you ask a student to make another student into a statue, he will do it, though he’s never done that before. If you ask four students to make up a short play in ten minutes that includes Batman and a feather on an iceberg when it’s raining, they will do it. They will seek answers. They will take risks. They will go where they haven’t gone before and discover they have succeeded and that they can do better.

Suppose then the teacher discusses what they’ve done and other students give feedback, supportive feedback, e.g. “I liked the way you became a feather,” and raise questions, e.g. “I didn’t understand how Batman got to the iceberg.” After all the groups have performed their pieces and heard feedback, the teacher sends them back to work on them for five more minutes and see what improvements they can make. The students have already learned that they can create something, solve a problem, take the risk of showing others, and they know together they can make it better.

I believe we want them to be curious and to exercise their curiosity. Oh, that curiosity will get them into trouble sometimes, just like our curiosity got us in trouble sometimes. Maybe it still does! However, without that curiosity, we and they don’t discover anything! “What’s it like to stand up,” the infant must somehow say and then struggle to do it. “Now, what if I move that way,” she says, and takes a step or two, then falls, usually softly on her behind. “That didn’t hurt,” she may say to herself, and then, “I’m going to try that again.”

If our children aren’t curious, if they don’t try to find answers, they will be bored in school, they won’t learn much, and they will have less to contribute to our society. And, oh, how much they do have to contribute to our society! I know that from the young people who come to work in The Theater Project and from other young people I have worked with. And they make mistakes and they get into trouble and spit-up happens! Whether improvising or working on a script, young people’s curiosity is nudged: “How do I do this?” “What does this mean?” Or, “How do I paint that sunset, the way I see it?” Or, “How do I express this feeling in a poem?” Or, “How do I make movement express that emotion?”

Can you have self confidence if you’re not captain of the football or hockey team, if you’re not a cheerleader, if you’re not in the top ten in your class, if you don’t go to Europe? Yes. “I can stand up in front of people and play a character or deliver a speech.” “I can show my paintings that the best I can do so far.” “I can dance on stage and might like to go on and do more.” “I can write poetry and short stories and I may want to write more.” “I can perform Mozart with the youth orchestra.” “I can improvise jazz on the clarinet.”

The arts enable young people to explore, to communicate, to create, to work with others. Why wouldn’t that help them to explore math, to express an opinion about an historical event, to pursue answers to a scientific problem, and to do any or all of this and collaborate with others? The arts do help students in those ways. Not only that, but the arts are a part of all of us when we’re children! What child does not like to dance around the house, sing – at first off key – make up stories, dress up and play a part, make pictures?

We bring the arts to school. Let’s continue them at the school to enrich and engage students and urge them to go further in their learning because they are more confident, more curious, ready to take risks and eager to work with others!

- Al

August 25

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:19:34 -0400

I have just finished directing sixteen teenagers in THE TEMPEST. Prospero is headed for his freshman year at Hampshire College, Stephano is headed for her freshman year at Wellesley, Miranda will be a junior at Brunswick High School, Caliban a junior at Portland High School - or is it Deering? - and Trinculo will be in the eighth grade at Brunswick Junior High School or perhaps Mt. Ararat. THE TEMPEST, Shakespeare's good-bye to the theater, as far as we know, or as far as I know, may seem an odd choice for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18; however, it has proven to be a good choice.

With storms, magic, a Neanderthal-like character, a couple of drunks, murderous thoughts and some romance, it could be science fiction, a mystery or melodrama. Or a comedy. It has elements of all of those, plus profound thoughts and lovely poetry. It is, after all, Shakespeare. And what a treat to watch these sixteen young actors get their minds around the lines and bring the play to life. They haven't "learned it." They have begun learning it and they have learned enough of the play and enough about acting to breathe life into the production.

People have said to me that they never understood THE TEMPEST or that they had neither read it nor seen it until this production and that now they understand it and like it. High praise for teen actors...or any actors, for that matter.

