We pick U-pick!

It's blueberry pickn' time in these them thar hills!

We picked and we ate to our hearts content!

See the content there?

We picked 20 lbs!

 That many bloobs are heavy!

After gathering our delicious loot, and getting tips from the pro (thanks Margaret!) we made jam!

 Here are the proud owners of round 1 of many jars of jam.

This year, and because we have so many, we decided to dehydrate some, and freeze some as well. So many ways to preserve these yummy little berries. Hooray!

Vaudevillingham!

Oh Vaudevillingham. Back in the day I was the organizer of the whole thing... for 3 years (somewhere around 2008-2011). This bottle of wine was an idea RJ and I hatched to help the guild raise money. I think we raised a few bucks. The artwork was by George Jartos, and I designed the label. The wine was from the Whatcom Winemakers.

Vaudevillingham has been going strong for 6-ish years now. Chelsea is the current organizer, and she is recruiting them young to keep this performance legacy rolling!

Our youngest volunteer, Matia! Such a cute kid!

Juggle club

My first day back from the Celebration Barn awesomeness, and it's off to juggle club at Boulevard Park. We roll up, and park next to this car, and the placement of the poop is just hilarious to me. There is comedy everywhere.

 It's another gorgeous evening for juggling at the park. A nice gal brought grapes to share with everyone, and Wren and I went to rehearsing our mouth catches. It was a good night.

Celebration Barn Goodbye

The morning of farewells. A small group of devisers make everyone breakfast. Pancakes, bacon, and eggs, bananas, blueberries, yogurt, whipped cream, butter, syrup, oj, etc. It was awesome.

We have our final picture together (minus Mike who left last night, and Karen, and Davis, who couldn't make it back for the show last night).

I had the great fortune of riding back with Michelle and Adam. It was Adam who I rode the shuttle with on the way here, those distant two weeks ago, so it was perfect that we got to ride back together.

After we dropped Adam off, I had a great time learning about Michelle and sharing life stories and future ambitions. Michelle was generous enough to drive me all the way to the airport.Thanks Michelle!

I heard the weather might make for cancellations, so I changed my flight to one leaving 4 hours earlier. That flight was delayed, but I made it and arrived in Seattle at 9pm to the warm welcome of Wren, and late night falaffels. When we roll into Anacortes, it's 3am Barn time. I'm exhausted, but it feels good to be home.

Celebration Barn Day 13

Day 13... the last full day.

We have warm up with Karen, and she shows us some mime stuff! Awesome! Then a quick lunch before the 2pm show! It was an hour show, billed for kids. We did our two ensemble movie pieces, Oz and Wonka. There was a mime trio (one of them being Karen!), Fred Garbo, a ping pong guy (Michael Trautman), a 4-legged fella Michael Menes, a "professor" who I performed with at Moisture Festival, and. Dinner, then prepairing for the evening show which included these same folks, plus a few others, one being Mike Miclon (my favorite!!! So funny!!!). I went upstairs to tidy up the costume room and lo and behold......
I find my wallet!

 Michelle was upstairs with me when I found it, so I got to celebrate with someone. I immediately went downstairs and asked everyone to come together for a photo, then revealed the found wallet! Everyone was so excited! Here is the photo of everyone coming together. The picture of the exciting reveal was only a blur. So here are some of the devisers... Marjo, Monica, Adam, Nettie, and Tayler.

Everyone had been helping me look for my wallet for a week, and asking if I'd found it, and even having dreams of them finding it for me. Finding the wallet (in a pocket of a long shirt that I left upstairs and got covered in costumes) put a nice little button on the awesomeness of this experience here at the Celebration Barn. Wow do I love it here!

Celebration Barn Day 12

Day 12. The Big Show!

Here's the set-list.

The show starts outside with people experiencing intimate live theatre in a moving vehicle. Then I'm the first act, doing my new solo Fireman piece, which combines a rope trick, strip tease, and baby juggling. The others I'm in are, Twelfth Night (a trio), The Ladder (a duo), Rope (solo), and Wonka (group).

 We did run-throughs this morning, then went to town for a boat ride!

Monica, Taylor, Nettie.

It was lovely time. So lovely that I even jumped off the boat, into the dark and scary, yet warm and wonderful lake water of Pennesseewassee, or Norway Lake. Fun facts: Located in the Oxford Hills of Maine, Norway Lake is the common name for Lake Pennesseewassee which has been used for both recreation and in support of local industry in Norway. Norway, settled in 1786 and incorporated in 1797, was known for wood mills, shoe factories and snowshoes. Millie Dunham supplied snowshoes to Commodore Robert Perry for his 1909 Expedition to the North Pole.

