Thoughts on Winedale 50^thReunion:

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster. 

Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do? 

Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well. 

Hugh Fennyman: How? 

Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

--Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Three questions I have been asking myself:

(1)Go bigger?

a.    A third play?

b.    Involve even more returning students?

(2)More inclusive?

a.     Current students?

b.    More generations of students?

(3)Longer?

a.    Time may be tight?

b.    How to integrate with regular summer class, if possible?

c.     How to maybe bring in other generations, including Camp Shakespeare?

One of the great experiences I had while volunteering for Doc—this was mostly in 1980 and 1981—was viewing all the old photographs, different news accounts, sometimes old submitted journals from classes before mine. I’d go through boxes of stuff, I think with the task of ordering them, and certainly with the task of finding old photos we might be able to use to illustrate what Shakespeare-at-Winedale was like.  I’d often see a picture of Terry Galloway in (maybe) 1971, then other pictures of her in the mid-1970s, plus other people I came to know first from Esther’s Follies (Alice Gordon, Mary Collins) or even my French class (Maggie Megaw, who taught me a little French and definitely less Latin or Greek, urged her students to catch performances at Esther’s, which then were free). (Later on I got to perform with Terry, Alice, Mary, Maggie, and so many other alums I had admired for so long.)

What I came away with was not just a sense of what it must have been like to come to Winedale and live in Lauderdale House, play in the Barn, and hang around in the general store, but also these images of students putting on performances in the Capitol Building (early Shakespeare flash mob?). Any space could work, provided it was empty enough for students to fill it with their imaginations—something I’d learned from Peter Brook.  

(Later, with Winedale alums and others, I performed in other spaces like Zilker Park. I forget how we put together our performance of Under Milk Wood as a staged performance of a “play for voices,” but I liked what we did with it, and I know what made it possible was that all of us knew how to play together, how to inform our performances with improvisation, how to seize opportunities as they presented themselves within performance. So, in one sense Henslowe is wrong that it’s a mystery, but of course in another sense “mystery” is entirely the right word.) In 2015, we definitely went bigger with the Reunion class performances, by putting on two complete plays. I think we pulled it off, and, to be honest, I was confident in our ability to do it, pretty much the whole time, because if our minds and commitment are there. (I confess I have not always been so confident, but in 2015 I definitely was, throughout.) But is it possible that we could do even more?

On thing that occurred to me as I reflect on Doc’s letter, and on the various responses to it, is that, given that some significant number of alums are in the Austin area or nearby, it might be possible to recreate something like the Spring Class performances that were, for so many of us, the introduction to preparing for performance at the Theater Barn. As we remember, we would use all sorts of opportunistic spaces, like that courtyard by Calhoun Hall, to work on scenes and figure out dynamics that ultimately we’d bring with us to Winedale. 

So, with regard to going bigger, what if alums in the Austin area put together a play (or, alternatively, scenes) that could be performed on the first night of week-long (or longer-than-a-week-long) reunion. They could use spaces in Austin (or elsewhere) as opportunity arises in order to prepare. The idea here would NOT be to segregate the Austin-assembled performance(s) from those put together by participants in a week-long-plus reunion—it seems possible that some individuals might be able to participate in both. It also might allow returning Ancianos (from far and wide) to see something amazing that could inspire their own work (on two other plays, maybe!) in the following week. It also might create additional opportunities to integrate younger and/or current students in the celebration. It might also be improved and modified and--exciting to me!--reprised in an omnibus performance weekend.

(Some of my inspiration about this comes from what I recall hearing about the summer class that put on two plays and then added a third for one performance weekend—which, if I recall correctly, had all three plays.) 

So, as I have been thinking this through, I find myself having indirectly come up with a possible model that answers all three of my initial questions (Bigger? Longer? More students?) as part of one omnibus solution that potentially makes us all happy and that might be amazing enough to honor the 50th Anniversary. What about a Spring Class-type Austin-prepared performance to start things off at the Winedale reunion, possibly followed by a reprise (maybe modified and evolved!) in the big performance weekend. More opportunities for inclusion! More opportunities for inspiration! More performances generally! More alums generally!

As I was thinking this through, I got excited not only because I was inspired by what other people have written here, but also because I think what I have come up with inspire still more ideas that I haven't yet considered. I hope that’s true. Whether we might do something like this successfully is a mystery, but it's the kind of mystery that brings out the best in us when we get to work together again.

Love,

Mike