What I learn from this is that young people who are challenged by something that engages their interest will respond by wanting more. The challenge is important but first, there is the introduction of the material or skill or art, finding "the terrain" that interests them. It may be music, theater, outdoor education, sports, drawing, working with engines. It is our responsibility to find ways to engage young people in their education. I am still excited by learning and teaching, by young minds and their curiosity and energy. Bored youth is such a waste. It's a waste for each individual youth who is bored, a waste for the community the youth lives in and a waste for society as a whole.

An introduction to art, in this case theater, is an attempt to tap that youthful energy and avoid boredom. There is no good reason for us to have poorly educated young people. There is no good reason that every young person not be introduced to the arts. There is no good reason for young people to be bored. As adults, we have a responsibility to do what we can to engage young people in their lives, their learning, their energy. If they are engaged, we will have far fewer dropouts, far fewer obese young people and more exciting communities and schools. Then we can take pride again in the ways we educate our youth. We'll also have more fun.

THE TEMPEST at The Theater Project in Brunswick is one example of how to achieve this.

- Al

March 10

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 17:37:56 -0500

MACBETH: If you can't say it, why do it?

There is a tradition in theater that if you say "Macbeth," bad luck will arrive soon afterwards. You'll hear people referring to it as "the Scottish play." The tradition is powerful, and theater folk grumble and scowl if they hear you say "Macbeth." I think the tradition allows you to say it when you are working on the play but probably only in controlled circumstances.

If it is difficult to know when it's all right to say "Macbeth," how difficult is it to mount a production of the play? I think it's very difficult. How about doing it with high school actors? I think even more difficult. Then why do it? A good question.

There are several reasons that occur to me as we work on the show at The Theater Project with thirty high school actors.

• Wendy Poole, our Executive Director, recommended it.
• There's nary a high school student who hasn't read it, usually in junior year.
• It makes exciting theater.
• In that excitement, it comments on ambition and the violent pursuit of power that is still with us today, 404 years after the play was first produced.
• I remember enjoying teaching the play to high school students in Lebanon and Massachusetts, very different groups of high school students (those in Lebanon spoke Arabic as their first language).
• MACBETH is a play, not a scholarly text. It was written to be performed, not studied. As a former English teacher, I think it's a great idea to read and study MACBETH in high school. As a former high school student - loooonnnngggg ago - I think it's also a great idea for high school students to perform Shakespeare as live relevant theater and to see performances of Shakespeare. I did neither as a high school student and was the poorer for it.

High school students have a remarkable facility to learn lines, and, if encouraged, to make those lines their own. Good actors aspire to this. If the actors cannot "own their lines," those lines won't make sense to the audience; the audience won't believe what they're hearing and seeing. If the actors own the lines, which means they know what they're saying and why they're saying it, the audience will believe them, Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief." (I think it was Coleridge!)

If high school students have to study something, or, to put it another way, if we think something is worth our young people's study, then it is important, even essential, that they be able to make what they are studying their own, that they "own" it. It is important that they be able to say that they "get it" and, based on that understanding, be able to offer and explain their opinion. It's not enough for us to say: "It's Shakespeare so you've got to learn it." And if it's a play, it's important they be able to approach it as a play.

So, we're doing it.

How to cast it? Any man, young or old, who loves theater, wants to play Macbeth. Any woman, Lady Macbeth. I consider ability and attitude, when casting. I also consider how long the young actors have been at it, "whose turn it is." Casting Macbeth was no different. There are some "spear carriers," warriors and servants who say little but are on stage acting and learning how to do it better. They will have their turn at major roles if the stick with it. There are fine young actors in supporting roles, some of whom could have been cast as Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. Some of them have played lead roles before; others will likely play a major role before they leave high school. Some have been at it a long time, have learned a lot and have shown they are ready for a major role. Our goal with each Young Company show at The Theater Project is to develop an ensemble, a group of actors who support each other and have learned to work well together. That is the goal of this production of MACBETH.

This MACBETH will be as good as it can be with this director, this ensemble of young actors and the technical, artistic and moral support of Wendy, Chris and JP at the Theater Project. I hope audiences are moved and provoked by the production. Even more, I hope the actors learn something about theater, about working together and about MACBETH.

