Art Gate - A Portal to My World

2011 Art on the Beltline - Hidden Springs, Atlanta Performance - Photos

2011-11-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011

Water Is Life: Hidden Springs, Atlanta

Atlanta's Art on the Beltline

Produced by Gateway Performance Productions

Conceived,Written and Directed by Sandra Hughes

Photos by Dean Hesse

To View Online Program Click Here.

Hilda Willis and The Dancing Flowers for Peace

Edeliegba Bowden Senior Dance Ensemble

"A Soldier's Farewell" Jerilynn Bedingfield and Allen Pittman

"Picnic at Ponce De Leon Springs" - Mike Hickey and Jerilynn Bedingfield

Water Is Life: Hidden Springs, Atlanta - Performance Program

2011-11-02T18:12:00.000-07:00

To View Peformance Photos Click Here

Art on the Beltline

Sat., Nov. 5 @ 3 p.m.

Atlanta, Georgia
Free and Open to the Public
The performance site is located off Memorial Drive on the section of the Beltline
behind the H. Harper Station Restaurant at 904 Memorial Drive, Atlanta, 30316

Water Is Life: Hidden Springs, Atlanta

Produced by Gateway Performance Productions

Conceived, Written and Directed by Sandra Hughes

Masks Designed and Crafted by Michael Hickey
Bowls Designed by Sandra Hughes and Crafted by Michael Hickey

The Performance

Meer-ah - Storyteller and Singer: Hilda Willis

Pre-History - An Awakening
"Spirit of the Springs "

Choreographed and Performed by Jerilynn Bedingfield with Hilda Willis

"The Critters Gather"

Choreographed and Performed by Allen Pittman with Hilda Willis

"The Flowers"

Dancing Flowers for Peace with Hilda Willis

Directors: Lesly Fredman, Noel Marts, Lori Teague

Choreographed by

Darlene Carra, Marie Carrera, Nurah Dennis, Lesly Fredman, Lynn Hesse, Sandra Hughes, Noel Marts, Alison Mawle, Taylor St. Clair, Lori Teague, Bunny Vrooman

Performed by

Darlene Carra, Marie Carrera, Lesly Fredman, Lynn Hesse, Nurah Dennis, Noel Marts, Alison Mawle, Taylor St. Clair, Lori Teague , Bunny Vrooman.

Before the War

"Ancestors"
Choreographed and Performed by Gwyneth Moss Bragdon with Hilda Willis

"Sounou"

Choreographed by Theresa Howard

Performed by Edeliegba H.J.C. Bowden Senior Dance Ensemble and drummers

Director: Theresa Howard

The Civil War

"Soldier’s Farwell"

Choreographed by Sandra Hughes

Performed by Allen Pittman and Jerilynn Bedingfield with Hilda Willis

After the War

"Picnic at Ponce de Leon Springs"

Choreographed by Sandra Hughes

Performed by Jerilynn Bedingfield and Michael Hickey with Hilda Willis

The Present

Hilda Willis with the Ensemble

For more informaton about the performance click here.

Ghost of the Living - Premieres Nov. 5 @ Alliance Black Box Theatre

2011-10-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

Sandra Hughes directs Ghost of the Living, a play written by Zafirah Matthews - a young playwright from the Bronx, NY. The play premieres at the Alliance Black Box Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta on Saturday, November 5th at 7 pm as part of the 3rd Annual Young Voices With New Visions Short Play Fest. To purchase tickets choose the Evening Showcase by clicking here.

Elizabeth Hirsch-Tauber , a film, television and stage actor, portrays Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is a 15 year old girl who lives alone with her single father. Her mother, April, passed away when Elizabeth was 11 years old. No one know how she died, or even if she died. ...

Zarfirah Matthews
Playwright
Ghost of the Living

The cast also features adult actors Matt Bartholomew, Veanna Black, Jackie Costello, Michael Hickey, Lynn Hesse and Marissa Octavia Boyd as well as youth actors Michael Iluma and Destiny Jackson. Briana Adams is the stage manager. The production is co-produced by YVNV and Gateway Performance Productions in association with the Alliance Theatre Education Department. Pamela-Faith Jackson is the founder/producing director of YVNV.

William Butler Yeats – The Playwright’s Voice

2011-10-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

W.B. Yeats’ constructed dramas for the stage that demanded unique vocal abilities from his actors. Through the use of words intoned and spoken at specific pitches Yeats sought to enhance the emotional and poetic impact of his dramas. Decades before I saw a Yeats’ play produced; I heard the playwright’s words spoken. As a child it was the voice of Cyril Cusack, a member of the Abbey Theatre, who introduced me to the Lame Beggar in The Cat and the Moon, the Tramp in The Pot of Broth and the Old Man in Purgatory. Irish actress Siobhan McKenna’s voice conjured Emer in The Only Jealousy of Emer and Mrs. Henderson in The Words Upon the Window-Pane.

My theatre work involves national and international travel. I’m always eager to attend theatre productions in Atlanta and elsewhere. Nevertheless, I’ve had only one opportunity to experience a production of a Yeats’ play. During the early 1980’s I met Dr. James Flannery - Winship Professor of Arts and Humanities and the Director of the W.B. Yeats Foundation at Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Flannery’s production of Yeats’ A Full Moon in March – full of searing visuals, penetrating music and poetic sensibilities – was produced at Emory University. Beyond this one fully realized production, I’ve had to rely upon written, spoken or recorded versions of Yeats’ plays coupled with my theatrical imagination.

In Cyril Cusack’s article, From Behind the MASK, he describes the vocal style required by Yeats, “…from behind the Mask speech, rejecting natural inflection, incantatory, intoned along a conveyor-belt of poetic stresses; …”

According to Cusack, during the 1920’s and 1930’s a number of actors at the Abbey Theatre left the company and Ireland because they resented Yeats’ “authoritarian rule”.

“This early exodus of actors from Ireland, “ says Cusack, “ is witness to the conflict, steadily pursued by Yeats, between the actor’s practical idea of a theatre theatrical and the poet’s dream of a Theatre of Beauty, a theatre purified and restored to ‘the sanctity of the legends it had once founded itself upon.’ Anything that could come between the Poetic Reality and its communication to the poet’s ‘uncorrupted, imaginative audience’ must be torn away; and that other, that secondary, possibly even parasitic element, the Actor, potential enemy within the gates of such rarefied theatre, must be cut down – at least to size.”

In this age of “actors’ theatre” the vocal style demanded by Yeats might seem as foreign to performers today as it was to the actors who exited the Abbey Theatre and Ireland. Does Yeats, the playwright, need to exercise directorial control over his plays seven decades after his death or can we rely on today’s theatre and spoken word artists to re-imagine Yeats’ work for our time? If this artistic-theatrical impulse can’t be supported or doesn’t exist, perhaps a school to train actors in Yeats’ methods and historical style can be developed. Those who are knowledgeable and able to teach Yeats’ techniques are essential to such an endeavor. A training model exists within Japanese Noh Theatre, which includes chanting 13th century Japanese in a prescribed vocal style. Re-imagining or training - either choice is preferable to none. Yeats’ dramatic and poetic imagery is glorious. His work merits production and inclusion in our ever-growing, global, theatre ecology.

W. B. Yeats - Reflection, Naming the Unnameable

2011-09-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Photo: Mitch Birnbaum

Initiation and Reconciliation
Feathered God, ancient knowing let me drink again at The Hawk’s Well.

Sandra Hughes, “The Hawk”, 1992

Where will I find the words to tell this story? I meet in a house with fourteen others. We sit at a table with books in hand to read aloud and discuss plays, poetry, essays and autobiographical excerpts written by a man dead for seventy- two years – a Nobel prize-winning Irishman who passed away before all but one of us was born.

Each time we meet the need to marry my thoughts with those of the deceased in an alchemical process that renders a whole that is more than the sum of its parts consumes me. I find I’m elated then dismayed by what I have in common with William Butler Yeats. It’s an intimate and, at times, painful experience that consistently requires acknowledgement of how deeply Yeats speaks to and of me. At its core this is an initiation. With each turn of the page I am revealed to myself.

Dr. James Flannery, Winship Professor of the Arts and Humanities and Director of the W.B. Yeats Foundation at Emory University in Atlanta, presides over these meetings. He recently wrote to me in response to an essay I’d sent him, “…I have always felt that you and Yeats are soul-mates”. His observation is as true as it is unexpected. Surprise - a consistent element in my unfolding destiny - provides a momentum that compels me to relate certain passions I share with the poet.

During our second meeting Dr. Flannery spoke to us about “the world Yeats encountered”. “Yeats”, he said, “was born in county Sligo in a country (Ireland) that has more megalithic ruins than any other place in Europe”. He went on to say that Yeats was concerned with prehistory – “especially the nature religion of the world, called Druidism in Ireland”. According to Dr. Flannery, the task Yeats took upon himself was the retrieval of this tradition using poetic words and images to name the unnameable.

