What Goes on Here...
I attended a conference in Washington D.C. hosted by the National Performance Network in 2002. Since it was post 9/11 there were plenty of new topics that included - the ongoing importance of individual artists and small performing arts groups as creators of some of the most meaningful community arts projects in this country and the sense of isolation many of these same artists experience.
I'm part of the artistic leadership for a small arts organization based in Atlanta called Gateway Performance Productions. The company's 34 years old and has toured performances, residencies, workshops and mask exhibits to 30 states in the U.S. and 12 other countries with a number of programs created for Public Television to its credit. I'm also an individual artist for internationl, national, regional, statewide and local residency programs.
Each year I perform for and teach thousands of people from diverse backgrounds with a special commitment to under-served and low-income populations – especially children. I also attend community, board and planning meetings. The administrative aspects involved in residencies and the creation of new performance pieces are considerable. Solitary hours as a writer, choreographer and director are part of my life, but much of my time is spent in the company of others.
Nevertheless, I do experience a layer of isolation in my artistic life - perhaps the result of the ongoing need to provide personal and artistic information to sources that market and provide funds for my work within the contexts and formats they require. I'm grateful for the support, but immediately recognized an activity that would create a communication balance in my life when I attended a Southern Arts Federation website and blog workshop with Hannah Leatherbury.
Each year I perform for and teach thousands of people from diverse backgrounds with a special commitment to under-served and low-income populations – especially children. I also attend community, board and planning meetings. The administrative aspects involved in residencies and the creation of new performance pieces are considerable. Solitary hours as a writer, choreographer and director are part of my life, but much of my time is spent in the company of others.
Nevertheless, I do experience a layer of isolation in my artistic life - perhaps the result of the ongoing need to provide personal and artistic information to sources that market and provide funds for my work within the contexts and formats they require. I'm grateful for the support, but immediately recognized an activity that would create a communication balance in my life when I attended a Southern Arts Federation website and blog workshop with Hannah Leatherbury.
Hannah described a blog as a kind of online diary - an opportunity to write and directly give voice to and share my life in the arts. Beyond this, I'd welcome the emergence of dialogue about the importance of small arts groups and individual artists to our national life .
The MASK CenterThe variety of ideas and projects that come to life in the tiny nearly eight-year-old performance/exhibit space located in Little Five Points in Atlanta continues to amaze me. The MASK Center is the artistic home of Gateway Performances Productions and the Performing Arts Program for Youth (PAPY) directed by Hilda Willis. Small theatre groups, individual dancers and Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina members of the regional artist service organization called Alternate ROOTS meet, rehearse and perform here. During the last eight months a partnership between Gateway and the Atlanta chapter of the worldwide New Acropolis Cultural Association and its director David Hirschorn has resulted in the creation of two new performance works - one about Hypatia of Alexandra and another about the mystic poet Rumi.
Friday evening ... 4/18/08
NACA gifted 
us with a presentation on Ancient Greek Mystery Theatre - a lecture by Ken Bruce( a NACA member from Coral Gables, Florida) enhanced by a duet for spoken voice and ancient Greek music. Melanie Anderson read an excerpt from Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex while David Hirschorn played harp. Leather masks by our resident mask maker Michael Hickey (originally created for Dr. James Flannery's production of Hecuba for Theatre Emory at Emory University some twenty years ago) were available to be viewed and worn by those who attended. I had the opportunity to unveil and demonstrate a remarkable wicker and fabric horse mask that portrays an ancient pre-classical aspect of the goddess Demeter. The mask was created by Sophia Raushardt from the Dresden School of Fine Arts in Germany while she was in residence at The MASK Center for six months as an intern.
Saturday morning - 4/19/08
us with a presentation on Ancient Greek Mystery Theatre - a lecture by Ken Bruce( a NACA member from Coral Gables, Florida) enhanced by a duet for spoken voice and ancient Greek music. Melanie Anderson read an excerpt from Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex while David Hirschorn played harp. Leather masks by our resident mask maker Michael Hickey (originally created for Dr. James Flannery's production of Hecuba for Theatre Emory at Emory University some twenty years ago) were available to be viewed and worn by those who attended. I had the opportunity to unveil and demonstrate a remarkable wicker and fabric horse mask that portrays an ancient pre-classical aspect of the goddess Demeter. The mask was created by Sophia Raushardt from the Dresden School of Fine Arts in Germany while she was in residence at The MASK Center for six months as an intern.Saturday morning - 4/19/08
Jane Snipes, her daughter Mary and Mary’s friend Sidney met me at The MASK Center to pick up and transport stands and display frames needed to exhibit the masks created by students during my residency on Africa at Brookwood Elementary School in Dalton, Georgia - a community 90 miles north of Atlanta. Inspiration during the residency included the mask collection at the Minnesota Institute of the Arts, mask photos by award-winning Atlanta photographer Michael Birbaum, a film of the masks in use in African communities and a live performance demonstration of mask performing.
The residency is supported by grants from the Georgia Council for the Arts and the Alternate ROOTS touring program with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. Jane helped coordinated all aspects of the residency from schedules to lunches. She's a deeply resourceful woman who's constantly in search of opportunities that will enrich the lives of the students. 
PAPY was in the studio theatre at The MASK Theatre. Almost magically, the four of us found ourselves admitted into the workshop. 20 plus students ages 10-23 (The group includes 7 interns from Clark College.) demonstrated structured improvisation, performed and auditioned a new member. It was a thrill for all of us – especially Sidney who’d mentioned to me earlier as she hauled mask exhibit stuff out to Jane’s SUV that she wanted to go to NYC to study theatre. Somehow our shared love of art and community brought us all together and made it possible for Hilda (who's worked in theatre in NYC for years) and Sidney to meet.
Photos: Sandra Hughes