February 10

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:35:37 -0500

I'm writing this while we are performing two company shows in repertory at The Theater Project: WONDER OF THE WORLD, by David Lindsay-Abair, and LA FILLE AT TESS' MARKET, which I wrote. Jim Hall composed the original music for LA FILLE. These two productions reflect the wonder of The Theater Project.

I, of course, am prejudiced. I am proud of what The Theater Project does, of how far it has come, of how well Wendy Poole directs the whole operation, ably assisted by Theater Manager Joanna Patterson. However, even if I weren't so wedded to The Theater Project, I would be impressed by these two productions. Why?

Start with WONDER OF THE WORLD, directed with aplomb by Christopher Price. This is a complex and delightful comedy, a bizarre take on real life, with Niagara Falls, a hotel room, a bus, a restaurant and a wacky cast of characters. All this takes place in our 80 seat black box theater. Chris Price has designed and built a set that reflects all these settings in our intimate space. Imagine: Niagara Falls in an intimate space! JP Gagnon, our oh-so-clever lighting designer, has melded his lights with Chris' set to enable the audience to see and feel the different settings of the play, and Jen Roe has applied her creative eye to the costumes.

The acting is a treat. Theater Project veterans Wendy Poole, Reba Short, Heather Weafer, Craig Ela, Michele Wigton, and guest artists Brent Askari and Burke Brimmer take us on a roller coaster of laughs that link an odd collection of events and characters. How did all these things happen? How did these people come together? This is life "stuff," and David Lindsay-Abair and this cast bring it all to our stage.

In repertory with WONDER OF THE WORLD is an original play set in our own Brunswick, Maine: LA FILLE AT TESS' MARKET. La Fille, whose real name is Theodora, is a real character who grew up in Brunswick and for years - no, decades - collected bottles and cans downtown. Many years ago, I got to know her a little and the more I saw her, the more interested I became. What if La Fille had a private life, a "secret life" that no one knew about, at least no Yankee who only knew her as the little woman with the page boy haircut and the startling blue eyes who collected bottles and cans? I decided to write that fantasy, and I needed a collaborator to compose the music for it.

That collaborator is Jim Hall, my piano teacher. As I have gotten to know Jim and have collaborated with him on other projects at The Theater Project, I have realized he is a remarkably talented musician who quietly goes about the work he delights in and comes up with outstanding and sometimes startling results. So Jim composed the music and was willing to play it live in the production. What about playing a role or two in the play, I asked. Okay, says he, and so there he is, on stage, not only playing the music but also playing several roles.

The other collaborators in this venture, in addition to designers Gagnon, Price and Roe, are company actors Lee K. Paige, Craig Ela, Jean S. Shaw, Reba Short and Don Weatherbee and Young Company actors Anna Palopoli, Cameron Toy, Natane Bann and Ben Nadell. Young Company actor and stage manager Rose Lortie is the stage manager for both shows.

All this at The Theater Project, our black box 80 seat theater on School Street, just off Maine Street. An ensemble of very talented and energetic actors, designers, musicians and directors create some magic that makes the audience laugh, tap their feet, think and sometimes cry. A small theater that takes you to Niagara Falls in a barrel and the next night transports you back to Merrymeeting Park in Brunswick late in the 19th century. In these two plays the audience can travel through time and space without leaving their seats. All they need is a ticket and an imagination.

Remarkable, isn't it!

Al

August 09

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:23:33 -0400

What is The Theater Project?

Well, if you're wondering if we're a summer theater doing adult fare, the answer is, "yes," with qualifications.

If you're wondering if we do original material, the answer is "yes," also with qualifications.

If you're wondering if we are a theater with summer programs for kids, the answer is "yes," with qualifications.

If you're wondering if we do theater for family audiences, the answer is "yes," with qualifications.

We do all of these. Our August schedule is a good example. We opened the month with a three performances of ARABIAN NIGHTS, with a cast of eighteen teenagers after three weeks of all-day theater camp here. Then came IN SECURITY, two original plays about Palestine for mature audiences. Then, ALADDIN, with a cast of eighteen 9 - 12 year olds, directed by graduates of The Theater Project's Young Company.