What Yeats addresses is a world in exile; one that was once as substantial as the consensual reality we now inhabit. This world became unnameable because it was consistently and determinedly marginalized to the antipodes of the human psyche. Banished beyond the reach of human consciousness this so called “other world” - and the choices inherent in it - were essentially rendered obsolete by a document called the Donation of Constantine. Constantine's Donation - a forged Roman Imperial decree - transfered authority over Rome and the westerm part of the Roman Empire to the pope and took the right away from cultures and countries to determine and appoint their own leadership such as kings, queens and chieftains . During the Middle Ages it supported the Roman Church's claims to earthly and spiritual authority.

Photo: Mitch Birbaum

Invocation of the Moon – The Great Triple Goddess

Staggering slice of innocence, yellow fullness that challenges the sun, icy sliver of wisdom penetrating the void of rebirth, I am yours.

Sandra Hughes, “Faces of the Moon” – New, Full and Dark, 1992

It’s clear to me that I’ve consciously dedicated my life and my art to naming the unnameable. I am the idiot who praises "the withered tree" and seeks water at the dried up well. These are the internal and external landscapes that when replenished have the power to renew the wasteland. Without these sacred spaces there is no future for humanity or the planet we inhabit. I seek to be of service in the world through my actions, presence and creative work. To this end I’ve traveled, performed, taught and when invited reactivated and re-tuned sacred sites in thirty-six states in the U.S. and thirteen other countries. This includes the creation of productions based in Irish myth, legend and culture by invitation for a Peace and Reconciliation Project in the “Murder Mile” in Belfast, Northern Ireland (2000-2006).

As Yeats knew so well, the most potent tools we have to retrieve, name and reclaim the birthright contained within this “lost world” of lore and legend are poetic words, poetic images and poetic actions. Yeats used all these methods and I aspire to them in my work. The recent, vibrant rebirth of poetry as a spoken word art is a strong indication that reclamation of the “other world” and the retrieval of humanity’s lost rights have begun to take root on a societal level.

Photo Images:
The Hawk &The Moon
Performance Pieces Conceived and Choreographed by Sandra Hughes
Masks Created by Michael Hickey
The Hawk, Performer: Michael Hickey
The Moon, Performer: Sandra Hughes

Reflections on War & Peace - A Performance Museum

2011-08-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

Please join us!
Date
Sat. Aug. 27, 2011

Time

8:40 p.m.

Performance

"Voices" and "In Amsterdam" excepts from "The Warrior Tree"

The story of the performers' spontaneous artistic response to a terrorist attack during an International Festival in Amsterdam

Written by Sandra Hughes.

Performed by Sandra Hughes, Michael Hickey

Venue

The Large Gallery

Location

American Friends Service Committee, Georgia Peace Center, 60 Walton Street, NW, Downtown Atlanta - 3 short blocks from the Five Points MARTA Station, Parking available on the street and at parking lots along Cone Street

A Windows and Mirrors Exhibit Event

Followed by:
Reflections on War and Peace: A Performance Museum

Saturday, August 27 at 9:00 pm until Midnight

The performance evening will feature artists from multiple disciplines and connects to themes in the Windows and Mirrors exhibit. We challenge artists to consider and construct work around the social and cultural ways we conceive of war and peace. Our nation has so many conflicting sayings and ideas around war and peace, such as “prepare for peace, but arm for war” this is an evening that will unpack these idioms.

Featured Performers

**Gateway Performance Productions—The MASK Center** Paula Larke and Kim Nimoy with EX-PAND Band** The Art as an Agent for Change Collective **Tom Ferguson w/ drummers **Phyllis Free Association Choir (Elise Witt, Joyce and Jacque and Phyllis Free) **Neil Fried, Priscilla Smith and Guest **Karen Garrabrant**Theresa Davis**Louise Runyon**Nadim Ali**Daryl Funn**Dancing Flowers for Peace**Ursula Kendall Johnson **Bryan Pattillo **Young Nova**Alice Lovelace** JagWonder

The goals for the evening are to bring together artists performing in different mediums and from different generations; present art that challenges the audience; and to connect artists and activists in an intergenerational event. Our objective is to present performance art as a stimulant for social change and raising consciousness.

For more information: www.afsc.org/windowsandmirrors http://www.afsc.org/office/atlanta-ga

alovelace@afsc.org or 404.586.0460 ext. 17
American Friends Service Committee’s Atlanta Windows and Mirrors partners include Alternate ROOTS, American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, Arab Spring Committee, Atlanta Friends Meeting, Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace, Clarkston Community Center, Emory Muslim Students Association (MSA), Emory University Center for Ethics, Friends School of Atlanta, Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition/Atlanta, Georgia WAND, The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialist of America, Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament, UUCA Peace Network, WonderRoot, and Women Watch Afrika.

Words for a World in Exile

2011-08-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

He was concerned – afraid what he’d told me had “broken my heart”. When I heard him say he was fighting a battle on behalf of my work I searched inside my chest and found no panic or pain there. The word for “ heart” in the Irish language is “croi”. It is the seat of emotion, the companion of the soul and the spiritual energy center in the body where personal concerns merge with universal ones. I assured him my heart wasn’t broken. My heart was calm and love still lived there. It was alive with possibilities. But I’d forgotten. The Irish are big-hearted. (They give a larger percentage of their income to charity per capita then any other people in the world.). When you’re Irish it’s easy to forget that an area of your heart can be broken and because of its size you might not feel it right away.

Thirty-five years ago there was another battle over my work. The arena, as it is now, was Public Television. This program and the current one involve Christmas Specials. There’s a distance of three and half decades and 700 miles between them, but the themes are essentially the same; the miraculous made possible during the Christmas season and delivered by divine or beneficent emissaries to humans through the inspiration of dance, theatre and music accompanied by deep spiritual intent.

I wrote the script and directed the performers for the earlier program. It’s twenty-eight minutes long, has a cast of three, and an original score with studio, outdoor and indoor locations. A young girl sits alone on Christmas Eve. As she wraps presents and watches television the weatherman says there’ll be no snow on Christmas. It’s subtle, but clear that the girl is disappointed. As she gazes at the darkness outside the window she becomes even lonelier. Her quiet state of solitude on this sacred eve of celebration allows an aperture to open within her.

A silent emissary manifests in her living room. He coalesces from the atmosphere to embody deep knowing and the spirit of the season. In moments the girl is transported to another world – a place of clarity, precision and possibility where she learns how “to make the invisible visible”. To insure this knowledge can be applied to her world her new companion must accompany her to complete quintessential cultural rituals of season - the selection of last minute gifts and a holiday tree. With this accomplished the girl returns to her living room. Once again, she is alone. Light grows in the once darkened window. The image of her mysterious visitor hovers there. As she watches, his body seems to evaporate into the ether as large snowflakes begin to fall outside the window. The astonished voice of the weatherman announces the advent of a white Christmas.

The station manager’s son- in-law produced this special. She opposed his efforts because she had her own special in the works – but he somehow persuaded her to allow us to go ahead with production. Our program received a Regional EMMY for “Outstanding Entertainment Program of the Year”. I was performing in Belgium when I received the telegram - “Sandy, We won the EMMY! Randy”. The program was also distributed nationally and broadcast by many stations throughout the United States.

My current offering to Public Television, which I conceived, choreographed and directed, is less than four minutes in length. Three angels inhabit it. They arrive suddenly from heaven with news of the precious gift given to us by the appearance of the Holy Child. We are reminded that the urgency of our need has been answered and we are not alone. Perhaps the rejection of this work by Channel 8, Atlanta has many levels of complexity or it may be that a theme so central to the meaning of Christmas has no place in their current programming climate. Although the battle seems lost, my friend and colleague continues to lobby for the angels. It seems possible that many will be denied the opportunity to view this fully realized work that has been performed live on the stage for three years at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at Emory University for sold out audiences as part of the annual Celtic Christmas Concerts in Atlanta.

These video manifestations of my work are made from the same cloth the Irish poet and dramatists W. B. Yeats used to fashion his artistic expressions. They speak for a world in exile; one that exists within this world – as close as breath and the rhythms of the heart. It is a place woven at its core from genetic, ancestral and cultural memory – full of beauty, sorrow and redemption. Although poetic, it is not essentially a world of metaphor. It is most easily described by images, feelings, words and thoughts that emerge and retreat in counterpoint to our culture’s consensual reality. For many it is a realm of retrieval where components for which there seem to be no words can be reclaimed even though these qualities and historical realities have long been banished from our consciousness. It has found refuge and sanctuary in the realms of Irish myth, poetry, literature, folktale and culture. This is a world that once belonged to us all - grounded and connected to nature, the body and the cosmos. Rather than being some idiosyncratic area of Irish imagination and whimsy it is a remnant of world wisdom and transcultural knowing. The Irish have retained it, died for it and carried it to the corners of the earth as part of their worldwide Diaspora.

As for the fate of my latest offering to Public Television my response at this point is to say that creativity and controversy seem fated as eternal partners. The creative force wants to move us. It’s inherent - a constant by-product of the creative process. Whether we create or partake, we will be moved, set in motion and sent in directions that are unexpected, sublime and, at times, uncomfortable. Comfort often breeds immobility on some level of the personality. Life is motion and flow. Everything in our body moves. When movement ceases so does life in this world. To refuse to move is dangerous - a kind of personal and cultural death wish.

