What a day I had Saturday

Bruce Shiverdecker

In Memorium
Messages
936
Location
Central Illinois
It appears I miss "a Big one" here, but I don't care.

I got to spend the day with Rocco Landsman; the head of NEA (National Endowment for the Arts). This came about due to his comment on the first day he was in office. That was something to the effect that "I don't know if Peoria (of "Will it play in Peoria?" fame)has theatre, but it can't be as good as Stepenwolfe, in Chicago.

The head of Arts Partners and the director of Eastlight Theatre didn't take kindly with the comment, but took the higher road and instead of lashing out, invited him to come to Peoria, so that he will know about Arts in Peoria. Since they were polite, he said that he would come.

In less that one month, the Peoria art community came together with a round table for art organization leaders, a walk through "the Warehouse District", which is an area where Artists and Developers are coming together to revitalize the downtown. After that was an open forum at out local Public TV station, with local artists.

The day ended with a reception at Eastlight and a special performance of "Rent". Which had been done two months ago. They rebuilt the set and some of the musicians and actors came back from Chicago to reprise their roles. While, due to content, Rent is not one of my favorite musicals, the performace had so much energy and heart wrenching acting, made the performance, to me, equal to performances of Phantom and Miss Saigon, that I've seen, done by professional(paid) actors.

What does this have to do with Woodworking? Whether or not you believe me, we are all ARTISTS! It doesn't matter what you do. You deserve to be considered an artist.

AND I HAD A GREAT DAY!!!:thumb:

Bruce
 
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Sounds like you had a fun day, and a bonus that it was a classy way to deal with a negative comment! Way to go!
 
Bob, I think that they march to a different drummer.

Sorry Larry, wasn't in a position to show off any of my stuff.

Brent, these two ladies are a class act. I didn't have anything to do with it except to put my two cents worth at the open forum, enjoy the conversation, and get blown away with the production.


Bruce
 
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