From Bill – ‘Tis the Season

‘Tis the season, friends, for some serious work over here at Touchstone. I think you’ll notice, over the next few weeks, how our blogs get fewer and further between, how they get shorter, and perhaps become fixated on silly things (not saying anything about study partners that look like cats, just sayin’)… and in that vein I include the video above.  Shot it with my phone, of course, just to let you see the insides of the Peace Train Room.  This time of year we are working on any number of projects, but it seems to be a particularly “fertile” year this time around.

Really.

Let’s see. I’m involved with co-writing with Christopher Shorr Journey from the East (note the photos of the Greenway where half of the performance will be taking place), and of course we’re in the middle of Follies (note the cart at the beginning of the video and the infamous sticky notes on the wall towards the end). I think we’ve created a good three times as much material as we can possibly fit on stage. Last week, Anna (the wild creature at the end of the video) and past years’ apprentices shared our stage in The Morningtime of Now, a Mock Turtle/Anne Hills production! Jp and Emma and Christopher are hard at work on Superstory, a new student-written production at Moravian. The Peace Train room (bless the woman, I hope she reads this, who helped us pay for it some thirty odd years ago) is the scene of serious Grotowski exercises every Monday and Wednesday as we begin to develop an approach towards a new Ensemble devised work for 2016!  And I’m off to a meeting with Debra Storm over at the amazing and wonderful Charter School for the Arts to see if we can create a work that will commemorate their move just one block from us, down on 3rd Street in 2015.

Yeah. It’s nothing special.  That’s the kind of juggling we need (and most independent theatre artists I know need) to do to keep things moving forward and growing. Didn’t mention the classes we teach or the fundraising, grant-writing and general community outreach. Wouldn’t want to tire you out. (Oh, by the way, is there someone who has time to replace the furnace at my house?)

So… no time for blogs, but come see the work!  We like to think we’re doing it for you.  Have a great season of holidays everyone.