Atlanta's Art on the Beltline - Water Is Life:Hidden Springs, Atlanta

2011-08-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

To View Performance Photos Click Here.

Water is Life: Hidden Springs, Atlanta is an outdoor site performance designed, written and directed by Sandra Hughes. The production features drama, dance, masks, mime, music and visual art to celebrate the times when Atlanta’s now hidden natural springs were visible and usable - before , during and after the American Civil War. This year marks the beginning of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.

Hidden Springs premieres on Saturday, November 5 at 3 p.m. for Atlanta’s 2011 Art on the Beltline. The performance site is located off Memorial Drive on the section of the Beltline behind the H. Harper Station Restaurant at 904 Memorial Drive, Atlanta, 30316. The performance is free and open to the public. To view the program for the performance click here.

A number of specific natural springs in Atlanta inspired the creation of this production – the spring beneath The Mask Center (located on the ground floor of the Little Five Points Community Center) that was part of a field hospital during the American Civil War, the once famous Ponce de Leon Springs spa, Angier Spring at Goddess Garden Atlanta and other area springs that are currently either covered by buildings, diverted or relatively unknown. According to Sandra, the springs in Atlanta were once much more visible – a vital and vibrant natural resource that deeply enriched the city’s quality of life.

performer: Allen Pittman, wooden frog mask: Michael Hickey, photo: Sandra Hughes

The cast of Hidden Springs includes dancer, mime, mask performer, choreographer Jerilynn Bedingfield; dancer, choreographer Gwyneth Moss Bragdon; Dancing Flowers for Peace; African dance performed by Edeliegba H.J.C. Bowden Senior Dance Ensemble; mime, mask performer Michael Hickey; movement, martial artist Allen Pittman and actress, vocalist, storyteller Hilda Willis. One of a kind hand-carved theatrical masks created by Michael Hickey as well as bowl-masks designed by Sandra Hughes and crafted by Michael add a dramatic visual art layer to the performance.

bird mask: Michael Hickey photo: Sandra Hughes

Sandra Hughes is the Producing Artistic Director of Gateway Performance Productions http://www.masktheatre.org/ - a non-profit arts organization based in Atlanta since 1978. Gateway produces original productions that have toured to 36 states in the United States and 13 other countries. Video productions of the company’s work have showcased at the American Film Institute Video Festival in Los Angeles, been distributed nationally for Public Television and been featured on Canadian National Television.

Performances, school assemblies, workshops and residencies are an integral part of Gateway’s community outreach programming locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. The company also maintains The Mask Center – located in the Little Five Points Community Center in Atlanta. The Center serves as a unique community resource for performances, workshops, rehearsals, exhibits and meetings. Gateway is a member of Alternate ROOTS.

If you have information about Atlanta’s natural springs you’d like to share, please contact Sandra Hughes at sandra@masktheatre.org

You can find out more about the production and its artists at the following links:

Jerilynn Bedingfield http://www.masktheater.org/Jerilynn_Bedingfield.html

Gwyneth Moss Bragdon http://www.masktheater.org/Artist_Gwyneth_Bradgon.html

Dancing Flowers for Peace http://dancingflowersforpeace.org/

Edeliegba H.J.C. Bowden Senior Dance Ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yVLpab4SJY
Gateway Performance Productions http://www.masktheater.org/Home_Page.html

Michael Hickey http://www.masktheater.org/Michael_Hickey.html

Sandra Hughes http://www.masktheater.org/Sandra_Hughes.html

Allen Pittman http://apittman.com/blog/

Water Is Life: Hidden Springs, Atlanta

http://artgate.blogspot.com/2011/07/hidden-springs-selected-for-art-on.html

Hilda Willis http://www.hildawillis.com/

Hidden Springs is made possible in part by grant awards from Atlanta's Art on the Beltline, City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs and the Fulton County Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council.

Creativity and Community

2011-08-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

How to creatively maintain and establish communities remains a challenge.

Until recently the road to monetary profit provided a clear, uncluttered, well-worn route that supported the creation of a life-style, a legacy, some semblance of material stability in our lives. The essence of the non-profit sector is the creation of programs and services to benefit others ( the community-at-large and those less fortunate or able) by religious groups, arts and educational institutions, agencies and other orgs.

Non-profits like commercial businesses must earn their monetary support. Their sources include grant contracts to provide specific public programs and services, earned income from the sale of services or goods and contributions from individuals and businesses to support activities that benefit the community. The bedrock is the creation of a collective quality of life in order to develop and maintain healthy, viable communities. Non-profits are especially able to meet “intangible”, non-monetary human needs that transform lives in the areas of support, renewal, wisdom and healing.

The existence of both for-profit and non-profit organizations in a community provides balance. Like the right and left hand or the right and left-brain they complement each other to create wholistic choices and alternatives that inform and maintain shared values and resources. What emerges from our unified efforts is the creation of a community-wide feeling of goodwill toward other people – a kind of pervasive love in action that moves freely across economic, cultural, religious, political and language barriers to create opportunities for acceptance and engagement for all.

A Great Connection - Atlanta’s Art on the Beltline

2011-07-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

Atlanta’s Art on the Beltline has selected sixty-six visual and performing art pieces to present along the 22-mile loop of proposed transit and urban green space. Water Is Life – Hidden Springs, Atlanta (the performance piece I proposed) is included as part of this three month event which is now in its second year.

***

One Saturday morning I join a number of the other artists to walk part of the Beltline to locate sites for our outdoor projects. Early into the hike a fellah walks up beside me and says, “Hi, Sandy”.

“Hi.”

"You’re from Erie,” says he.

“I am,” says I.

I look him over carefully and decide I don’t know him. He certainly seems to know me.

***

Presque Isle, Erie PA - Oct. 2010 Photo: Sandra Hughes

Usually, only family members and long time friends call me Sandy. Occasionally, someone says it intuitively which I always appreciate because I actually prefer Sandy to Sandra. I adopted the use of my full, formal, first name some decades ago as a career tactic (back when I looked like a teenage babysitter) to encourage people who met me to take me seriously as an artist.

It turns out Harry Zmijewski is one of the Beltline artists, too. He does sculpture and is originally from Erie, PA. We went to the same high school (Academy) and junior high (Wilson). I’ve lived in Atlanta for over three decades and this is the first time I’ve met another person here from my hometown. (There may be other Erieites out there, but I haven’t met you, yet.) I’m told only 1% of the people born in Erie ever leave.

Dreams of Flying by Harry Zmijewski

You may have heard the saying, “Dreary Erie, the mistake by the lake". It’s a ploy to keep the place from becoming over-populated. Erieites don’t leave Erie. Why? Because they like it there. When I was 15 years old my father took a job in Texas and I was removed from Erie by my parents. My father was born in Canada – not Erie. My Mother was born in New York - not Erie.

Harry tells me his experience is same. He’s been in Georgia since the 1980’s and I’m the only other person he’s meet here from Erie.

Gem of Thought by Harry Zmijewski

Harry’s creating a bench for Art on The Beltline – a very fancy bench with six parts. It’s so unique he holds the copyright to it. Two of Harry’s sculptures, Dreams of Flying and Amne, are currently on the Suwanee, Georgia Walkable Exhibit. (You can also vote for Harry's sculptures at this site.) His original outdoor sculptures are on display through March 2012 in downtown Suwanee and they’re both for sale.

Amne by Harry Zmijewski

Oh yes, Mike Hickey, a member of our creative team for Hidden Springs, was walking on the Beltline trail behind me and told Harry about me. I wonder if Mike actually called me Sandy and said I was from Erie. I’ll have to ask Harry. I also wonder how many other people are out on the Beltline connecting with people from their hometown! When I know the dates and site locations for Harry's bench and my performance at Art on the Beltline I'll let you know.

Atlanta - Urban Lifestyle

2011-07-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

It’s summer. The land is green with short grasses and oak trees. The earth when revealed by erosion and building construction is red clay. Gone is the drought that left us nearly waterless. Our steamy five-month summers have returned and the air is familiar with heat and humidity. The recent Fourth of July Independence Day holiday was marked by thunderstorms that dampened fireworks displays and outdoor barbeques.

Nearby street and place names such as Druid Hills and Ponce de Leon (or “Ponce” as locals call it) are not mere labels bestowed by the whimsy of developers. They're part of the history, people and places that have repeatedly captured the attention of the world.

Margaret Mitchell wove the burning of Atlanta and the heroic and iconic substance of the American Civil War into her book Gone with the Wind. Ken Burns made the events of this conflict palpable in his series for Public Television.

Our country’s legacy of slavery birthed a civil rights movement in Atlanta’s Fourth Ward. An historic district managed by the State of Georgia preserves the house, the church and parts of the community where the civil rights leader and Nobel Prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born, preached and sought to engage the consciousness of the nation. Former United States President Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center is nearby.

Inter-connected walking neighborhoods inhabited by joggers and dog-walkers – rare in this 17 county metro area with minimal public transportation that is dominated by a car culture – support mid-rise apartments, lofts, churches, costly bungalows, subsidized housing for the elderly and disabled as well as independently owned restaurants and retail stores. Established and emerging artists, young hipsters, the working poor and the homeless live here anchored economically by community-minded, middle class residents.

