The performances on Saturday the 19th, in Bradford went extremely well, a testament to the skill of this ensemble who adapt quickly to whatever shifts and changes they encounter. They had last been in this site at the dress rehearsal in July.

The Washington performances are done, the costumes are airing out, much of the set has been stored, waiting for delivery and installation in Bradford next week. The ensemble is extraordinary and I am honored to be working with them.

After two years of creating and planning, here we are at the beginning of the performance runs of Forest. We are excited to share it with you.  

For the next two weekends, we will be performing at the Washington site. Each of the eight shows are sold out, but things change in our lives so we have created a Wait List for Washington. Those on the Wait List will be notified of any released tickets, and it will be first come first served. 

Last weekend was our dress rehearsal in the Washington site. We had an audience for each run, enough to test out what it would be like with 30 people in attendance. The major decision that came out of the weekend was the need to change the start time of the second performance from 2 to 2:30pm.

The above photograph by Julia is from our Sunday dress rehearsal in Bradford which accomplished almost all of the aspects of production I needed to know in order to have a smooth-running piece.

In just ten days, we will be in the Bradford site for an ensemble rehearsal day on Saturday and then opening it up to two public dress rehearsals on Sunday. We are excited to be finally in the stream of presenting the work.

For those of you who missed the opening days of ticket sales, here is the link. Thanks to all who purchased tickets. Your clear show of interest in the work is an important boost as we enter the last few weeks before dress rehearsals.

TICKETS for Forest are now on sale!!!!!

In just 15 days, the tickets will go on sale for Forest, so I encourage you to look at the Forest website to acquaint yourself with the dates, the Accessibility Services, and Know Before You Go so that when June 24th arrives, you are ready to purchase your ticket. 

Yesterday, I went to Lebanon NH to create a solo for Ellen Smith Ahern. With our dogs, we walked into the neighborhood forest, found a lovely site and began to make the ideas that will be at the heart of this solo. It is a pleasure and an honor to work with Ellen. 

Last September, Jude Domski filmed footage of the test run of Forest. You have seen clips, little teasers over the past several months. For this newsletter, I want to feature Jude’s ten-minute film.

It is snowing, big flakes, covering the bare ground. Winter lingers here at 1800'. The bird feeders are crowded with Evening Grosbeaks as well a whole host of others. Two ducks landed on the pond.

Yesterday, I spent a good portion of the day in the Lost Nation Theatre space at City Hall* in Montpelier preparing Forest's part of the tech for the Opening Celebration on Friday, March 13 from 5-7.

This lead photograph is of the Spotted Forest in September, a setting so mysterious. Today I walked by it, snow on the ground highlighting the lichen spots, white grey brown.

Here we are, in deep mid winter and I thought Julia’s black and white photograph of the Opening Scene, taken in September, very appropriate.

We had fun making and then presenting the in-progress scenes this past September. So much was learned. The weather was lovely, the sound of their feet on the leaves, then the quiet.

When artists make work, we start huge. I remember some of the early ideas for The Quarry Project involved zip lines, harnessed dancers walking down the face of the rock wall, frogmen propelling the stages through the water.

Early this month, the full ensemble of 10 dancers met in Hubbard Park for the day. Everyone got a costume to work in, learned 3 dances, engaged in ensemble training, then ran the three dances.

On September 13, we had a very successful test run of the development stage of Forest. 5 of the scenes, 4 dancers, and 22 witnesses for the morning and afternoon runs.

Things for Forest are moving along. Let me introduce you to the artistic partners: Costume & set designer, Leslie Anderson; photographer, Julia Barstow; poet, Judith Chalmer; filmmaker, Jude Domski; musician & composer, Matt LaRocca; writer Steve Long; my assistant, Jessie Owens; choreographic help from Ellen Smith Ahern and Chloe Schafer, and an ensemble of 20 dancers and musicians will illuminate the places in the forest.