What can be more delightful in the spring than to garden, see a friend’s world premier on stage, receive an unexpected book in the mail from a writer friend, and plan a wedding shower? Now you know. First off, it was the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA staging “Half a World Away,” the play my friend Ruth T. Baker wrote which won Barter’s American Experience new play for 2013. The play is set in a Midwestern city where a large Burmese population has taken refuge. The plot revolves around a seventeen year old boy who spent half his life in Burma and half in America. Caught between two cultures, Than tries to define himself in terms of family, home, and country. The play is riveting and powerful.
The Barter Theatre was started during the depression when Robert Porterfield offered admission by letting local people pay with food goods, “hence the name ‘Barter.’” The theatre is one of the longest-running professional theatres in the nation.
Then, to make my life especially nice, I received unexpectedly the newly published book by my author friend Lawrence Dorr. Although he and his family have lived in Florida since the 1950s, in his mind and psyche he still lives in Hungary, where he was born and endured WWII and its aftermath. What an interesting story he tells in his THE LONG JOURNEY HOME! I wrote a review of his book and posted it on Amazon. I hope he has good luck with it because he is a fine writer.
The wedding shower is for the daughter of a friend of mine. She is one smart cookie, having passed her law exam some years ago, served as an assistant prosecutor, and taught English at a nearby college. I remember when she was a child and would run in and out of my house along with my children.
As I garden, pull weeds, and listen to the birds which miraculously have returned from their winter homes to twitter in our woodland bushes, these thoughts tangle themselves in my mind, and I can’t help but think of the Wall Street Journal (5-1-2013) review of The Little Way of Ruthie Leerning by Rod Dreher. The reviewer Bill Kauffman writes about the author’s search for “a place--- and a people—to which to belong.” Whether it’s the play about Than or the stories in The Long Journey Home, writers know the importance of dealing with “family,” "people," and “place” in fiction.
The Barter Theatre was started during the depression when Robert Porterfield offered admission by letting local people pay with food goods, “hence the name ‘Barter.’” The theatre is one of the longest-running professional theatres in the nation.
Then, to make my life especially nice, I received unexpectedly the newly published book by my author friend Lawrence Dorr. Although he and his family have lived in Florida since the 1950s, in his mind and psyche he still lives in Hungary, where he was born and endured WWII and its aftermath. What an interesting story he tells in his THE LONG JOURNEY HOME! I wrote a review of his book and posted it on Amazon. I hope he has good luck with it because he is a fine writer.
The wedding shower is for the daughter of a friend of mine. She is one smart cookie, having passed her law exam some years ago, served as an assistant prosecutor, and taught English at a nearby college. I remember when she was a child and would run in and out of my house along with my children.
As I garden, pull weeds, and listen to the birds which miraculously have returned from their winter homes to twitter in our woodland bushes, these thoughts tangle themselves in my mind, and I can’t help but think of the Wall Street Journal (5-1-2013) review of The Little Way of Ruthie Leerning by Rod Dreher. The reviewer Bill Kauffman writes about the author’s search for “a place--- and a people—to which to belong.” Whether it’s the play about Than or the stories in The Long Journey Home, writers know the importance of dealing with “family,” "people," and “place” in fiction.
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