​THE SILENT SKY IS BEAUTIFUL by Barbara Biddison

As I write, this current Hamilton-Gibson drama is heading for its second  weekend in the Coolidge Theatre.  The stars will come out again, and five actors will take the audience on a wonderful journey to discover what's "up there" in that beautiful sky.  This play does an especially fine job of combining  some real history with the lives of five real people in a real world on earth.  We in the audience get to imagine what life might have been for human beings:  the woman who did the discovering, and the man who loves her, and the sister who stays at home happily having babies, and the office mates (one stern and no-nonsense until...  "women's lib" enters her life),  and the other playful with a marvelous accent.  There is some fine acting in this show, and there is a probably- unknown story to tell about "discovery in the heavens."

Jessie Thompson directs.  In the  program she speaks about the play's "delicate handling of the relationship between spirit and science, and its resolution that they are not mutually exclusive,"  with thanks to the playwright Lauren Gunderson.  I did not think about that
spirit/science relationship as I watched the play.  (I've seen it twice.).  But I was aware of it without knowing, without an obvious verbal statement to that effect.

The first time I remember seeing Megan Gallant was in Into the Breeches,  in 2022  . In this 2024 play she makes a very human Henrietta Leavitt who goes from staying up all night and going to sleep at her desk, to discovering/locating stars, to falling in love, to her final days at home.  The whole cast is strong and  real and totally believable..

And just one final observation about the venue, the stage in the Coolidge.  It had to be in this theatre with its wide open spaces and its high ceiling with "stars" way up there.  This show really does transport the audience to an "out-of-this-world" mental and physical space.

 AND THEN JUNIE B JONES MOVED TO WELLSBORO
​by Barbara Biddison

Twenty-one kids and about 8 staff, including various aspects of tech, with Thomas Putnam heading it all up.  The same Junie B. Jones character (as in the February Elkland show) but played by a different actress, and a whole bunch of different kids.  This winter theatre arts camp is always a welcome cold-weather treat, and those few weeks culminate in performance---this time a March Friday night and a Satirday night in the Coolidge. The auditoriam was packed both nights with not a single empty seat.  Parents and grandparents and sisters and brothers and neighbors and classmates and just about everybody who wanted to see and support this special program.

I ushered for both performances and so saw it twice.  Just sitting there watching it is a thrill.  The audience is super-attentive, the director is right there in the front row with script before him, and I'm sure all that contributes to the confidence that these young students exhibit.  They are playing to a full house, absolutely full, and they seem to love it!

So a few words about the value of such an experience.  Value for students of course, to be sure. but also value for parents/grandparents/neighbors and even teachers. Best of all, it's
fun!  And, once the students get the hang of it, they can learn it and "let go."  Besides which, the director is sitting right there, and he would offer a quick prompt if he saw a blank face and an "oh no" look about it.  To learn about personal confidence in this way  is of ever-lasting value.  To trust yourself and to trust the one who could really help you is important with many life experiences--not just in theatre arts camp.

We Sing the Songs That Peter, Paul & Mary Sang    by Barbara Biddison

​On this past Sunday afternoon we music lovers gathered in the Coolidge to listen, and to add our voices, to this fine afternoon of music.  It was a benefit for the HG Treble Choir and their performance tour in May. But, in actuality, we in the audience,  all benefitted by singing along with the kids, and the Gmeiner Open Mic Group, and Chris Eckert, and Pine Pitch.   I'm also led to believe that the choir kids did not know who Peter, Paul and Mary might be, so the show served an educational purpose as well.  We elders learn something too when we discover that "our growing up familiarity" with, say, the Beatles or Peter, Paul and Mary, does NOT mean that our grandchildren have the same memories.  Or that they even know what these "Beatles" things are.  So what we've  for decades fondly remembered has no recognition factor for them. We must fix that!!!  We must have them sing songs that will teach them!!!  And in the process we bring pleasure to the folks who lived through that time period.

