Westward Bound!

this is Baize Buzan excitedly saying hello hello hello! I am a member of the company for NFW's 2008 tour and I am writing today from gray Boxford, Massachusetts bursting with excitement and anticipation as I look towards next week!!

hard to believe that in just FIVE DAYS! from today we will all be together, beginning our Western theatrical adventure. the amount of people that have stopped me when I am explaining my summer plans to exclaim how amazing and beautiful and fantastic Wyoming is has been pretty noteworthy. I have no doubts in my mind that it (and Colorado, and Utah, and Idaho!) will live up to the tales that these people have shared with me. I am extremely thrilled to be spending so much time in a region of the country that I have never before been to - so excited, in fact, that among all the line preparations and research, I have been planning my wardrobe as well -- shocking for those of you that know me! I was shopping with my sister a few days ago and tried to find a Wyoming cowgirl shirt, but alas! no luck. guess I will have to wait until I get there.

the amount of information I've learned doing research for my four parts has been extremely intriguing and enlightening. I'm really looking forward to uniting with this wonderful, talented group of people and dissecting all of the complicated bits and pieces of the text and truly making this play ours.

so -- until next time, at which I anticipate (and pray) that I will be fully memorized, packed (or unpacked?), and prepared....ciao!

love,
Baize

Just a little introduction....

Hi, I am Rebecca Katz and I will be the road manager this summer! Right now I am at one of my favorite places, a tea lounge in Brooklyn, doing some research on grants and potential sponsers. The Rolling Stones just started playing from the loudspeakers, making it a pretty perfect enviorment to get excited about the summer. It is hard to get back in the swing of working again, especially since I have come to associate work with extreme stress and final crunch. But this should be a completely different experience, one of driving passion and fun. I have already had some interesting conversations with people about what we are doing this summer. My mom and I had a really intense discussion about terrorism. We have never talked about what September 11th meant to her. I live in Brooklyn and my mom worked in downtown Manhattan when it happened. I have actually just been sitting here for a while trying to figure out what to say about the discussion. For me and my Jewish, New York community, terrorism and its ideological and practical relationship to Israel and the World Trade Centers is the controversial issue. Terrorism is not a remote concept or experience, but one that has personally affected every person I know. My mom asked me why we were addressing this issue, questioning if maybe perhaps terrorism was too controversial and complex and should be left alone. My mother, a former social worker and an amazing, open woman, has never encouraged me to not talk (and talk and analyze, and then talk some more) about anything. But there she was, raising the idea that maybe some things were too emotionally heavy and dangerous to be explored. I was actually shocked for a moment. To me, it was so instinctively necessary that we needed to open dialogue about terrorism. I am still struggling to articulate that base reaction. If terrorism meant something to me and to others, if it changed our generation and our society, it must be explored. Its rawness as a subject only proved its necessity. We, as a post-9-11 America, have a newly intimate relationship with terrorism than before that day. Yet we have not taken the time as a society to explore what that all means. Has our definition of terrorism changed? Should it? Can a discussion of terrorism ever be divorced from its emotional connotations? What does that mean about the way we, as a country, approach terrorists?

I think that conversation between my mom and I was one of the most adult and interesting conversations we have ever had. It further emphasized the importance of the discussions after the performances and how much heart and sensitivity we need to put into them. But I think within those discussions will be moments and ideas that will change the way we look at the world.

-Becky

We're back!!!

Probably nobody checks our blog anymore as it's been a really long time since anyone wrote on it. But we've been doing things like crazy and are very excited to announce our summer 2008 project, a tour of "Talking to Terrorists," a play by Robin Soans.

The verbatim play is complied from interviews conducted with terrorists in different organizations from around the world, foreign service workers, hostages and others whose lives have been affected by terrorism. We are inspired by its journalistic approach to theater and the discussion topics it provides.

