WHAT A WEEKEND!

WHAT A WEEKEND THAT WAS!     by Barbara Biddison

Whole bunches of us had this plan to go see BROADWAY UNDER THE STARS
on Saturday evening at the Stony Fork Creek Campground.  Hamilton-
Gibson had done this last year about this time.  Everybody loved it
out there with great individual and group performances and good food
and a very pleasant evening.  Children welcome to run around.  But by
early Friday evening this year, about 24 hours before the scheduled
performance, it was pretty clear that the weather was not going to
cooperate.with our plan, and that no one would want to sit in a lawn
chair in pouring rain with probably some lightning thrown in!

And then the notifications about the change kicked in.  Change all the
Stony Fork information that had gone out!!!  The facebooks and the
websites and the signs in yards and word-of-mouth plans to share rides
and telephone calls to those HG knew had planned to go.  The Wellsboro
High School  was generously made available. and all the performers and
the food sellers and the ticket sellers got notified too and figured
out how to adjust to the new location.  Well, these are theatre people
after all, and they are used to adapting to all sorts of things, and a
stranger who entered  the high school auditorium would never have
known that this show should have been outdoors at a campground!!

And what a wonderful show it was.  Kacy Hagan was director for this
event that involved putting it all together--songs and dance and
rehearsals and all the performers and volunteers and sponsors.  And
the program lists about 20 "special thanks" to individuals who helped
in specific ways.  We heard/saw selections from  over a dozen favorite
musicals, some as solos and others as group numbers.  During
intermission as well as before and after the show there was FOOD in
the school hall right outside the auditorium.

Last year and this year, we all were treated to the most wonderful
assortment of talent!!  Performers came from right here in Wellsboro
as well as from surrounding communities.  And I know I was grateful
when a storm DID hit close enough to showtime --- we would have had to
cancel at the last minute---and we changed the date because THE SHOW
MUST GO ON !.......as they say.

But that was not the end of the treats for the weekend,  The Gmeiner
hosted a tribute to Alice Mickey on Sunday afternoon.  The place was
full of her art --we were amazed at the number of pieces hanging--they
filled the walls of the Gallery.  Both of Alice's daughters were there
for the full time of the reception, and Ann gave the artist's talk
that usually opens a show.   I had no idea how prolific Alice Mickey
was!!  But I have some personal
knowledge of the kind of influence she had on art students.  When she
taught in the Don Gill school, my older son was in her class  Today,
decades later, he says she's the reason he's an artist now.

I remember going into that school in the days when a parent could walk
in the main entrance and go down the hall to Alice's room.  (I'd bring
her things like scraps of fabric and other "artsy bits and pieces"
because she liked that.)  She would greet me, and if a student tugged
at her sleeve, she'd say something like."Not now, Johnny, I'm talking
to Mrs. Biddison."  She taught manners, too

And. Sunday's reception shows how highly regarded and fondly
remembered she still is..  .

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