A Creative Mama’s Story

Wow. I just read through that last post. It has been a long time since I checked in here. Part of the reason I don’t check in more often is because I feel like I have to write a lengthy informative - somewhat insightful - post each and every time I drop by.

But, hello, Kirsten! Wake up! Aren’t you theo one who gets to make the rules about your blog?

 Yes. I am.

Well…

I’m talking ot myself again. In spite of popular opinion, that’s actually a good sign because it means I might actually listen. And, if I listen, I might be able to make a little shift that will allow me to simply check in and say, “Hi.”

I am posting some pictures of the last show I directed. These are pictures of Columbia Entertainment Company’s production of Strange Snow by Stephen Metcalfe which performed earlier this month. I loved working on this show. Here are my director’s notes from the program which will explain a little bit about why I loved it:

I am very pleased that the Columbia Entertainment Company has chosen Stephen Metcalfe’s “Strange Snow” as their inaugural production for Stage II. The play’s focus on the personal traumas endured by veterans and their families after wartime is particularly apt today. As a society we are just learning about the psychological scars our veterans carry home and how these emotional wounds affect not only the soldiers who bear them, but also their families and loved ones.

As the daughter of a Vietnam War veteran, I am honored to bring this real and human drama to the CEC stage. In spite of the fact that most of my father’s wartime actions live unspoken in his memory, the ghosts of those memories continue to haunt him. I hope that someday he can find the peace that has eluded him since his return home more than 35 years ago.

“Strange Snow” is ultimately about the hope that we can learn from our history how to heal our present time; that we can come to better understand how to help our soldiers and their loved ones heal from the violence of war; that we can find a way to make peace with the sacrifices made, voluntarily or involuntarily, for our country; and that we can honor the grief of losing friends and family members who were not lucky enough to return home.

“Strange Snow” tells the story of two Vietnam War veterans who are struggling through their present to make peace their past. Megs wears his scars on the outside, while David conceals his scars on the inside. Martha is David’s sister whose own dreams have become secondary to David’s silent suffering. While David uses alcohol to self-medicate and to keep him numb to the violence of the war, Martha stays by his side maintaining the home where their childhood dreams and disappointments stare at them from the photographs on the walls. David and Martha have negotiated a silent coexistence, which is shattered when David’s violent past comes back all too alive the day Megs shows up at their door.

Here are some pictures: (Eventually I will figure out how to do this.)