This area includes a distinctive arts and entertainment district called Little Five Points frequented by locals and tourists. L5P is an officially designated “hate free zone”. Long-time residents claim there was a standoff with Ku Klux Clan members in the streets during the 1970’s. This feisty, tenacious neighborhood is unique in the city, the state and perhaps the entire South.

This is where I work, live and socialize when I'm not traveling throughout the state, the region, the country or the world. It is a home with an urban edge - potent with history and activity.

Hidden Springs Selected for Art on the Beltline - Atlanta

2011-07-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

To View Performance Photos Click Here.

The view an update on the Hidden Springs performance on Nov. 5, 2011 for Atlanta's Art on the Beltline click here.

My project proposal - Water is Life - Hidden Springs, Atlanta - has been selected for inclusion in Atlanta’s 2011 Art on Beltline. The project brings focus through public performance, community art making and landscape alignment to Atlanta’s now hidden springs and their former function as public and private water resources before, during and after the American Civil War. 2011 marks the beginning of the 150th anniversary of this war. The performance includes dance, drama, masks, mime and music and will take place on Saturday, November 5th at 3 p.m. at the outdoor performance site near the Memorial Drive entrance to the Atlanta Beltline (behind the Station).

Eleven years ago Gateway Performance Productions, -the non-profit arts and education organization I helped found - established a performance, rehearsal, workshop and exhibit space at the Little Five Points Community Center in Atlanta. Joe Shifalo, the then building manager and visionary founder of the L5PCC (also known as the " Mayor of Little Five Points"), told me a natural spring that served a Civil War field hospital was located directly beneath the floor of The MASK Center - Gateway's ground floor performance venue.This historic reality has informed my inner creative landscape for over a decade.

Natural springs were once an important part of Atlanta’s lifestyle and economy. The huge City Hall East building located on Ponce de Leon Avenue, one of Atlanta’s major streets, covers the famous Ponce de Leon Springs that once offered recreation and healing to residents and visitors. Gateway’s Board Chair Tom Spach has a home with a creek that runs between his property and the Callanwolde Center for Fine Arts. Tom recently told me there used to be a visible spring on the grounds that surround Callanwolde - a central feature at the parties held outside the magnificent Gothic-Tudor style home when it was owned privately by the Charles Howard Candler family.

The first rehearsal for Hidden Springs took place on Sunday, July 3 at The MASK Center in Atlanta. Performers Allen Pittman, Michael Hickey, Gwyneth Bragdon, Dahna Barnett and Diana Young created dance and music to honor the spring beneath them for providing water for soldiers during the Civil War. They also aligned the space using the methods taught to me by Franco Santoro, a staff member at the world famous Findhorn Foundation in Scotland - a United Nations Training Center for Planetary Sustainability. My studies with Franco during 2009 were made possible by a grant award from Alternate ROOTS and the Ford Foundation as well as support from Gateway Performance Productions.

Water is Life - Hidden Springs - New Performance

2011-04-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

To View Performance Photos Click Here.
Water is Life Part 1

Hidden Springs

Atlanta

Spirit of the Springs
Inspiration

Two major influences, history and healing, inspired the creation of Hidden Springs - an original, outdoor, site specific performance work. In September 2000 I became the Artistic Director of The MASK Center - located on the ground floor of The Little Five Points Community Center in Atlanta. During renovation into an exhibit, studio and performing venue Joe Shifalo, the then building manager, told me the space was directly above a spring that had once been part of a field hospital that treated injured soldiers during The Civil War. I think of this often as I work and create in the space. This historic reality has been aching to express itself artistically for over a decade and especially now as 2011 begins the 150th anniversary of The Civil War.

Water to Heal

During the summer of 2009 with support from Alternate ROOTS and the Ford Foundation I returned to the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, a United Nations’ training center for planetary sustainability, to attend a workshop focalized by staff member Franco Santoro. Franco's workshop introduced a process that offers the opportunity to align with a landscape to encourage the emergence of cooperative processes with the land, nature, ourselves and others. This type of intentional action invites renewal, re-creation and rejuvenation. During 2010 a staff member at the Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur, Georgia and a community coordinator at the award-winning East Lake Commons Co-housing in Atlanta worked with me to implement this design approach in support of each organization’s vision for its community. An essential premise is that the land has a history that needs to be recognized and healed. Hidden Springs encourages this process.

Sandra Hughes
March 2011
Atlanta, Georgia

Water to Drink
Concept

The title Hidden Springs refers to the once famous Ponce de Leon Springs and other lesser-known springs in and around Atlanta that were once above ground until buildings and other forms of development covered or diverted them. The production features visual art, dance, drama, music, mime, masks, storytelling and narration as well as audience and community participation to bring the story of the springs to life through performance to celebrate the historic importance of these water sources to the residents of Atlanta during the 1860's.

Creative Team

Creative Team Members include: Gateway Performance Productions Principal Artists: Jerilynn Bedingfield, Michael Hickey and Sandra Hughes; Gateway Artist-in-Residence Hilda Willis; Gateway Affiliate Artists Gwyneth Bragdon and Allen Pittman; Musician Paul Byrum who collaborated with Sandra Hughes for her production of Simple Gifts about the the birth of the textile industry in Dalton, Georgia and Gateway Associate Bunny Vrooman.

Site Images Created by Michael Hickey

Martial Arts & Yoga with Allen Pittman in Europe - May & June 2011

2011-03-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

Wisdom of the Body

presents
" The Scythian Path Tour - 2011"

Harnessing the best of the East and West

Yoga, Martial Arts and Conditioning as related to the needs of 2012.

Allen Pittman

Lineage holder of Chen Pan-ling, Chang Chuen-feng

Student of Tim Geoghegan

Bodyguard to the Dalai lama

May 7/8 London

May 10-12 Manchester (Lake District)

May 14/15 Brest

May 21/22 Paris

May 28/29 Zurich

June 4/5 Rome

Contacts

London-Andrew Hunter: reband@btinternet.com
Lake District- John Bolwell: spiralmyth@lineone.net

Brest/Paris-Erwan Cloarec: ercloarec@gmail.com

Zurich-Stefan Marced: info@internalwork.ch

Rome-Luigi Zanni: l.zanini@libero.it

Martial Arts - Allen Pittman - Wed., March 23

2011-03-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Allen Pittman with Students @ The Mask Center

Photo: Mitch Birnbaum

Allen Pittman

Martial Arts Workshops

Wednesday, March 23

Session One

7-8 pm

Wisdom of the Body for Men and Women

1. - The essential history of the path of humanity to adulthood

- infant movements and animal movements to standing human.

2. - Basic Egyptian Yoga

Session Two

8-9 pm

Amazon Dance for Women Only

3.- Archetypal Movements and Speaking Phrases

"All three sections … together represent the path of the human being into our present time."

Allen Pittman

Location

The Mask Center

Little Five Points Community Center

1083 Austin Avenue

Ground Floor

Atlanta, Georgia 30307

Free Parking

No Set Fee

Donations Encouraged

I
Information

sandra@masktheatre.org

404 222 9262

Meet the Artist - Jerilynn Bedingfield - Performer and Master Gardener

2011-03-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Jerilynnn Bedingfield

Photo: Sandra Hughes

Jerilynn Bedingfield is a principal performer with Gateway Performance Productions. She currently portrays the character Honey Bee in the company's new touring productions -
Honeybees Are Important! for family audiences and the school version of this production. Jerilynn's an international and national performer for Gateway whose passion for gardening makes her uniquely qualified to understand and portray the character of Honey Bee and to offer garden related workshops and residencies in conjunction with these performances.

Jerilynn says, Let's learn basic skills to help design a pollinator's garden to attract the beneficial insects that are important to our environment. Let's build a pollinator's garden and learn about good soil quality and compost as we prepare the soil to plant plants that attract the pollinators. Then let's plant a variety of mostly native plants and learn along the way what attracts the pollinators to each specific plant.

Jerilynn is a Master Gardener in Dekalb County in the state of Georgia. She apprenticed at the Union Agricultural Institute in Blairsville, Georgia and was the staff gardener/site manager and volunteer coordinator at the Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur, Georgia. In this position Jerilynn worked with 600 volunteers annually. She continues work with the chickens and bees on this two acre urban greenspace.

Her experience includes developing schoolyard gardens, pollinator gardens, vegetable gardens, outdoor reading rooms, arboretum and creek bank restoration. Jerilynn has taught garden- to- table cooking classes, earthworm education and compost and soil science. She currently offers garden coaching, consultation and design specializing in sustainable urban edible gardens. Jerilynn is also an active volunteer in her community in many garden and environmental education related activities.

Recent performances for Gateway include Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale and Kabalevsky's The Comedians at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival in Florida, Illusions - Mask Theatre and A Mummers Tale of the Seasons at the Aero International Mask Festival in Denmark, The Honeybee Story at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta as well as Honeybees Are Important! at Seaborn Lee Elementary School in College Park, Georgia and at Garden Hills Elementary School in Atlanta.

