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November 29, 2007

Writing to you from the beautiful Petit Jean Mountain in Conway County, Arkansas. We arrived late last night, about 11:00 PM. They've put us up in a lovely mountain cottage with gorgeous views, a King Size Bed, up here on Rockefeller's Farm.

We went to work early this morning, down the hill and into town. Started the day with some interviews, looking in on the artist who had an army of other artists working on murals for the storefront windows we'll be performing behind. They had 6 murals going on at once, each reflecting a scene from the show.

It seems everywhere we went today we heard "yes". Sometimes, I think the outsider is necessary to start the engine of something within the town, in order to make it look "magic". In order to interest people, so it doesn't look like another attempt at the same old thing, by the same people, that hasn't worked before, so why get involved this time. There is a magic with outsiders. Grant it, that honeymoon always wears off sooner than I'd like it too, but right now, it is such a sweet time here. I love watching a look of possibility come across a person's face when Richard explains what we're doing. He's such a master of that. His exuberance, his total commitment, his enthusiasm, his audacity to plunge in and try something new inspires others to do the same, and pretty soon, we're all swimming in it together.

We went to the hospital to talk to a man about doing some recruiting, and before we left, we'd already cast two scene with people who work in the hospital. now this is what I call healing art, eh?

The greatest moment of the day was the audition of Doc Biggs. We met him at hte Lion's club where he led us all singing in a rousing rendition of Home on the Range and other songs, after our noon meal. He brought his banjo, and his fried Daaaaaale. That's D- with an extended "a". Daaaaaale. He brought his guitart. Daaaaaaaale is probably 40 years Doc Bigg's junior. Doc was talking with RIchard, and said he opened his dental practice in 1948. OPENED it in 1948, and still practices. YOu can do the math. Doc and Daaaaale played a couple of good old songs they wrote themselves, with a kiss of the Ozarks, and blew everyone away. We stopped the auditions, just to hear a couple more songs, no one wanted to read until after we heard Doc play one more song.

We've had stops at he Sacred Heart Catholic School, the First Baptist Church, the TV station, the art gallery, the chamber of commerce office, lunch with the Lion's club, and auditions. And it's day one. So, pretty much a typical community performance first day. Except....did I mention we open this on Thursday next?