In July, our professional ensemble performed WONDER OF THE WORLD, directed and designed by Christopher Price. The production received high praise from critics and audience members. Why didn't more people come to the show? I suspect that one major reason is that people who are not "regulars" at The Theater Project don't know we do adult fare. We are not a typical summer theater. We are not a typical theater. We don't specialize in one kind of theater as most do. The Children's Theatre of Maine does theater with kids. Portland Stage Company does theater for mature audiences, plus A CHRISTMAS CAROL for families. Maine State Music Theatre does musicals for mature audiences and families.

The Theater Project does all of those, even musicals! Is one better than another? Sometimes. My point here is not that one is better but that we are unique, or close to it, and difficult to classify. We work with and for young people and with and for adults. We work with challenged populations and with schools. We work with The Center Stage Players doing readers theater. We do classical theater, original theater and contemporary theater.

This leads me to comment on IN SECURITY. We did three performances of Fateh Azzam's one act play, "Baggage," and, "My Name Is Isa," which I wrote. We had good audiences for each performance, followed by good discussions. Both plays are related to Palestine. Azzam, a Palestinian - American, was the actor in his play about a Palestinian with the "baggage" he had accumulated since the 1948 war in Palestine that resulted in the creation of the state of Israel and the dislocation of thousands of Palestinians from their lands. "My Name Is Isa" focused on four young American tourists in Bethlehem and Jerusalem who meet a Palestinian Christian whose name, "Isa," is Arabic for "Jesus."

Though each play evoked the politics of the Israel - Palestine problem, neither was primarily political. The plays raised questions about what it means to "carry around one's baggage," how little we know about other countries and areas of the world, and how difficult - but not too difficult - it is to get to know someone who is different from us. Most of each audience stayed an hour after the plays to discuss issues the plays raised. People left The Theater thinking about what they hadn't thought about before or hadn't thought about for a long time. Not only thinking, but glad to be thinking, wondering, searching.

This is a good role for theater and other arts. To inspire thought. To make us consider what we haven't considered before. Most of us are thankful for that inspiration, that poke in the ribs that makes us scratch our head and consider or reconsider.

That is one of the many roles we play at The Theater Project.

Happy August!

Al

July 09

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:19:35 -0400

A new sign on The Theater Project!

A new website!

The sign was designed by Young People's Theater alumnus and now graphic designer in New York, David Covell. The website was design by Heather Weafer, current actor with The Theater Project Company as well as its website designer, guide and cyber-mechanic.

And we are pushing forty years here at The Theater Project.

The Theater Project is about people and stories. The people include Executive Director Wendy Poole, who keeps The Theater Project running in a myriad of ways; Joanna Patterson, Theater Project Manager, who works closely with Wendy to oversee the management of The Theater and to get the work done. The people also includes Christopher Price who designs and directs and acts in Theater Project productions and helps out in many other ways; Craig Ela, Lee K. Paige, Michele Livermore Wigton, Keith Anctil, Reba Short, and others who act and teach and help out here.

The Theater Project people include dozens of teenagers in The Young Company, "dozens" because there are almost three dozen now and dozens, nay, hundreds, have moved on to college and work beyond college, like Molly, Karin, Joe and Trevor, who have returned to work with us this year. All of these young people contribute energy, wit, and sweat equity as well as some fine theater.

The Theater Project includes Don and Jean and The Spindleworks ensemble comprising Kim, Lloyd, Earl and Diane, Sam, Nancy and Ellen, an inspiring group of artists who bring unbridled joy and energy to their work with us. And The Center Stage Players, a gathering of folks who have experienced long and fruitful lives and are bringing their experience to the stage to produce readers theater and improvisation for the community.

The Theater Project includes the Board: Sheri, Leanne, Andrea, Dick and Heather, Maria, Evie, Lisa and Rich. They support Wendy and Joanna and the rest of us.

All of these people help us tell stories, whether the story is MACBETH, WONDER OF THE WORLD, or Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.