Jerilynn's performing arts background is diverse. She's toured internationally for Core Performance Group and worked as a choreographic assistant for Tanzfabrik Dance Company in Berlin, Germany. Her professional career has taken her across international waterways for Royal Viking Cruise Lines as a performer with Driscoll's Magic Productions and around the three rings of Ringling Brothers Barnum Bailey Circus on national tours. She's also appeared in commercials and several art house films.

Jerilynn studied dance with with Bill Evans, Garth Fagen, Mark Morris, Ohad Naharin, Katherine Dunham, Johanna Haigood, Pat Grainey, Cleo Parker Robinson, Eiko and Koma, Susan Marshall and Mark Dendy. Her performing arts and movement training includes modern, jazz, ballet, tap, ethnic,mime, ariel ,trapeze, eurythmy, drama, musical theater, gymnastics, yoga, tai chi and clowning.

Jerilynn has taught dance for Tanzfabrik in Berlin, Germany; Brenau College in Gainesville, Georgia; The High School of Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas as well as throughout the state of Georgia at The Art Station in Stone Mountain, Cartersville Dance in Cartersville, Gilmer Arts in Ellijay, the YWCA in Atlanta, and the Atlanta Children's Shelter.

To find out more about bringing these performances, workshops and residencies to your community:

email - gatewaypp@masktheatre.org or phone - 404 222 9262

http://www.masktheatre.org/
http://www.thebeeproject.org/

Honeybees Are Important! - Available for Touring

2011-03-11T17:39:00.000-08:00

Honeybees are Important! written and directed by Sandra Hughes was performed by Gateway Performance Productions in Atlanta, Georgia on February 25th. The production was presented by Young Audiences at the Woodruff Arts Center. Principal performer and master gardener Jerilynn Bedingfield portrays an Italian Honey Bee. Italian honeybees are favorites of beekeepers in the USA. Honey Bee is in trouble!

Comic characters from the Italian Commedia del' Arte Theatre - Michael Hickey as Arlequino and Sandra Hughes as Columbina - are determined to do everything they can to help Honey Bee stay healthy and able to pollinate to keep all the delicious, nutritious foods she makes possible in their diet...

Photos: Bunny Vrooman

... and in their beloved chicken Sylvia's diet as well. Sylvia is portrayed by Fieldtrip- a particularly gentle chicken who lives at Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur, Georgia. Fieldtrip has extensive experience as a visitor to schools and other community sites.

Honeybees Are Important! is about understanding how important honeybees are to food supplies for humans and animals and learning what we can do to help these tiny pollinators who are currently threatened by disease, mites, pesticides and colony collapse disorder. This production is part of Gateway's The Bee Project which provides educational performances, workshops, residencies and information about honeybees. The show has also been performed for family audiences at Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History and is now available for touring to museums, theatres, festivals and other community venues.

Bee Project programs have also been presented at the Chattahoochee Nature Center, the Averitt Center for the Arts in Statesboro, Georgia, Futral Elementary School in Griffin, Georgia and other school venues. Project and program sponsors include The Turning Point Healing Center in Marietta, Georgia, Coastal Organic Growers, 21 Things I Love in London, England and the Phoenix and Dragon Bookstore in Sandy Springs, Georgia.

A school version of Honeybee Bee Are Important! was developed by Gateway during a YAWAC professional learning seminar facilitated by National Program Specialist Gregg Johnson. This version of the production has been performed at Garden Hills Elementary School in Atlanta and Seaborn Lee Elementary School in College Park, Georgia. It is now available for touring as well.

Contact gatewaypp@masktheatre.org or 404 222-9262 to find out how to bring either or both of these productions to your community. Related workshops and residencies are also available.
http://www.masktheatre.org/
http://www.thebeeproject.org/

These programs are made possible in part by support from the Fulton County Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council and the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs.

Gospel Hour Sun. March 13 @ The MASK Center

2011-03-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

The Johnson Party is ramping up to perform their 3rd monthly Gospel Hour on Sunday March 13th, 5:00pm. Come on down to The Mask Center located in the Little 5 Points Community Center at the corner of Euclid and Austin Avenues in Inman Park, (1083 Austin Ave, Atlanta, GA 30307) for Atlanta's very first non-sectarian non-traditional gospel hour of eclectic wanderlust music. You can sing along if you’d like or just listen and stomp your feet at this Sunday alternative (or adjunct to) traditional church going. The 7-piece ensemble will be playing upbeat tunes with spiritual themes. Listeners can expect to hear folk, reggae, Appalachian spirituals, 70's soul, pop, rock and roll, original music and more. The show is free to all, but donations are encouraged for the host location, The Mask Center.

Featuring: Tom Spach (Bass, Vocals), Kerry Lance (Vocals, Percussion), John Hill (Electric Guitar, Mandotar, Sitarar, Banjitar, Vocals), Justin Duff (Sax, Vocals, Guitar), Erik Johnson (Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals), Tori Hood (Vocals), Nathan Brazaille (Drums)

"The spiritual significance of music lies in the fact that it literally brings people together at a level of vibration that transcends boundaries, culture, language, religion, gender, age, color and politics, a place where we can all experience our sameness."~ Dennis Merritt Jones

Martial Arts with Allen Pittman March 5

2011-02-28T20:33:00.000-08:00

Sat., March 5

Martial Arts

Allen Pittman

Session 1: 7-8 pm
Wisdom of the Body for Men and Women

Experience the essential history of the path of humanity to adulthood

Session 2: 8-9 pm
Amazon Dance for Women Only
Archetypal Movements and Speaking Phrases
The Mask Center
Little Five Points Community Center
1083 Austin Avenue
Ground Floor
Atlanta 30307

Free Parking
No Set Fee
Pay What You Can Donations Encouraged
To Cover Allen's Travel Expenses and Support his Work
To confirm participation: sandra@masktheatre.org
-

Martial Arts Training - Allen Pittman

2011-02-17T14:26:00.000-08:00

photo: Mitch Birnbaum

Martial Arts Training

Allen Pittman

Friday, Feb 25

Session 1: 7-8 pm

Wisdom of the Body for Men and Women

1. - Experience the essential history of the path of humanity to adulthood as taught in religion and philosophy - infant movements and animal movements to standing human.

2. - Basic Egyptian Yoga

Session 2: 8-9 pm

Amazon Dance for Women Only

3.- Amazon Dance, Archetypal Movements and Speaking Phrases

"All three sections; … together represent the path of the human being into our present time."

Allen Pittman

Amazon Dance Photos

Location: The Mask Center, Little Five Points Community Center, 1083 Austin Avenue, Ground Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30307

Free Parking

Free Sessions

Donations Accepted

Information:

sandra@masktheatre.org

404 222 9262

Honeybees Are Important! @ The Woodruff Arts Center

2011-02-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

Some of you may have seen a performance of my play for family audiences about the importance of honeybees at the Bug Out Festival at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta last August and September. A school version of Honeybees Are Important! will be performed Friday, February 25th at 11 a.m. – presented by Young Audiences at the Rich Auditorium at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta.

Michael Hickey, Jerilynn Bedingfield and I (Sandra Hughes) utilize masks, music, drama, mime and dance to encourage students to experience, understand, participate and learn about the importance of honeybees to our food supply - as well as their important role as pollinators of the food eaten by animals.

In 2006 after working to help dying honeybees at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland (with support from the Ford Foundation and Alternate ROOTS) I returned to the U.S. and founded The Bee Project with support from Gateway Performance Productions. The Bee Project exists to raise awareness about the current global plight of the honeybee and to create performances, workshops, and programs that give the public the opportunity to learn more about how these tiny insects benefit our planet.

We have two other upcoming school performances of Honeybees Are Important! through YAWAC in the Atlanta area :

Monday, February 28, 10 am: Seaborn Lee Elementary School, College Park

Friday, March 4, 8:30 am: Garden Hills Elementary School, Atlanta

These performances are part of a national Young Audiences' process - currently implemented locally by YAWAC’s Program Consultant Gregg Johnson - designed to encourage artists to create new school programs

If you’re interested in having Honeybees Are Important! or one of our other performances performed for a school, family or general audience, please contact: gatewaypp@masktheatre.org or 404 222 9262 for information, availability and fees.

Gateway is on the following Touring Arts Rosters for Performances, Workshops, Residences:

Young Audiences Woodruff Arts Center: Metro Atlanta.

Georgia Council for the Arts: Statewide, fee subsidy available.

Alternate ROOTS/Ford Foundation: Regional, 14 Southern States, fee subsidy available.

Sandra Hughes and Michael Hickey are on the following Artist Rosters as Teaching Artists:

Young Audiences Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta

Georgia Council for the Arts, Aritists in Education.

All three upcoming performances of Honeybees Are Important! are made possible in part by a National Young Audiences’ Classic Initiative Grant award and a grant award from the Fulton County Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council. The performances at the Woodruff Arts Center and Garden Hills Elementary are also made possible in part by a grant award from the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs.

Gateway Performance Productions is a 35-year-old non-profit arts and education organization. The company creates new works for the stage and video and has toured performances, workshops and residencies locally, statewide, regionally, nationally and internationally to 34 states in the US and 13 other countries. Video productions have been distributed nationally for Public Television and showcased at the American Film Institute Video Festival in Los Angeles. Gateway is a member of Alternate ROOTS.

