WordStage was honored to be asked to present two programs which entertained and educated two enthusiastic audiences in Northeast Ohio.
The first, on a chilly but sunny Saturday afternoon on October 4th, we presented a program of African Folk Tales and Music created for Cleveland’s North Presbyterian Church at the request of Music and Arts Director Dwight Fleming. He has initiated a wonderful program designed to bring the fine and performing arts to a community of people who might not have easy access to them. The modest but responsive audience was made up of Clergy, church members and folk from area homeless shelters. Our program attracted an audience made up of children from ages 8 and up to adults and senior citizens. Their laughter, applause and probing questions during our post show “talk back” were moving and gratifying to the WordStage Company Members who participated in the program.
The second, presented at the Lakewood Public Library’s Main Auditorium on Sunday, afternoon, October 12th, was a program was originally commissioned by the Shaker Heights Arts Council, designed to commemorate the anniversary of the start of World War I – “Bloomsbury and the Great War.” For this new iteration of the work, sponsored by the Friends of the Lakewood Library, the text was reworked and edited during our rehearsals, segments of which were dedicated to collaborative editorial effort by WordStage core Company members, Agnes Herrmann, Mary Beth Ions, Deborah Magid and Paul Slimak. This lively exchange of ideas was reminiscent of those which were the hallmarks of the Bloomsbury group itself. Despite the gorgeous and temperate Fall weather and the sold-out Cleveland Browns vs. arch-rivals Pittsburgh Steelers football game, our program attracted a large and engaged audience, whose incisive questions and comments during the post show discussion were happily received and responded to by the performers.
WordStage will be on a hiatus for the balance of 2014. We are now beginning to book performances for 2015, so please visit this website from time to time for a schedule of “coming attractions.” These appearances will also be announced as they are booked and/or created on this blog. We will also be creating a site on YouTube with highlights from performances from past seasons and will be contracting services to record future WordStage programs.