29 January

Rehearsal: “Last Day At Maple View Farm”

by Jon Katz
Final Rehearsal
Final Rehearsal

We rehearsed “Last Day At Maple View Farm,” and I am excited about the wonderful job David Snider and the Hubbard Hall actors have done dramatizing my play – it’s 45 minutes long – about the last day of Ralph Tunney’s Maple View Farm. I’m not really used to collaborative creativity, it was a great deal of fun to see the play acted out, and we cut and trimmed and altered scene after scene, everybody had something to say, everybody was heard. I couldn’t be happier with the crisp and emotional treatment of a subject that is so important to me – the death of the family farm.

Chris Barlow does a powerful and effective job playing Ralph Tunney, the farmer and Christine Decker was especially powerful playing his wife.

The play is sad in some ways, funny and hopeful in others. I had several farmer friends read it, and they were most helpful to me. Snider, the executive director of Hubbard Hall, sees staged readings as living rehearsals, there is input from the actors and the audience, the play grows and evolves every time it is shown. It will be shown five times between the premiere tomorrow night (it will be the second play, it will be performed around 9:30 p.m) and Sunday. It is part of the Winter Festival at Hubbard Hall.

Red is a riot, he moved among the actors, all of whom loved having him around, and he seemed to favor center stage in the spotlight. David thought about Red being in the play, but he said he was afraid Red would upstage the performers and the play. Good call.

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