The MASK Center - a project of Gateway Performance Productions - is located in the Little Five Points Community Center, 1083 Austin Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA, 30307. The Center is an artistic home to theatre, dance, mime, music, mask theatre and visual artists and is also utilized for projects by poets, filmmakers, puppeteers and community organizations.

Gateway Artists-in-Residence at The MASK Center include:

Jerilynn Bedingfield: performer, choreographer

Michael Hickey: performer, mask-maker, visual artist, theatrical designer, teaching artist

Sandra Hughes: performer, director, choreographer, musician, writer, producing artistic director, teaching artist

Tom Spach: composer, musician, songwriter

Hilda Willis: performer, director, producer, writer, teaching artist

Current Gateway Guest and Affiliate Artists include:

Gwyneth Bragdon: actor, dancer, choreographer

Park Cofield: producer, director, puppeteer, scholar

Lynn Hesse: dancer, choreographer, writer

Allen Pittman: martial artist.

Amazon Dance Theatre @ The MASK Center

2011-02-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

Amazon Dance Theatre - Development Workshop
Gateway Performance Productions - The MASK Center
Allen Pittman in Collaboration with Jerilynn Bedingfield,
Gwyneth Bragdon, Lynn Hesse, Sandra Hughes
Photos: Mitch Birnbaum

World Class Martial Arts Instructor Allen Pittman
met with Theatre and Dance Artists at The MASK
Center in Atlanta, Georgia on January 22 & 23, 2011
to workshop his performance design based on the
Amazon form he's developed, nine feminine archetypes
and the enneagram.

The Greek Goddess Athena
Gwyneth Bragdon

Magdalene, The Initiatior
L. Gwyneth Bragdon
R. Lynn Hesse

Sword Strategy
C. Sandra Hughes - L. Allen Pittman - R. Lynn Hesse,
Gwyneth Bragdon

The Initiator - Variation
L. Allen Pittman - R. Gwyneth Bragdon

Ireland and Me: The Allegory of the Celtic Tiger

2011-01-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

No matter where one places astrology in ones belief system the content of Steffan Vanel's article - The Allegory of the Celtic Tiger - tells a compelling story. I found it especially engaging due to my long-time connection to Ireland through my Irish-born grandmother, my Irish citizenship and my years (2000-2006) of creating productions based on Irish culture and performing them for the Peace and Reconciliation Process in Belfast - as well as performing throughout the Island. I've immersed myself further in things Irish by creating the Gateway Irish Mummers who perform locally here in Atlanta and also internationally - most recently at a festival in Denmark that included a scientific seminar on Scandinavian Mummers. The soulful sounds and soaring sights of Atlanta's recent 18th annual Celtic Christmas still reign in my memory as the most sustaining offerings of the holiday season.

In Vanel's article I discovered that Ireland (as a country) has its sun in Taurus - as I do. I deeply relate to his emphasis on the power of unconditional love and it's challenges - as this has been and remains at the core of my life. Perhaps it's because Ireland and I share the sun in Taurus or maybe it's because unconditional love offers human existence's greatest challenges and lessons to everyone.

The first is the fact that Ireland has the Sun in Taurus. Someone who is Taurus is someone who has, in previous lives, developed a quality of love at a very high level. Taurus is ruled by Venus. This can be seen in the Irish love for Ireland and love for being Irish. This love for the land in Ireland was made more poignant by 800 years of English occupation of their land. ... The lesson for a Taurus, according to Hilarion, however, is to be able to give that love unconditionally. If they have difficulty giving that love it may instead turn back towards themselves, focusing on their senses or an over-valuing of money, possessions, and material security.Steffan Vanel

Vanel's article and other accounts of Ireland's current plight have brought Ireland - one of the great cultures of the world -even closer to my heart.

Gospel Music Sun., Dec. 5 @ The MASK Center

2010-11-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

Erik Johnson, Tom Spach and other members of the the Johnson Party have generously offered to do a gospel music fundraiser for Gateway Performance Productions' venue - The MASK Center - on Sunday, December 5th. This event fits perfectly with Gateway's goal to expand music programming in support of our emerging 21st Century Art Space. Please help get the word out to others -especially those who may not yet associate music events with The MASK Center. Below are the details from Erik.

Join the Johnson Party on Sunday, December 5th at 5:00pm at The Mask Center located in The Little 5 Points Community Center at the corner of Euclid and Austin Avenues in Inman Park, (1083 Austin Ave, Atlanta, GA 30307 ) for Atlanta's very first non-sectarian gospel hour of eclectic wanderlust music. Please bring your voice to sing or just your ears to this sunday alternative (or adjunct to) traditional church-going. The 6 piece ensemble will be playing tunes that cut across the American songbook and beyond - featuring Bob Marley spirituals, Appalachian folk gospel, 70's soul, modern pop and rock tunes, a few originals and more. The show is free to all, but donations are encouraged for the host location, The Mask Center, currently undergoing re-construction from recent water damage.

"The spiritual significance of music lies in the fact that it literally brings people together at a level of vibration that transcends boundaries, culture, language, religion, gender, age, color and politics, a place where we can all experience our sameness."~ Dennis Merritt Jones

“Music is the universal language, and love is the key to peace hope and understanding, and living in harmony..."~ Mac Davis

Erik Johnson

Where the Hurdy Gurdy Led

2010-08-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

I heard hurdy gurdy music from the middle ages a couple of days ago. It was primal, passionate and invoked ancient body memories that provoked and seared the present moment with its power. I’ve searched the play lists online at WABE Public Radio, Atlanta, but haven’t yet found the piece of music I heard.

I THOUGHT A HURDY GURDY WAS A BARREL ORGAN with a handle the organ grinder turned while his monkey passed the hat. It turns out this instrument was called a hurdy gurdy during the 18th century. The hurdy gurdy I was searching for is a different instrument. It’s sometimes called a wheel fiddle, is at least 800 years old and is having a resurgence. If you don’t know the instrument, you can see and hear it at this video link. The music is nicely rendered, but lacks the intensity of the performance I heard several days ago.

My youtube search for hurdy gurdys took me to Eluveitie’s Inis Mona video. Inis means “island” in Gaelic. The island I saw in the video was familiar and the song emited the same elusive power I’d experienced while listening to the historic hurdy gurdy music. I searched for the location of Inis Mona and found this explanation - “ It’s a Welsh island. Now called Isle of Anglesey. Original name is Ynys Môn. Welsh pronunciation: [ˈənɨs ˈmoːn]”. I’d visited the Isle of Anglesey during the summer of 2003 enroute to meet my friend W. A. Sessions , a remarkable writer of Welsh descent, who was completing a biography in London called Henry Howard, The Poet Earl of Surrey, A Life.

The Swift ferry - named for the Irish writer Jonathan Swift - took me from Dublin to Holy Head where I spent the night in a bed and breakfast run by a gentleman who quietly informed me he was an hereditary druid. In the morning I walked a path that ended at a standing stone near cliffs that overlooked the Irish Sea – not far from a bird sanctuary. Later that day I arrived on Anglesey. My hostess at the B&B spoke of the Irishmen who’d come there. She noted they were "hard workers and like Welshmen drank". I visited the ruins of an Irish community and remembered I’d once believed I was part Welsh, but had learned from family documents that my Hughes origins are clearly confined to what is now Northern Ireland.

Nevertheless, commentary about the meaning of the lyrics to Inis Mona and the lyrics themselves set me to wondering. Perhaps my gene pool includes Irish who traveled across the sea to Inis Mona to be trained as druids. Druidic musings aside, what I ponder most is my inability to write until now about any of my experiences in Wales. A combination of awe and lingering sorrow kept me silent until my search for an ancient hurdy gurdy tune led me to write my first words on the subject.

Sandra Hughes

8-4-10

The 13th Sector - Pathways on a Living Planet

2009-12-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

The 13th Sector

Pathways on a Living Planet

Episode 1 , The Prologue

A Spoken Word Drama

Written by Sandra Hughes

The prologue to The 13th Sector was performed, produced by Gateway Performance Productions and presented by the Academy Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia on November 29, 2009. It's the prelude to a longer work performed in episodes and was inspired by my experiences as a workshop facilitator and participant at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. The play explores the notion of positive global transformation and an imagined future in the context of the environment and a worldwide reconnection with nature through the creation of an enlightened association of global gardeners who strive to heal the planet. The script is available to read at my literary arts profile and you can also view production art created by Michael Hickey.

A Little Bit Country - A Little Bit Rock n Roll Benefit Concert

2009-08-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to those of you attended the the Benefit Concert for Gateway Performance Productions on August 23rd at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta made possible by the considerable and delightful talents of Celebrity Impersonators Margie Mangham as Minnie Pearl, Melody Knighton as Dolly Parton, Craig A. Meyer as Elton John and Harold Schulz as Young Elvis with solid backup from the music trio The Blue Suedes. Melody and I made a surprise appearance as Lucy and Ethel! With the help of our wonderful Benefit Committee Co-chairs Tom Spach & Bunny Vrooman, our Board Chair Chris Moser and a host of incredible supporters and volunteers- a wonderful time was had by all!

