Half empty?  Half full?

I didn't have the good fortune to attend any of the summers I did not attend (if you get my meaning), but when in doubt, quote the big guy:

29
When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
>From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate
 
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

>From what I'm reading, this applies to friendships born from 1970 forward!

Carl Smith
1970 - and, happily, several times after...


 


On Jun 13, 2010, at 10:12 AM, Mike Godwin wrote:

On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 6:46 PM, Jerald Head <jlhead1952@gmail.com> wrote:

Mike,
All jesting aside, I do remember the Lear performance 30 years later, and I was amazed, eyeballs and all. And I remember Joy, and Robert, and Jeff. Joy was such a delight and Robert was soooo evil. Some guy as you mentioned, Bruce Meyer was there too. It is such fun to stir up such memories. Although I will never concede "best class" I tip my hat to "80.
 

The fact is, every summer is special, and each summer is special in its own way. I had been in the class of '79, and I had learned an immense amount that summer, especially from Maria Black, who gave the most informative and nuanced line readings for Rosalind that I had ever heard (I still believe her Rosalind is the best I've ever seen, for that matter, and I've seen a bunch since then).  Maria, Bruce Wharton, and Richard South were returning from the previous summer, as I recall, and each of them taught me a lot. But those of us for whom 1979 was our first summer also had so much to offer -- Bruce Meyer, Jeanne McCarthy, Britt Block, Teresa Jaynes, Robin Mize, and David Sharpe come immediately to mind.
 
In 1980, those of us returning from 1979 and from previous years were all very aware that it was the tenth summer. We especially knew what kind of impact your classes had, Jerald -- people in the community still talked about them -- and we knew we had to build on that in 1980. We knew we could do comedy, but were not entirely sure we could do a whole tragedy. (Well, maybe some of us were sure -- I was nervous, though.)
 
I strongly believe that if 1980 stands out, it's largely because of the strength of experience -- not just the strength of experienced individuals (although we had a lot of folks returning to perform that summer) but the strength of the shared experience and community of knowledge that was created by people like you, Jerald -- and Mary and Terry and Maggie and so many others -- and communicated in some profound cultural way so that we quickly grasped the magnitude of the tasks before us, and we were able to hit the ground running as a group. (I remember with great clarity a moment when David Polley and I were sitting in the chairs and coaching Robert Faires about different ways we thought he could play evil Edmund -- I think we both took as much pride in Robert's performance as he did.)
 

For me, summer of 1981 was a lot harder -- fewer returning students, plus a role (Leontes) that I had immense difficulty figuring out.  But one of the sweetest compliments I ever got at Winedale came from a kid who was watching me perform as a guard (no lines) in "Measure for Measure" -- "I was watching you the whole time! You were always in character! You were really acting!"  Where did I learn how to do that? I had to wonder. And I realized I learned it pretty much from every one of you who had worked at Winedale, either with me or before me. Quite often I felt as if all of you were with me as I performed.  (There have been times in the years since that I have performed some moment of comedy or madness and find myself thinking "that's how Bruce Meyer would have done it" or "that's how Terry Galloway would have done it.")
 
For most of the 1980s I was in the audience. If you were performing, you probably heard me laughing at some point (I'd even laugh in tragedies, which one summer got me a threatening look from an audience member).  And seeing Robin or Jeff or David Sharpe performing in later summers, I'd always feel this little pang -- I wanted to be performing with you folks again. And I could see in 1986 (and before, and after) that whole groups of people I'd never performed with (Willie Wilson! David Ziegler! Stephanie Modlin!) were feeling the same magic I had felt. I wanted to work with them too. (In 2005, finally got to perform with Zieg!)
 
The fact is, every summer I performed in, and every summer I attended as an audience member, has given me something special that I will remember for the rest of my life. (Performing once more in summer of 1989 was, as I now know New Orleans folks like to say, "lagniappe," although it did give me the peculiar pleasure of having Bruce Meyer walk up to me at intermission and, with horror and disbelief at my performance in "Shoemakers Holiday," cry out in anguish that "You sang!"  Bruce has always been a "fan" of my singing voice.)
 
Speaking of New Orleans, it's probably worth mentioning that a new addition to our list, Angela Breckenridge (1988 and 1989), is performing the title role in "Hamlet" in New Orleans this summer. It's mentioned in this newsletter -- http://www.dcc.edu/networks/31/ -- and you can see a pic of the remarkably unaged Prince of Denmark here (the one on the left): http://www.dcc.edu/networks/31/Hamlet-Publicity-033.jpg .
 

--Mike


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