Afterwords, Davis had the brilliant idea of getting ice cream.

So we did. Mike just wanted his dipped cone to match his shirt. Success!

Everyone (Jose, Sarah, Davis, Marjo, Nettie) was happy with their choices. Davis was so happy, that he went back for seconds! No joke! Two  consecutive triple scoop ice cream cones. What a champ!

Afterwards, we came back and had some time to work with our live musician, Mike, then prepped for the Show. We had about 20 people in the audience (not including us), and the show was a great success.

Here is the cast of 12th Night... and our emensse amount of props.
Me (as Cesario/ Violeta), Michela (as bow sprit/ crab/ Malvolio/ Orsino), and Sarah (as boat stern/ crab/ Olivia).  I absolutely love these gals!

After our fabulous student recital (Fred Garbo, a Celebration Mime theatre original, said our show reminded him of the old days here at the barn... quit a compliment!), we had a glorious bonfire. Davis loves a good bonfire. This is Sarah and I by the fire. She was worried her forehead would look too big so I tried to cover it with my hand. This looks much better.

I slinked off from the fire, only to be hunted down by Sarah and Davis "worried" about me. Or maybe they were worried about their empty GnT's. Regardless, it was adorable and the feeling of the evening lifted me into dreams of movement and creation.

Celebration Barn Day 11

Day 11.

This morning some folks went on a small hike. I stayed home and enjoyed the peace of an empty-ish (4 of us stayed back) barn.

Here is our apparent schedule for the day.

We worked on our pieces for the show tomorrow night. Here is the backstage area. Most of these costumes are from our act, 12th Night.

 In the afternoon, we played some fun games. "Pulling from the hat" improv was one done as duos, then groups of 4 and 6. Done in 2, 4 or 6 minutes. You get a paper that says something like, "enter and exit abruptly", "look only at the audience", "try to keep from crying", "move only along the walls". It makes for very interesting interactions and "stories", but mostly is just a blast.

The next game was exits and entrances with the idea that the stage should never be empty. Davis has us do this to music and suggests trying surprise entrances, and using props, whatever inspires us. He asks us after, "what makes 'this one' different that the last one?" It is this style of teaching that I admire so much. He gives suggestions to try things along the way, like "start by following a leader". When we did that, it felt more like a 'yes, and' game, which when performing or watching, create something much more enjoyable and natural.

In the evening, we had 2.5 hours to try out new material in any way we wanted. It was a breakthrough evening for me, and others, particularly Michela (she tried an exercise that brought her to revealing deeper things about herself in a most beautiful way).

I tried two improv seeds of ideas. One was for a reverse strip-tease (Sarah and I used to do that as the Gallus Gals, but very different). I had a suitcase and I was in my jogbra and boxer shorts, and put on stuff from the suitcase, having some hat tricks as the button for the act. I did another with a hat of money, and my idea changed abruptly upon picking it up so went with it.

It was the first time I felt I knew the "rules" of the game, and could then play within them. For me, these "rules" are: Have a conversation, listen, be interested and fully present, commit 110% to what you are doing, have or find your fun and share it. And wow, I am having so much fun here.

Celebration Barn Day 10

Day 10.

Wednesday. I love Karen's Premise work. Here two of my favorite statements of hers.

"The body is concentrated imagery."

"Feel no obligation, let go of obedience."

 Those words are true throughout the barn. For our Shakespeare trio, we use a silly foam mask. Davis suggested it would read better if the mouth could move, so he cut a hole in the mouth. I showed Rene (one of the two workshop interns) and she said, "Welcome to the Barn". You can pretty much adapt anything you want here. That's totally how it feels energetically here. No obligation. No obedience. Although... I do feel an obligation to keep my notes, videos, and pictures up and managed. But maybe obligation is not even the word. I look forward to reliving this through these means.

 At the end of the night (11pm), I was so close to going to bed. I was so tired.  But Davis brought up a clown that reminded him of me. Gardi Hutter. So we watched a video of some of her solo show. There was so much there. He told me how close he thinks I am to putting something together. That I have enough pieces already to have a shape for the show. I'll probably need to rearrange them a handful of times to find the flow, and create another piece or two to have it all make sense, but that I'm already close. That kind of blew my mind. In staying up, I also got to chat with the notorious Fritz. In doing so I heard his long-time connection to the barn (he saw his first diabolo act here when he was 8!). 

Hearing that from him, and having my own ecstatic experience with the barn confirms my feeling that this place will be a regular adventure in my life.

Celebration Barn Day 9

Day 9.