David Covell, who designed our new logo and sign, is in his mid-forties. I remember him as a sixth grader, an early actor with The Young People's Theater, the first iteration of today's Theater Project. He was a delightful and demanding and witty young actor who loved working with others in junior high and high school to produce touring shows for schools in mid coast Maine and all over the State. Eventually we toured to New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Michigan to present our stories. David continued to act with us through his years at Brunswick High School, returned to act in a few of our Company shows and then moved on to his work as a graphic artist.

David gave me the line drawing of a clown when he graduated from Brunswick High. It is still my logo and rides around with me on the sides of my car. I visited with David recently in New York - we saw WAITING FOR GODOT together and then talked for a couple of hours about The Theater Project and how to build its reputation and audience in the community. He's still connected, still helping us tell our stories.

David and Heather and Wendy and Joanna and the Board and...on goes the list of people who help keep The Theater Project going. People who have discovered joy and magic in their work here and want to share that with others. The Theater Project is a work in progress, a work nourished by people and benefiting people. Like people, like each of us, it continues to discover who it is and what it can do and continues to strive happily to refine its work. That work is people work: people helping people to realize who they are and who they can be; moving people to laughter, tears and thought; inspiring young people to pursue their dreams, to give life "their best shot," and to understand that failure is often an essential step toward their goals.

The Theater Project is greater than the sum of its parts. The parts, the people who ARE The Theater Project, work together to make art and to provide opportunities to learn and grow and express that growth. Together, we produce more than any of us can produce alone. And we love what we do.

What do you think?

Al

June 09

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 21:23:18 -0400

When The Theater Project's Executive Director Wendy Poole introduced the final performance of this year's VOICES IN THE MIRROR, she said some in the audience who are older than others may not "get" everything in the show. I, one of those older people in the audience, smiled and prepared myself for verbal teen UFOs and sure enough, they came and went. Wendy was right - no surprise. I didn't "get" a lot of the pieces that are very funny to the cast, their contemporaries and those several years older. Thirty-five years ago, I got it. Twenty years ago, I got most of it. Sunday, I got some of it.

Was I surprised? Not really. Was I disappointed or bored? Not at all. Though the cast is several decades younger than I with a sense of humor that often flew by me on Sunday, I had no trouble understanding that they are bright, energetic, committed, witty and engaged. That came off the stage floor like steam from a boiling pot. And isn't that the point? Isn't that what is exciting and encouraging?

This cast of thirty-plus high school actors, some experienced and some not, were telling their stories, stories they had come up with after Wendy had given them ideas to work on. She has worked with them in such a way that they are able to get together, brainstorm and come up with original theater pieces without help or interference from a director. Later, she nudges the pieces she and her cast have decided on and the results appear on stage in VOICES IN THE MIRROR.

Are some better than others? Of course. Some plays are better than others. Some productions are better than others. Some in the audience prefer this and some prefer that. Some ideas are better than others.

Speaking of "ideas," the cast of VOICES IN THE MIRROR learns that everyone has ideas and that one's own idea is not always the best, not always the one that "must" be chosen. A valuable lesson in listening and cooperating creatively.

Theater is story telling. Sometimes it includes music. Sometimes mime. Sometimes clowning. Sometimes violence, physical or verbal. Good theater moves us, makes us think. It can be serious and make us think. It can be funny and make us think. It engages us. It is entertaining. Theater can make us think and be entertaining, even if we have been "thinking" all week and want a break.

Theater is "a break." It's a different way of looking at life, of considering and framing ideas, of examining an issue, a thought, a condition.

Sunday's VOICES IN THE MIRROR offered several ways of examining ideas and contemporary life. I remember singing "The wheels on the bus go round and round," with our kids when they were young. When cast members of VOICES did their interpretation, I was transported. I heard a familiar song in a new way and it made me laugh and think.

I was tired. I had just completed a 1,000 mile drive to get back here in time for the final performance of VOICES. I wasn't disappointed. I laughed and thought and several times enjoyed the laughter of an audience more in tune with the pieces I didn't get. Kudos to the cast and to Wendy Poole for making us laugh and think and believe in the power of art, youth and creativity.