Some Winedale have committed to attending the "50th Anniversary" Reunion
for four days. (I use quotes because it's technically the 52nd
Anniversary.) Others we expect will come in mainly to attend the Saturday
gathering and Saturday night performances. This note is about anyone who's
in either group who plans to use air travel to get (most of the way) to
Winedale.
Generally, the advice from seasoned travelers who have navigated
pandemic-era travel already this year is this: Try to get to where you're
going a day earlier than the day you plan to show up. We're currently
living in a period of massive air-travel chaos and disruption, mainly
because the airlines have struggled with ramping back up after earlier
pandemic-driven cutbacks. (If you're a retired flight attendant, this may
be a good time to consider coming out of retirement!) So, for example, if
you plan to show up on Saturday at, say, lunchtime, it's best to get the
flying part of your travel finished the day before. Please consider making
your travel plans accordingly. Similarly, if you're one of the four-day
attendees and you plan to congregate with the others in Winedale on
Thursday afternoon/evening, please consider getting the flying part of your
travel done at least by Wednesday.
I'm nostalgic for the occasions when I had to travel during the
pandemic--sometimes an airline like SouthWest would give me the whole
plane. See photo, attached.
Love,
Mike
[image: IMG-1056.jpg]
Dear Teams and Fans and Hangers-On,
Emily Ayres (emilymarionayres(a)gmail.com) has asked me to ask you if you
have photographs--including both (a) old-style photochemical prints and/or
negatives and (b) digital photographs--of S@W people and events and
tableaux, etc., to contribute to the Shakespeare at Winedale archives that
she has been working on. She's also interested in any newspaper or magazine
clippings about S@W that you might be willing to share (or share copies of).
I double-endorse this request, because like so many of the rest of us I
love looking at the old (and not-so-old pics). In some of the ones I
appear in, I have a lot more hair on my head and face. (More recently, that
hair has migrated to my nose and ears.) But I think this Reunion and the
Shakespeare-at-Winedale archives are a good opportunity to expand the
visual records of our experiences, and I urge you to reach out to Emily to
contribute. In addition, feel free to post digital photos, if you have
them, in response to this request!
Love to all,
Mike
Dear Ancianos, Border Collies, other Reunion enthusiasts and motley fool
crew members, et al.:
I’ve suggested to our Reunion planning committee that — as we move closer
to key dates in preparing for our 2022 Reunion meetup on November 3 through
November 6, — I circulate regular email reminders for those planning to
attend, informing them what they need to do in preparation for the
Reunion.
This email is the first of these reminders, which I expect to send out at
least weekly and maybe more often as needed. This reminder centers on
sending money to Doc so that he can make the necessary payments and
arrangements for the Reunion.
You may recall that Doc calculated a while back that everyone who plans to
participate in the full multiple-day Reunion needs to send Doc a check. As
has sometimes been the case in the past, the checks typically take a while
to start rolling in. (I’ve been tardy sending mine in more often than not.)
This year, a couple of people have already sent in checks to Doc (thanks!)
based on an earlier estimate of what the total cost per person would be.
Here’s an update: after further review of the costs and calculations, we’re
now asking everyone who’s attending the Reunion to *send in a check for
$465*—40 dollars more than Doc had originally estimated. (Doc is
inordinately apologetic for having set his estimate too low, but I forgive
him!) If, like me, you haven’t sent your check in yet, please do so now or
as soon as you can. The deadline for having all the money collected is
October 15.
As Gail noted in her August 17 email,
*“Doc strongly prefers to receive payment in the form of paper checks, made
out to him, and sent to the following address:*
*PO Box 202 Round Top Tx 78954”*
(I had to order new paper checks from my bank just for this. The
twenty-something bank clerk snickered. “I need it for our Shakespeare
reunion,” I meekly explained. She snickered again.)
Just to recap some other key details, I’m reposting other sentences from
Gail’s Aug. 17 email:
*‘Doc has solidified housing and food arrangements for our gathering in
November. We'll be staying at Festival Hill in rooms of three beds each and
having breakfasts and dinners at Menke House, with lunches bought from the
Mercantile. We will have a catered barbecue on Saturday evening. The first
meal will be at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, 3 November, and the last will be
breakfast on Sunday morning, 6 November, at 9:00. Check in for the weekend
will begin at 2 p.m. on Thursday.’ *
Gail noted in that email that the money we’re sending in covers all
“creature comforts.” So all of us creatures will be comfortable!
There may be no clocks in the forest, but our clocks everywhere else are
ticking away. And I now have new checks I can fill out.