After a three-week rehearsal residency at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming in July, we will go on a three-week tour, stopping in Sheridan, Wyoming at the Carriage House Theater, Salt Lake City at the Rose Wagner Theater, and McCall, Idaho at the Alpine Playhouse. We cast the piece last month and will be taking eight Vassar students, one student from the University of Puget Sound and one from Sheridan with us. We will begin our fundraising process later this month. To get on our mailing list or to donate, email company@nofogwest.org.

We also have a new website up, www.nofogwest.org, that has a lot of information about our last production and the company, so check it out!

This will be another amazing summer! And we will update the blog more regularly.

Max

Going Home.

So here we are. Tomorrow morning, 9 am, I will be leaving the Cannon household to head back to West Virginia. I guess I just thought I would write again one last time before I leave Wyoming.

We made it through the performances and I am very proud of the entire company and our show. We had a fantastic response from the community of Sheridan, and absolutely great audiences. I think we did the best we could. Today we had to strike the set and clean the theatre space. It now looks sparkling clean!

I have somehow managed to fit all my clothes and other items into my bags. After accumulating so many things throughout the past six weeks, I must say I am a little impressed with myself for fitting it all in.

Two of our out of state company members have already left for home, and soon I will be the third, leaving only Max and Adam. I guess really the point of this sappy post is to thank everyone who was involved in this project. I can honestly say that it has been one of the best expriences in my life. I have met so many amazing people; people in the cast and crew, audience members, co-workers, "frat house members", and friends. I can say with confidence that I have met some of the best friends here that I have ever had. So thank you to everyone who made this project a reality; you have given me quite an exprience and quite a lot to think about. I hope that I will be back again soon, and I will miss Sheridan, Wyoming and the people here a lot.

"The whole thing ropes around hope."

Lots of Love,
Angie

The parents are coming! The parents are coming!

So, we made it through our first weekend of performances. Each night had new and interesting differences. It was a success and we can't wait for more audiences. Last week we had articles in The Sheridan Press, The Casper Star Tribune and a segment done on KOTA Territory News. The Wyoming Arts Council blog has very generously endorsed our project and we were on the radio again yesterday morning with Kim Love on Public Pulse (you can listen if you go to www.sheridanmedia.com, click on Public Pulse and then Monday). After our matinee on Sunday we participated in a community discussion moderated by Jesus Rios. The panelists were Georgia Foster, Jack Landon, Bob Miller, Lynn Gordon, Max and myself (Grace). It was a good turn out and it was just wonderful to hear what thoughts people had. People really want to talk about these issues, they just don't know where to turn.

Now, we are excited for our friends and families from out of town to come see the show. Last night we cleaned the "Frat House" so it will look nice for the parents and also the donors' dinner we're hosting at the house tonight. This has been and incredible experience and it is hard to think that it is nearing the end. None of us will ever forget this summer.

ROMAINE!

Hey everyone! It's Angie.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we spoke with another character in the play this week. We were fortunate enough to talk to Romaine Patterson on the fourth. Not only did she speak with us on a holiday, but she is very much pregnant. I play Romaine in the Laramie Project, so to speak with her was amazing to say the least. She was much like I imagined she would be given her character in the play. Though we didn't have any specific questions for her and spoke for only 15 minutes or so, talking to her was very reassuring. Because although she has obviously grown since the play was written, talking to her made me feel like I was on the right track. She is a strong independant woman, and it was a pleasure talking to her.

If you want to see what Romaine is up to now you can check out her website at eatromaine.com.

We are all VERY busy, but I am having a fabulous time and love it here. We are very lucky. I am also extremly excited for the weekend and a couple of days to sleep in, perhaps go camping or horseback riding, just relax.

Have a good day!

Angie

Radio

It's Max, again!

Grace and I were on a radio show early this morning! To listen to the show, Public Pulse, go to http://www.sheridanmedia.com/kroe/audio/pulsetue.asf and skip ahead to around the last half and we'll be talking.

I'll try to get it on here as a file as soon as I can figure out copyright issues.

Thanks!