Late May 2026 Update

   Photograph: Julia Barstow, a still from a performance of Forest.

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. 

At the end of this month, I will be meeting with all the narrators to choreograph their physical part of Forest - where to stand, when to narrate, when to lead the way - that sort of thing. This will also be the first time they get to speak the narration in the actual sites with the amplification equipment. 

Katie Golden, Forest’s administrative assistant, has been working to prepare the online sign up forms and infrastructure for the volunteer request. 

For all of my pieces (and the same is for all the performing artists I know in this country), I have depended on the gift of time and skill from a number of people to help make a seamless, smooth-running production. We are at that point when we need your help and are asking for volunteers to sign up and commit, be it for set-up/breakdown crew or performance crew. July/August/September may seem far off, but as you know, summer whizzes by, leaving us a bit breathless. For more information on being a volunteer, check out the information here: https://www.hannahdennison.org/site-specific-projects/forest#volunteering

Art is not free. Creative artists need to be paid. The budget is over $100,000. That means fundraising - not an easy task in the best of times in the good old USA. Every dollar counts. Please give generously to Forest so this production can reach its full potential.

I will leave you with a photograph I took this morning, of a 100 year old ash tree in the forest. It has not yet become infected with Emerald Ash Borer.

Hannah