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Footsbarn's
35th Anniversary -- A Celebration of Theatre
Early
Set Ups and Trucking Around the Region
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| July
31 -- Started taking pictures right away, then worked in the
sign shop, then moved over to try and set up a Mongolian Yurt
while the paint was drying. The latter project was a total failure,
and it took another crew all of the next day to figure it out.
(There were no Mongolians nearby to call for advice.) Those
first people, though, were the core of the crew who I worked
with for the rest of the Festival. That evening I sat near Paddy,
and he tried to introduce me to some of the dozens of people
who lived there, and had arrived to help set things up. The
scene was enthusiastic and wild -- most of the people were under
30, or close to it, and were just getting to know one another.
I stood out because I was well over 50 and spoke no French.
Being an American kind of helped, because everyone expected
me to be somewhat linguistically impaired. I kept a sense of
humor about it all, and often said "It's good for me to be quiet"
as the conversation swirled around me. |
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August 1 -- Tuesday: Morning with the tech crew -- meeting Sylvain
and Thomas. Without knowing French, I taught everybody "Monkey
see, monkey do!" -- an expression which won me some friends.
"The Crew" in the big photo below was (L to R) Francois,
Sylvain, Nicholas, Nellie, Thomas, Paddy, and Julie. We needed
to swap scaffolding with one of the tents to build a lighting
superstructure for the Plein Aire stage. I was called away for
postering in the PM with fellow volunteers Sharon and Natalie.
The superstructure was done when I got back. |
August 2 -- Wednesday: Postering all day with Luhan. Learning
to naviagte my way around Bocage Bourbonaise,
seeing the countryside, and making do with about a vocabulary
of dozen shared words. There were paramutual horse races going
on in nearby Vichy, so Luhan placed some bets while we took
a break in a bar in La Palaisse. |
Images
by Michael R. Evans -- Permission is hereby given by the copyright
holder for free use by participants of Footsbarn 35
All Rights Reserved © Michael R. Evans 2006
Email
Me |
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