Wow, nights getting longer, more "pieces" to work on, more collaborations happening, and fun, fun, fun!

We have our morning meditation and Premise work with Karen... the Premise work I really enjoy and feel is very therapeutic for my back.

Then, in two groups, we were assigned to create a 3-minute piece from a popular movie or novel. Our group chose Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Working in a large group (ours had 5 people), has many dynamics. It is a challenging and rewarding exercise in give and take, and saying yes. It helps me practice negotiation skills, positive communication, and believing in other people's (and my own) ideas.

After lunch, Avner arrived.

He talked about the "I know". When the audience laughs at something you do or happens to you (positive or negative), and you acknowledge it. That small nonverbal statement says "I'm comfortable with you watching me."

A book suggestion from him is "Uncommon Therapy".

He introduced the 3-yes-set in asking for a vollunteer.

His teachings center around rapport with your audience. (Rapport occurs when two or more people feel that they are in sync or on the same wavelength because they feel similar or relate well to each other, and is theorized to include three behavioral components: mutual attention, mutual positivity, and coordination.) So create rapport, then you can do tricks.

People laugh at completion, not cleverness.

Breath example: Inhale - There's a problem. Exhale - Interesting. Inhale - I know what to do! Figure out problem, be proud of self for self, not audience. Exhale - Share pride with audience.

 Fritz came around again, which was great. He's super nice and fun. He stayed late and watched and occasionally gave feedback on the pieces we are working on. It's so nice to have him and Davis and Karen here to help us, along with our group helping each other. It is so very valuable.

This barn experience is changing my life. I am already recognizing the impact on my inspiration, my drive, and my vision for what I intend to do with this work. It is clear that I will create a solo show. And this work makes it feel doable soon. Awesome.

Celebration Barn Day 8

Day 8...back to work.

We did our warm-up, minus the Premise series with Karen, then on to 1-7 energy play with Davis. Within the levels are things like heaviness, suspense, interest, direct/forward/linear thinking, excitement, and extremes.

Lunch and then presenting our trios. The assignment was to create 3 beginnings to our chosen Shakespeare play (ours is 12th Night), and have one iconic moment. Our themes: "If love is the food of life, play on." One had marshmallows, another had chips and a mariachi band. The last one had a ship and crabs, and our iconic moment was Michela sitting on my shoulders so it looks like her legs are super long, with the iconic cross-gartered yellow tights. It was a hoot.

Later we worked on our personal solo or group stuff (like Rene here).

I decided to try out the chair dance again, with Karen reading for me and holding space during the audience reactions. It was a great trial. We talked quite a bit about it when it was over, and Davis even got up and played with the chair to show examples. It was priceless. I have some much anticipated, new fodder and excitement for an updated version of the Chair dance. What a day.

Celebration Barn Day 7

Day 7.

We had the morning off!

Michela's step-dad brought their 2-year old St. Bernard in to say hi before he swept her off to breakfast in town. I stretched, went for my first shuffle of the workshop (jogged), and did some of our Premise series on my own.

After lunch, Fritz Grobe taught a clown-based workshop. It was mostly about how to share a little piece of shit with an audience, breathe, the conversation, and listening. It was awesome, and he's wonderful. Here's a Ted talk of him. Here's his website. He was also in the movie we saw last night (Richard3), looking a bit like this!

After the workshop, Marjo offered to make dinner for everyone. Everyone contributed in their own unique way, and the night was off into a whirlwind of poetry and hilarity.

Nettie picked flowers for the table and had words hidden under our plates. We arranged them to spell out great statements from the day... like this one!

Mike and others went shopping for more food and wine. Adam demonstrated his wine corking techniques...

...and donned his fanciest socks.

Sarah was the kitchen-dance-party DJ... all 80-'s baby, yeah!

Michaela made dessert (chocolate cupcakes with raspberry filling and chocolate gnash on top). We were quick to realize the make-up potential of frosting.

Michaela, Marjo, and Nettie rocked their chocolate clown noses.

Jose took our portraits...

Me and Michaela...

Michelle...

Nettie and Adam...

Monica...

Sarah...

Mike...

And me... in my sweet new outfit created from the wardrobe upstairs.

 I absolutely love this place, and feel so lucky to have a group of wonderful people to be living with for these two weeks. We truly are an eclectic, amazing group together. After dinner, we all cleaned up together, then got to work in our groups for our Shakespeare trios that we will show tomorrow. The team I'm part of (with Michela and Sarah) is a beautiful blend of comic ridiculousness, in all of the ways that I love to be. I can't WAIT until tomorrow.