Music Meets Drama

Founded in 1988 and now celebrating its 25th year of existence, the Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS) encourages the continuing study of our great poet's life and works. Their presence is felt in local chapters worldwide, through continued publication of scholarly papers published in journals, sponsoring international conferences and awarding scholarships to promote the continued study of Emily's impact not only in the literary world but on the world stage.   The University of Maryland at College Park hosted this year's international conference from August 8-11th.   A gathering of Emily scholars celebrated "Emily Dickinson, World Citizen"   with research papers, panel discussions, creative presentations and performances by a variety of actors and musicians.     To fit into an evening of Emily Dickinson musical performances, Barbara Dana trimmed "Wider Than the Sky" to 30 minutes highlighting scenes from the show.   Again, w...

"I Told Myself to Sing" is now titled "Wider Than The Sky".   Powerful new avenues have come to Barbara Dana's and my dream of a play with music.   With each revision the show gets stronger and deeper.   Emily Dickinson's spirit and spunk sparkle with intensity and purpose.   On Friday evening June 7th, Hudson Stage Company in Croton-on-Hudson sponsored our staged reading of "Wider Than The Sky".   The newest version of Barbara's brilliant script inspired all of us to new levels of performance.   With songs and music that were further adapted to fit the flow of Emily's journey of accepting her own death, the show was an emotional success for the actors and audience members alike. We welcomed Susannah Jones and Morgan Auld to the cast who found voices for multiples of characters who enter Emily's life.   Elizabeth Morton as Emily delved into the poet's soul with elegance.    Again, Martin Hennessy and I...

Friends will surprise you with the most wonderful, thoughtful gifts.   During a visit with Ina Torton, friend, massage therapist extraordinaire and real estate agent, she handed me a beautiful volume of Emily Dickinson poems.   Gold lettering, white lilies with gold stems and a bee on a turquoise blue cloth cover.   Beautiful, just beautiful.   Having gone through her bookshelves, Ina came upon this volume of Emily's poems and gave it to me.   What an appropriate gift as Ina knew that along with my friend, Barbara Dana, our Emily Dickinson show, “A Voice of Her Own” had just had its second reading here in New York City .   In November 2011, “A Voice of Her Own” had its first reading for an invited audience. See my blog posting of February 24, 2012.  My ending statement was that the show was a work in progress and indeed over the past year, we have worked hard as a team….Kate Bushman, Barbara Dana, Martin Hennessy, Amelia Campbe...

Anyone who has done a home improvement project knows from experience that your actual completion date is always weeks, maybe months after your desired or planned for completion date. The reality time line wins out….it takes twice as long to do the work than you expected. In the creative world of the arts, the same is true. Reality is painful and discomforting…even Emily Dickinson would agree with that statement! Brought together through the death of our friend, Tim Vernon, Barbara Dana and I have become friends and creative colleagues. My blog of January 20, 2010 introduced our collaboration on an Emily Dickinson project. Barbara has written a book about Emily, “ A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson .” Beginning in the summer of 2006 we began discussing the possibility of working together on an Emily show based upon Barbara’s book and including song settings of Emily’s poetry. Upon completion of her book, Barbara began the task of writing a script for the show. The prem...