Some of the songs that we remember from our past are "'Blowin' in the Wind''' and "Early Mornin' Rain" and"Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and, of course "This Land is Your Land."  All those years ago when our sons were about 15 and 18 we spent a sabbatical semester in England, and when we were ready to leave for home some friends of theirs came to our little rented house and sang for them/with them John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane."  Another one of the Peter, Paul and Mary songs. So, it was good for me to revisit these songs in the Coolidge in 2024.

A real bonus for this afternoon full of singing was the audience itself.  We were invited to sing along with these Peter, Paul and Mary songs.  And this invitation actually worked because the audience had
amongst us people who are old enough to remember the songs.  And so we sang, and we were surrounded by others who were singing.  And the Coolidge filled with song.  I can still hear and feel that space so richly full of music.. ​

HG THEATRE ARTS CAMP IN ELKLAND  by Barbara Biddison

Every year Hamilton-Gibson starts the winter season by taking this theatre arts camp to Elkland.  The Deerfield Charitable Trust makes it happen financially and the HG staff headed up by Thomas Putnam puts it on the Clark Wood Elementary stage.  Some of us Wellsboro folk carpool over there to see the stage full of kids and the audience full of parents and grandparents and sisters and brothers and neighbors and, of course, Trust Board Members.  It is a joyous sight to behold. One of the happiest staged opportunities I've ever seen.  You walk right in to find your seat, and you feel it in the air.

I counted the cast members listed on the program and came up with a total of 57. That's alotta kids!!  The show is called Junie B. Jones Jr. The Musical.  It really does involve everybody....some solo, some in small groups, and often, of course, the whole group singing and performing together.  The best part for me is seeing these young people loving being on stage, acting and singing and moving as they have practiced (in a very short rehearsal time).​

I know that this is the first and last time some will ever be on stage like this, but I have heard many still talking about a similar experience years later.   And some will go on to be in more plays and musicals.  I have seen arts camp  still listed in the "Who's Who" part of the program for a show a decade after the the elementary show.  Itcarries a life-long memory for many.

AND SO ANOTHER YEAR BEGINS by Barbara Biddison

What better way to begin than with an invitation?  For dialogue REGARDING BASIC HUMAN RESPECT.   That is what we did on Martin Luther King Day in the Wellsboro HS Auditorium on January 15, 2024.  We who sat there, facing a stage full of speakers and musicians, were glad that we had braved the wintery night to be inspired and affirmed.  We noticed at once that it was not Thomas Putnam who introduced the program, but all seemed to move forward without him.  (We learned that he was stranded in an airport, so we settled back to appreciate the evening.)

We had a fine evening of variety, spoken and sung, and I especially appreciated the addition of three county commisioners.  These men are newly elected, I'm guessing not well known to all audience members, and they spoke individually and appropriately (and briefly) for the occasion.  Others spoke to the "basic human respect' thoughts of the evening.  Pine Pitch sang "Because All Men Are Brothers" and HG Treble Choir sang "Hold On to Dreams" and we all learned and sang "Jordan River" and I still feel the sense of community and warmth of that
hour.

It was a lovely generous time. in an auditorium peopled with folk who wanted to be there.  I wanted to be there, and I was.  Those who couldn't come missed something special.  Another year begins. ​

Jean Sings: Rosie Dances     by Thomas Putnam

In HGWP'S holiday offering called SHORTS AND SWEETS this weekend, there is a short play called "Rosie the Rockette." It's short, maybe just 10 minutes, and there really isn't much that happens. That being the nature of a ten-minute play, the slice of life that is portrayed is packed with stuff which at first appears to be of no consequence but upon consideration is packed with stuff worth thinking about.

There are three generations: a grandmother Rosie, her daughter, and her two granddaughters. Rosie was a Rockette, a precision dancer. And here she is now, moving in and out of present day consciousness, being visited during the holidays by her daughter and grandchildren.  Rosie has dementia.

My own mother, Jean Helen Webster Putnam, had Alzheimers. We kept her at home as long as possible, but finally had to move her into a nursing home, at which she died four months later. On her last night, she sang. She could not carry on a conversation or even speak clearly enough to be understood. She appeared to not know present realities. But she sang. That night in May we sang the songs we used to sing in the car on family trips or when we sat on the front porch of the cottage on summer nights long ago. She sang.