Curtain call with Celebrity Impersonators and Gateway co-founders Michael Hickey & Sandra Hughes Photo: Michael Birbaum.

Melody Knighton & Sandra Hughes as Lucy & Ethel

Dance at The Decatur Arts Festival

2009-05-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

As I watched the final performance of Breaking New Ground: Dance at The Decatur Arts Festival at the Dance Studio Theatre at Beacon Hill Arts Center here tonight in Georgia I realized that each of the dance pieces on the program could be danced on any stage in the world. The confidence and individuality expressed in the work of the evening’s 10 choreographers and 23 dancers was a revelation and the effortless flow of the evening created a transcendent atmosphere that allowed nuances of movement, emotion and humor to have maximum impact. Kudos to Beacon Dance Company’s Artistic Director D. Patton White who produced this outstanding dance event.

“Tribal Raks Assaya” choreographed by Jaki of Jahara Phoenix – sensual, celebratory, and evocative movement creates an atmosphere of strength, joy and vitality.

“6 hour later (Distract)” choreographed by the Dancers and Corie B. Thomas-Johnson of Notchyomamas Modern Project - poetry by Pablo Neruda read by Glen Close dissects the ambiguities of love made marvelous by physical maneuvers that create intentional compromises of position and balance.

“Mon Ami” choreographed by Myriam Levy Farrero and Julie Bagenstoss – flamenco on the edge with a flair and appeal that would please Vegas or NYC.

“Through the Wasteland” choreographed by Kristyn McGeehan of brooks and company dance - T.S. Elliot’s nightmare- -become- reality is forever banished by classic lines coupled with technical precision and post-apocalyptic timing.

“Double Coat” choreographed by Louise Runyon in collaboration with Lori Teague of Emory University’s Dance Department – androgynous ambiguity begets riveting humor that conjures an organza-clad tribute in the form of a movement invocation so eternally feminine that the King of Rock ‘n Roll must surely pulse against the veil that separates the living from the dead to behold it.

“Rene and Georgette Magritte After the War” choreographed by Ann Ritter and Wayne Smith – theatrical characters and delicate timing domesticate the surreal with charming results.

“Abime des oiseaux” choreographed by Julie Honore Mueller – deep, repetitive movements create a singular image of untamed trauma.

“Alicia” choreographed by Blake Beckham of the Agnes Scott Dance Department -a miraculous physicality that transfixes and mesmerizes enhanced by considerable craft and confidence.

“Freeze” choreographed by Jamie Horban of Solestance with help from the dancers – dance so sexy, smart and compelling you don’t ever want it to stop.

"Shooting Star" choreographed by Tzipporah Gershon and Alex Spitzer – reveals seeming unlimited capacities for invention and innovation with the power to uplift the human spirit.

Frida & Diego in 4 - Dance Theatre Preview

2009-05-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

"Frida and Diego in 4" -a tribute to Mexican visual artists Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera - is a dance theatre piece choreographed and directed by Sandra Hughes, performed by Jerilynn Bedingfield and Michael Hickey to original music by Tom Spach in hand-carved masks created by Mr. Hickey.

It previews on Sat., May 30th as part of the Southern Order of Storytellers Spring Story Fest. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy Theatre in Atlanta. "Frida and Diego in 4" then premieres in Denmark on June 18th at the Aeroe International Maskfestival.

The Journey to "Frida & Diego in 4" What emerged during rehearsals for "Frida & Diego in 4" lead to the creation of a piece about Frida's essential passions - her art and Diego Rivera. It lasts a 4 little over minutes. The journey to these handful of minutes took years.

Photo: Sandra Hughes

Performer: Jerilynn Bedingfield

Frida Kahlo said there were two great accidents in her life. The first was a bus accident when she was 15 years old. A handrail skewered her vagina. The second, she said, was Diego Rivera.

The Journey to "Frida & Diego in 4"

I encountered Martha Clarke's "Garden of Earthly Delights" at the Theatre of Nations Festival in Baltimore in 1986. I was there as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. At the time I wrote: "Ms. Clarke's work weaves a fabric of images and sounds on a warp of mystery and a weft of reclaimed wonder. … “Garden”, complex and surreal in its composition, maintains tremendous internal logic and integrity throughout.”

Over twenty years later in response to “Garden’s” recent triumphant revival on Broadway Charles Isherwood of the New York Times wrote: “This singular work of dance theatre is without doubt one of the most eerily hypnotic spectacles of flesh in motion ever put on a New York stage.”

Two years after I wrote the article about Ms. Clarke's work I unexpectedly found myself sequestered with her and 9 other Atlanta choreographers at the University of Georgia. Ms. Clarke, an Obie award-winning artist best known for her theatre pieces that interweave text, dance, music and visual art, was there to critique our current work and share her approach to choreography. This outstanding opportunity was made possible by the City of Atlanta, Bureau of Cultural Affairs.

I’d arranged to have “The Loss of Iris” – a combination of dance, mime, music and text composed of rituals from the Japanese Daimyo culture in juxtaposition with those of the American corporate world - performed for Ms. Clarke. At the end of the intensive workshop she suggested I go to my studio alone during the following week with no specific rehearsal plan. I was to use only three randomly selected and unrelated items while there. I chose music and poetry recorded in the Zapotec language – a gift from university students in Mexico who’d befriended me when I'd performed Oaxaca, a long stick and a Chinese mask.

Each day at the studio the same woman appeared to me wrapped in a Mexican flag. Over and over she miscarried her unborn children. Death stalked her wearing the Chinese mask and wielding the long stick. Day after day my body repeatedly embodied these actions until the movements became a ritual.

The following year I went to NYC to perform. While there I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As I stood in line at the gift shop I turned my head to the side and saw the unforgettable eyes and face of the woman who’d mysteriously manifested at my studio. I realized I was looking at a video monitor. I found the video and read the woman's name on the cover - Frida Kahlo. She was a Mexican visual artist married to the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.

That same year I was invited to teach and perform in Mexico City at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa. During the Day of the Dead I was taken to Alameda Park to see the life-size ofrenda (offering) of Louis Armstrong and his band and to the village of Mixquic where I witnessed the intensity with which the local people commemorate the traditional festivities associated with El Dia de Los Muertos. When I shared my Frida experiences with my students they insisted I create an ofrenda to her - a performance to honor her life.

Image: Self Portrait by Frida Kahlo

A few months later “Bring Me Yellow Flowers” was performed at an Alternate ROOTS festival at 7 Stages in Atlanta. I adapted “Yellow Flowers”for video. The production showcased at the American Film Institute Video Festival in Los Angeles and was nominated for the Robert Bennett Award. A few years later I wrote a play “Frida –Diego and Me”. It won the Border Book Playwriting Award and received a full production at the Desert PlayFest.

In 1991 I returned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to experience “Mexico – Splendors of Thirty Centuries”. Frida’s self portrait in a traditional Tehuana costume called “Diego in my Thoughts” was the visual image for the exhibit poster. In 3,000 years of Mexican art Frida Kahlo was the only female artist I saw featured in the exhibit. Soon after this, I read that Frida’s work had eclipsed that of her famous husband in the art market and grown in popularity to command the highest prices of any Latin American artist.

Once she'd tapped into my artistic imagination it seemed impossible to exhaust the ongoing influence and inspiration of someone as fascinating as Frida Kahlo. I didn’t expect "Frida & Diego in 4" anymore than I'd expected to create my first 3 works about her. All were the legacy of Martha Clarke's suggestion - the days I'd spent in the studio with Frida tenaciously hovering in my mind's eye.

The Dancing Flowers for Peace

2009-05-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

Noel Marts and Lesly Fredman, co-directors of The Dancing Flowers for Peace, perform at the Academy Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia for Women's History Month, March 15, 2009.
Photo: Michael Birnbaum

Kids Yoga & Art Summer Camp

2009-03-23T13:47:00.001-07:00

This summer I'll provide arts programming for a Kid's Yoga and Art camp at Stillness Yoga in Marietta, GA located at the corner of Roswell Road and Old Canton. The dates are:
June 1 - 5
July 13 - 17
August 3 - 7
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Call 770-337-9335 for more details

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.

Hodding

A Winter Celebration for Transformation

2009-01-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

A Winter Celebration for Transformation produced by Gateway Performances Productions in collaboration with the Dancing Flowers for Peace, the New Acropolis Cultural Association of Atlanta and performing artists from String Theory was performed on December 29, 2008 to a capacity audience at The Academy Theatre.
Guest spoken word artist and musician from Santa Fe, New Mexico Robert Poorman - accompanied by David Hirschorn's inspired guitar music - was a wise and, at times, whimsical ring master.

Mask theatre performed by Gateway's director, choreographer Sandra Hughes and mask maker Michael Hickey conjured the duo's ancient Irish ancestors. String Theory performed by poet Alice Teeter, violinist Chip Epsten, choreographer-dancer Priscilla Smith and dancers Eleanor Brownfield, Jaehn Clare, Steve Seaberg and Sally Wylde evoked cheers from the crowd.