(Oh, wait, where do I keep my pens? Do I even have any pens?)
More notes soon, and feel free to circulate these details to others in our
Company who may miss this particular email.
Doc, Gail, and other planners should feel free to supplement and/or correct
what I've written here.
Love to all,
Mike
Dear Ancianos, Border Collies, other Reunion enthusiasts and motley fool
crew members, et al.:
I’ve suggested to our Reunion planning committee that — as we move closer
to key dates in preparing for our 2022 Reunion meetup on November 3 through
November 6, — I circulate regular email reminders for those planning to
attend regarding what they need to do in preparation for the Reunion.
This email is the first of these reminders, which I expect to send out at
least weekly and maybe more often as needed. This reminder centers on
sending money to Doc so that he can make the necessary payments and
arrangements for the Reunion.
You may recall that Doc calculated a while back that everyone who plans to
participate in the full multiple-day Reunion needs to send Doc a check. As
has sometimes been the case in the past, the checks typically take a while
to start rolling in. (I’ve been tardy sending mine in more often than not.)
This year, a couple of people have already sent in checks to Doc (thanks!)
based on an earlier estimate of what the total cost per person would be.
Here’s an update: after further review of the costs and calculations, we’re
now asking everyone who’s attending the Reunion to *send in a check for
$465*—40 dollars more than Doc had originally estimated. (Doc is
inordinately apologetic for having set his estimate too low, but I forgive
him!) If, like me, you haven’t sent your check in yet, please do so now or
as soon as you can. The deadline for having all the money collected is
October 15.
As Gail noted in her August 17 email,
*“Doc strongly prefers to receive payment in the form of paper checks, made
out to him, and sent to the following address:*
*PO Box 202 Round Top Tx 78954”*
(I had to order new paper checks from my bank just for this. The
twenty-something bank clerk snickered. “I need it for our Shakespeare
reunion,” I meekly explained. She snickered again.)
Just to recap some other key details, I’m reposting other sentences from
Gail’s Aug. 17 email:
*‘Doc has solidified housing and food arrangements for our gathering in
November. We'll be staying at Festival Hill in rooms of three beds each and
having breakfasts and dinners at Menke House, with lunches bought from the
Mercantile. We will have a catered barbecue on Saturday evening. The first
meal will be at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, 3 November, and the last will be
breakfast on Sunday morning, 6 November, at 9:00. Check in for the weekend
will begin at 2 p.m. on Thursday.’ Gail noted in that email that the money
we’re sending in covers all “creature comforts.” So all of us creatures
will be comfortable!*
There may be no clocks in the forest, but our clocks everywhere else are
ticking away. And I now have new checks I can fill out.
(Oh, wait, where do I keep my pens? Do I even have any pens?)
More notes soon, and feel free to circulate these details to others in our
Company who may miss this particular email.
Doc, Gail, and other planners should feel free to supplement and/or correct
what I've written here.
Love to all,
Mike
Gail,
As Lynn said, I’m in as well. Check will be sent soon. Should there be any scenes……….I’d be interested.
Love to all!!
Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows
Hi, all,
I'm sorry I've been so absent from our conversations of late. The
pandemic was incredibly challenging for our family and then we've had a
bunch of (great) life events, but now I'm here!
I'm writing because I've just returned from the amazing final weekend at
Winedale completely inspired again by the play and work that the class
shared with us. I was out all day Saturday and Sunday, for *Two Noble
Kinsmen, Winter's Tale, Much Ado, *and then a second helping of *Kinsmen. *I've
been away for a bit and returning for this weekend was such a joy. The
student's engaged creatively and earnestly with the cruxes presented
by *Winter's
Tale*, the wit and clownery in *Much Ado*, and the erotic ambiguities and
wild riffing on Chaucer in *Kinsmen*. I was jealous of their ability to
energize a matinee audience soaking in that Texas heat, and deeply
appreciative of the engaging conversations we shared after their
performances. The whole team out at Winedale this summer is truly composed
of heroes' heroes.
As many of you know by now, James is facing his own personal battle at
Agincourt. Yet it's not merely his own. James is facing this battle
*with *Laurel
and the few, the happy few of the Winedale class of 2022. This summer was
about Winedale and the experience that the students' were meant to have,
and James's challenge was in one sense the same as always: to push and
guide them in that process of self-discovery in and through Shakespeare
(and Fletcher).