Rosie dances. It's her reality.  Ten minute plays can't develop a character much, but in this little play we get a taste of this slice of life quite clearly, and simply. Kathryn Sheneman's Rosie moves in and out of the present that is at times painful for us, as it certainly is for her daughter, and confusing for her grandchildren.  There are some funny moments that help us to swallow the difficulty of such a family situation, that for many of us is all too familiar.

SHORTS AND SWEETS if filled with some songs, some readings of holiday letters, and a few other short ten-minute slices of life. From what I've seen in bits of rehearsals, the production is just what it is titled: a bit of this and that, of some sorrow and lots of joy and mirth, of nostalgia and hope. You have just three chances to enjoy this holiday confection so don't tarry in calling for your tickets (570.724.2079.) Friday night at 7:30--with an opening night reception immediately following; and two shows on Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 all at the Warehouse Theatre. (And don't forget the MESSIAH Community Sing on Sunday at 2:30 at St. Paul's which will round out HG's 2023 Season.)

The Birth of the HGWP Holiday Letter     by Barbara Biddison


A group of women and a few men gathered some months ago at the Warehouse to consider what might be put together for a Holiday Program in early December 2023.  How about three 10-minute plays with some vocal and instrumental interludes?  Oh! and some "Holiday Letters" like the ones that some people send out (full of way too much detail about family doings and challenges and pets and so forth).   So, we offered "Holiday Letter Writing Workshop" for HGWP's "Holiday Shorts and Sweets," and got our people to write such letters just for fun, and then we chose the best ones for our December show.   We did all that, and now we are rehearsing six (6) holiday letters with six readers who did not write the letter they read aloud.  Sometimes you might even think that the family dog wrote the letter.  Sometimes pets do that you know.  I once had a dog that could have--his name was Chance, and all 80 pounds of him rode in my convertible with the top down. He probably had many stories to tell. But back to the Holiday Letter.

We did have auditions, and those that seemed to relate to the letter of the moment were cast as a reader.  We were auditioning for three 10-minute plays at the same time as we auditioned for letters. Somehow a few women and one guy were cast in both play and letter.  So far everything seems to have worked out well.  I don't see the play rehearsals, but I'm "directing" the six letter readings. We have managed to keep the letter and play rehearsals moving forward without anyone having to be in two places at once.

You might think that just reading a letter out loud would be easy. But it actually requires practice and thought.  So we practice, and try different ways of expressing thoughts, and we try to figure out what importance there might be to certain references.  For example, in one letter there is reference to Christmas ornaments made here.  We discussed the value of knowing that is historically true. Another letter, actually written by a Jewish woman, is read aloud by a woman who is not Jewish.  So the writers (on paper) are never the same person as the actor reading aloud that piece.  It is a very interesting acting experience as the reader takes on the writer's identity which is never quite the same of course.  And then the whole thing can get more complicated as the letter writer appears to be the family dog!

Our most recent. rehearsal, when five of the six were present in the same room, was quite lively.  All five "read" their practically memorized letter to four listeners plus me.  I was so pleased with their listening skills as expressed in comments/suggestions for the reader.  Lots of smiles and genuine laughter too.  They were great audience members as well as good readers.  And all were willing to offer feedback, and look at possible clothing choices, ranging from "hmmmm" to "the color is right" to whether or not a dog collar would be appropriate.  These readers have varying degrees and different types of theatre experience, and whatever they have they bring to this project.  So we'll be reading these letters aloud as each reader gives life to the person inside the letter.  Keep your eyes glued to the stage right side of the stage where our small table and chair will mark the letter-reading spot.


[Note: HGWP's Holiday Shorts and Sweets runs December 8 at 7:30; and December 9 at 2:30 and 7:30PM at the Warehouse Theatre. Sponsored by Larry & Marian Miller; Hilma Cooper; and Deb & Greg Calkins.]