A stage of one's own

Some disucssion I chanced upon today brought to mind Pemberton Free Theater, a company I founded in Salisbury on Maryland's Eastern Shore during my brief stay there in the mid/late 70s. We produced plays and showed them without an admission price. Hugely successful! We did a very good production of Albee's Zoo Story, with myself as Peter, Tom Strah as Jerry, directed by Jeff Rollins, who in fact recently emailed about it in a moment of nostalgia. We did it on a park bench in a parklike setting, the back area of the farm house we rented at the time. A delightful experience and memory.

I also had my own hyperdrama company, producing Cocktail Suite. The most financially successful production I've done on my own. We formed a co-op of shares and everybody did well since our overhead was so low. Another great experience.

I had my own de facto film company when I started making digital films in the summer of 2007.

My most ambitious theater company never happened. In the 80s I joined a group of writers and artists who rented a huge Victorian house in ill repair off the Ross Island Bridge, the idea to form suites of artistic activity. I was going to start a theater company in the basement. But I didn't get the grant that would have funded it. It was a great idea. Too bad.

I always wanted to create a permanent space for hyperdrama, using a design I came up with and share in my video about hyperdrama. Too old now, alas. Too old, too old, for these ambitious collaborative endeavors. But not too old to do some work on my own.