I was so proud of you all last night!

Our emphasis on community clearly makes us comfortable and confident working with each other. This reading performance was our most collaborative to date and sets a precedent for our fall shows. There was a real exchange of ideas as we all worked together and the results were much richer for it.

Our department has always had particular traits that characterized who we are and I have discovered that a collective sense of humor is one of them. For one thing, we all work smart. Our skits were funny because they were witty–language is always at the center.

I was struck by how your individual pieces revealed distinct voices that spoke to those things that really matter to you. This reading performance had a strong feminist current and there was such power in it! Many people told me how impressed they were with the intelligence, humor, and strength of the show. A particularly lovely, rather elegant older woman told me that she had long wanted to shave her head and that Hosanna had inspired her to finally do so.

The successful incorporation of other arts and the effort put into the  staging and pacing created the most professional show to date. We owe this professionalism to Tony, Carol, and Rachel, whose own varied arts backgrounds were an enormous contribution–as were Isaiah’s poster, flier, and program design. Many people made a point of telling me it was their favorite CW show to date–including our principal, who was sitting behind me. I will add that this was the first rehearsal week where no one asked to leave early: everyone was completely engaged with the reading as a whole, rather than his or her specific part in it.

I had planned for us to begin our fiction unit Monday, but I have decided we deserve a down day to talk about the show and enjoy our success. I also want for us to begin talking about our upcoming performances. We did a number of things right this time and have learned where we can do even do.

“The Nature of Offense” made the most money we have ever made on a CW performance. As many of you know, the theater holds 350 seats. After we filled them, Kwapy and the techies quickly retrieved forty more chairs to accommodate the over-sale. Tech, by the way, was AWESOME and we are going to go upstairs on Monday and thank them in person. We also are in debt to photographer Heidi Alletzhauser for her professional support. We should be seeing her photos up on our blogsite soon! (Photos from the show can be found here.)

Our Creative Writing Department also includes our parents. We are all completely invested in our community and it shows. Karen Saux and Julie Glantz worked nonstop on our show. Susan Williams and others posted fliers in their neighborhoods. Esther Honda, Jeanette Given, and Sue Weaver provided meals and snacks. Kevin Mogg was our trusty pizza guy and Gary Mankin once again supplied his sound expertise. Nancy Allegria printed the programs. Many wonderful parents supplied the front-of-house support without which we could not have a performance (unless the show was titled “The Nature of Anarchy”).

In the past four-and-a-half weeks CW has won Field Day, had a terrific Kirby Cove trip, and has just completed its highest-grossing and possibly best show to date. And the Giants are in the League Championships! All this and it’s only mid-October!

Keep on trucking! (I can’t believe I just wrote that.)

Love,
Heather