I asked one of the actors how they stayed fresh and excited about material they were reading night after night. The idea, he said, was to remember that each audience was seeing the work for the first time, the actor always remembers that and does his or her best to give them the best experience. We worked hurriedly on the drafts of the play, we didn’t have much time, but it’s really jelling. I have to decide if I want to try and expand the work into a full-blown play. it’s about half or two-thirds of a full play now, although it is fully plotted, a beginning and an end.
I’m excited about it, I can add playwright to my titles now. Author, photographer, playwright. Poet too, sometimes. Cool.
By nightfall, the old and troubled Ackley Building on Main Street was just about demolished, Bridget’s Pharmacy was unscathed, and life in Cambridge had already begun to move on. The town was quite excited and scores of people made their way to the site during the day to gawk and take pictures. The whole town is happy and relieved that things worked out for Bridget, she is a treasure and a boon to all of us.
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.