I know that James is fond of challenge roles at Winedale—in my first
summer, I rated my musical ability a 0.5 out of 10 in our pre-summer survey
of skills and he made me Balthasar in *Much Ado *(!)—and this summer he
himself accepted the absolute challenge role. To continue mixing my
metaphors (I blame/thank Shakespeare for the tendency), James elected to
wrestle with the angel this summer and, in true Winedale fashion, he's done
it as part of an ensemble. Beyond the various physical, mental, and
spiritual limits that we push past at Winedale, there is an absolute
limit—the limit of limits that marks off life's circumference from whatever
is beyond—and I cannot think of a more quintessential expression of how
James embodies everything this program means than for him to live at that
limit and direct Winedale with passion and ability alongside the students,
Laurel, and the rest of the team out there. James wrestles with the angel
at Winedale and I can bare witness the immensity and beauty of the contest.
To engage in the contest is to already have won. Even in this, James
continues to teach me.
Please join me in congratulating James on the amazing play that the
Winedale class of 2022 undertook! All my love and admiration, James!
Cheers,
Casey Caldwell (Spring 2003; Summer, 2003, 2004; Summer 2009, 2010;
Reunion 2015)
Just 14 words in your comment. And yet they speak volumes. Thank you so
much, Heather.
On Sun, Aug 14, 2022 at 8:45 PM Heather Dolstra <heather(a)democracytravel.com>
wrote:
> I mourn Vic's passing as if I knew him. We are family, after all.
>
> Heather Dolstra
>
>
>
> Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic(a)gmail.com>
> Date: 8/14/22 7:57 PM (GMT-05:00)
> To: Shakespeare at Winedale 1970-2000 alums <
> winedale-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, David Sharpe <dpsharpeaustin(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [Winedale-l] Fwd: Victor Hauser, A Remembrance
>
>
> Forwarding a message from David Sharpe about Victor Hauser.
>
> Mike
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: David Sharpe <dpsharpeaustin(a)gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, Aug 14, 2022 at 3:30 PM
> Subject: Victor Hauser, A Remembrance
> To: <shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list(a)googlegroups.com>
>
>
> Three weeks ago, when Vic Hauser (a student from the Winedale Summer of
> 1983) was diagnosed with pneumonia, I and those of us from Winedale-'83 who
> came to know Vic in his latter years thought that this was going to be just
> another health problem where he and his hospital doctors and nurses would
> once again do battle to get a medical handle on it. Vic would then return
> to his beloved Co-op apartment complex in Austin, and soldier on as he had
> done so often in the past.
>
> In fact, at various times in the last 5 to 8 years, Vic had managed to
> survive a host of ailments, such as diabetes, throat cancer, lupus, and two
> cases of pneumonia. He also avoided getting Covid 19 or any of its
> variants. Vic definitely had a strong will to live.
>
> Unfortunately, this time Vic's luck ran out. This time he was not going to
> win his struggle with his third case of pneumonia, for it was ultimately
> diagnosed as being terminal by his Austin doctors..
>
> So after giving the matter serious thought and realizing that being
> trapped in a hospital bed connected to multiple tubes and bags was no way
> to live, Vic willingly agreed to transfer to the hospice at Christopher
> House in Austin. It was a brave decision. Six days later Vic's suffering
> and multiple battles with his chronically compromised health came to an
> end. He died peacefully on a Friday night, August 12, 2022.
>
> Given his host of health issues, Vic was never strong enough to make the
> long trek from Austin out to Winedale to see a play. However in 2018, Vic,
> along with Winedale friends Clay Stromberger, Steve Price, and myself,
> made a car trip to Shakespeare at Winedale to visit Director James
> Loehlin's summer class, which on that day was in the throes of rehearsal.
> Before the rehearsal began, James asked the class to sit down on the stage
> in the Barn, and then introduced Vic (Previously, Vic had asked James -
> another Winedale-'83 alum - for an opportunity to speak briefly to
> the class). Standing before them, Vic very simply told the students that
> they may not realize it at that moment, but what they were going through at
> Winedale that summer was a unique and very special experience, that it
> would unlikely come again, and that they should take full advantage of
> every minute while they were there. Now more ever, this was the time to
> seize the day. Vic spoke a little more and then sat down.
>
> Vic didn't have money to give donations to Winedale - he just had enough
> money to live on. But he wanted very much to give something back to
> Shakespeare at Winedale that had given so much to him and for one summer
> uplifted his life. And going to Winedale and addressing the summer class
> was his way of giving back. Of course, Vic's message to the students was
> absolutely true and something that could never be said enough. And in his
> own quiet but serious way, Vic made his point very powerfully.
>
> David Sharpe
>
> --
> Be vigitant, I beseech you!
> ---
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> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/CACsW7…
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/CACsW7…>
> .
>