August 21, 2009
Hello Dear Friends, this is Viviana from Blue Ox. Eric and I have been talking so much about our incredible time with you all!
It seems to me that it rarely happens that we are able to recognize at the time when something truly profound happens in our lives. Most times we don’t recognize it until much later, sometimes even years later. When Cornerstone Theater met Blue Ox, Eric and I didn’t really get it until opening night.
As usual, when Eric and I say yes to something new, we have no idea what is really going to happen. That is part of what I love about Eric! Each step seemed logical and simple. The play needed a venue. I loved the play when I read it. (I told Peter that the characters felt like someone I knew). Then Kerry and Dan came and we started the physical transformation of the shop. They were fabulous; always gentle and careful. That seemed like a logical step, but we still didn’t really get it. We began to comprehend when Geoff and crew started the transformation with the lights. Then as each new step came together, the costumes, the props, the backstage, the music and sound effects ~ it was like watching a magician paint a fantasy world right in front of our eyes ~ in a place that we thought we knew. And as we started to meet you all ~ the heart and soul of the company and of our community ~ then we began to understand the power of what was happening.
On opening night when you all invited us to participate in your final circle, we felt very honored. Seeing and hearing the commitment and the love that each of you brought to the production was humbling. Then, sitting in that audience during the show and feeling you hold us all in your collective grasp was SO powerful. We were yours: wholly and completely. Many people got choked up ~ you broke through the shells that we all have around us and you reached in to our core. The tears were real.
It all came together: the incredible script; the strong actors; the sincerity of the novices; the highly creative costumes, the set and special effects; the magical lights; the dramatic music; the glorious singing, the powerful dancing ~ it all came together and we were transformed.
Eric and I were honored to be a part of something so exquisite. Our daughter Cara summed it up best. Cara and her beau drove up from the Bay Area (they live in Hawaii) in time to see the play, and Dayl our youngest daughter drove up from L.A. (Thousand Oaks) just in time to greet everyone after the play was over. Cara stated it very eloquently: you showed us something that we didn’t know was there. It was like a door opening, or a chapter starting of a whole new aspect to Blue Ox. Somehow it felt so right to have a theater production there, and especially the kind of theater that reaches out, that teaches, that brings people together and connects their hearts.
And so we ~ along with all the audience members ~ were changed. We now know that some type of future endeavor involving theater is part of our future. Thank you for opening that door for us, and thank you for sharing your talents, your hearts, and your passion with us.