Atlanta's beloved Dancing Flowers for Peace - represented by Karen Adler, Lynn Hesse, Sandra Hughes, Randy Hyman, Leila La'Bate, Alison Mawle, Lori Teague and Maggie Turlington - performed the company's signature pieces Breath in silence and Inevitable to Desperate Men's potent peace anthem.
Photos by:

Dean Hesse

A mask making workshop before and after the performance delighted both adults and children.

This programming was funded in part by appropriations from the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners and the DeKalb County,

Office of Arts, Culture and Entertainment and supported by funds granted to Michael Hickey for Artistic Development from Alternate ROOTS and the Ford Foundation.

Coyote and the Bees - Production Photos

2008-07-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

Here are photo images of Michael Hickey and I in my new play Coyote and the Bees at the Chat tahoochee Nature Center in Roswell, Georgia

on Saturday, July 5th. Honeybees are currently dying all over our planet. In the play when the coyotes find out about this they are determined to find a way to help the honeybees. Coyote and the Bees is a perfect show for youth and family audiences. It's now available to tour nationally and internationally. Please contact Gateway Performance Productions in Atlanta for more information: email: gatewaypp@masktheatre.org phone: 404 222 9262 or fax: 404 222 9680.

Photos by: Michael Birnbaum

The Artist's' Way - Art Workshop

2008-07-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

Carolyn Renee of Women Helping Others Advance invited me to do a visual art workshop for The Artist's Way Group she currently facilitates on Tuesday nights at The MASK Center in Atlanta. The workshop focused on a process that explored boundaries, collaboration and individual expression. Here's Carolyn at work and a triptych created by five participants. photos: Sandra Hughes

Coyote & the Bees Premieres at Nature Center

2008-07-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

Coyote and the Bees - premiered Saturday, July 5 at the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Atlanta. Award-winning and featured nature photographers - Michael and Nat Birbaum - assisted us with set up as coyote and bee masks waited patiently for Michael Hickey and I to donn them to begin the show. I wrote the play to address the current world-wide challenges to our honeybee population. Coyotes once faced near extinction and now thrive well beyond their original geographic areas. In the play the coyotes come to the assistance of the dying and disappearing honeybees and encourage humans to do the same. With masks and puppets created by Michael Hickey, movement and music Coyote and the Bees is ideal for family and youth audiences. It's now available to tour statewide, regionally, nationally and internationally. For more information or to arrange a performance please contact Gateway Performance Productions phone: 404 222-9262.

Visual Art Collaborative Workshop

2008-06-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

At today's Learning Exchange - Gathering at the Crossroads of Art and Community - sponsored by Alternate ROOTS and hosted by The Horizons School in Atlanta I had the opportunity to facilitate a 2 hour workshop on collaborative visual art. Participants created work that represented principals for Community Arts Projects. Here are images (in the process of drying) of Marie Cochran's "Partnership" (bottom), Michael Hickey's "Transformation" (center) and my "Shared Power (top) along with photos of Marie and Michael at work. Marie is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art and Design at Western Carolina University. Michael is a theatrical designer, the mask maker in residence at The MASK Center in Atlanta and a visual artist.
photos: Sandra Hughes

Sandra L. Hughes Theatre Collection Grows

2008-06-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

bb I spent four days with Nena Couch , curator of the Sandra L. Hughes Theatre Collection at the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State Univeristy.While there I created audio tapes to detail and deepen the history contained in the collection as we organized press clippings and other items. As
you can see in this photo of Nena and TRI staff member Orville Martin the collection which not only documents over 30 years of my professional career in theatre, but the history of Gateway Performance Productions and my work with artistic collaborators such as mask-maker/performer Michael Hickey and composers Tom Spach and Allen Welty-Green is in excellent hands.

Many thanks to Alternate ROOTS, the Ford Foundation, Gateway Performance Productions, Bunny Vrooman and the shipping team at Diversified Metal Fabricators in Atlanta, Tom Spach, Kit and Ron Austin, Karen Simmons and Michael Hickey . Their support made this experience possible.

"Theatre is the universal means of expression. It embraces all of the arts through which human minds seek to reach one another."Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee - November, 1986

Photos: Sandra Hughes

Online Article on Student Art Exhibit

2008-06-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to the article in Dalton Daily Citizen about the student art exhibit at City Hall.

Student Art at City Hall

2008-05-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

The exhibit The Global Playground - featuring art by over 4oo student artists from Brookwood Elementary School - opened at Dalton City Hall in Georgia yesterday. The exhibit includes masks inspired by and as tributes to a variety of African cultures. They were created while I was as an artist in residence at the school. Parents, students, teachers, the media and community at-large all lent their enthusiastic support at the opening reception.

Here are behind the scenes photos of project coordinator Jane Snipes, myself and parents mounting the exhibit. Many thanks to the Georgia Council for the Arts, Alternate ROOTS, the National Endowment for the Arts, Dalton City Hall and Brookwood Principal Will Esters for making this exciting event possible!

photos: Michael Birnbaum

Sandra Hughes - Mask Performer

2008-05-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

photos: Michael Birnbaum

Review of The Heart of Rumi @ The Mask Center

2008-05-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent review written by Barbara Knott about our production of the Heart of Rumi with (from left to right) David Hirschorn , Hilda Willis, Alireza Danaie as the poet Rumi, myself, Michael Hickey and Melanie Anderson.

Photo: Elham Danaie

Phoenix & Dragon Event & Party

2008-05-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

Award-winning Atlanta photographer Michael Birnbaum created this collage of my recent performance and workshop at The Phoenix and Dragon Bookstore which segued into a wonderful birthday celebration for me organized by owner Candace Apple.

I Love Lucy, Too

2008-05-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Look for the Lucy I Love - Melody Knighton as Lucy - in the current print ad for Armstrong Floors in magazines nationally. Melody is a Lucy Look Alike -an award-winning performer with tribute shows to both Lucy and Dolly Parton. Every time I have the opportunity to perform as Ethel with Melody as Lucy it's golden. Here we are all dolled up for an Academy Award Night event

Mask Theatre Workshop

2008-05-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

Those of you in the Atlanta area will have the opportunity to join me at the Phoenix and Dragon Bookstore on May 16 @ 7:30 p.m. for an interactive mask theatre workshop.

Discover and experience masks as a way to access, explore and honor the healer, helper, teacher, ancestor and human in yourself and others. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes!

Location: 5531 Roswell Road 30342 For reservations: 404 255-5207

photo: Jan Stittleburg

Grammy Winner Performs @ The MASK Center

2008-05-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

Two time Grammy Winner India.Arie performed at The MASK Center tonight in A Black Girl's Song - a production conceived and directed by Hilda Willis - the Producing Artistic Director of Living Your Art and a recent performer in Gateway's production of The Heart of Rumi. Tonight's performance was designed to prepare India for her Broadway debut in For Colored Girls. It was a hush-hush event with guests told the location only after they agreed to keep the venue a secret. One of the NY producers from the For Colored Girls' "dream team" attended. The MASK Center was pleased to have the opportunity to add its support to India's career.

ROOTS support for Dalton Residency

2008-04-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

When I arrived at the Mask Center this afternoon I found Carolyn Morris - Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS - had slipped a grant award letter for Brookwood Elementary School in Dalton, Georgia under the door. What a great way to start the day! (The ROOTS office is across the hall from The Mask Center.) Thanks to ROOTS, National Endowment for the Arts and Georgia Council for the Arts 421 students - kindergarten through fifth grade - will experience visual art and drama residencies at their school.

Mask Center - Artist Meeting

2008-04-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

Company co-founder Michael Hickey and I met at The MASK Center to finalize artistic plans for two new productions next year. While I organized my sketches and outlines Mike fell into a musical mood and noodled on his Irish tin whistle. ... Half the items in this studio will soon have a new home at the Sandra L. Hughes Theatre Collection housed at the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Institute at Ohio State Univeristy.

Mask Center - Flamenco Night

2008-04-25T20:53:00.003-07:00

The Atlanta flamenco dance community gathered at The MASK Center to refine their skills with a focus on the interaction between dancers, musicians and singers. Ulrika Frank, founder of Perla Flamenca in Atlanta, instructed dancers. Marija Temo, flamenco guitarist and singer, played, sang and discussed the dynamics of working with dancers.

Mask Center Open House

2008-04-25T20:53:00.001-07:00

Michael Hickey, resident mask maker at The Mask Center, created an exhibit of his masks for the May 2 in-house Open House at the Little Five Points Community Center. This event and others like it promote awareness and connectedness within the diverse community of artists and non-profit organizations at the community center.

Conscious Kids Camp

2008-04-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

The planning meeting with Ahzjah Simons for the Conscious Kids Camp Summer Camp at Panola Mountain State Park (20 minutes from downtown Atlanta) was an inspiration. The camp will offer Creative Arts, Culinary Arts, Marial Arts, Healing Arts (Yoga), Cultural Arts, Earth Connections, Fitness and Life Path Awareness. I've been invited to teach during the month of July as one of the guest artists at the camp teaching visusal arts. Students will create a large scale mural of endangered species that incorporates sculptural elements.

What Goes on Here...

2008-04-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

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.

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

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