Two weeks ago, I sat on the front porch of our house drinking my morning tea. Matthew took Evan and Blais on some errand, and Dante was sitting next to me, reading his book, occasionally stopping to talk to me. It was peaceful.
Peaceful like a Sunday afternoon in Croatia (where last year, people voted that all non-essential business be closed on Sundays). Peaceful like the calm after a storm.
Now, it was mid-July. Our ‘touring’ season had ended on the last day of May, and then the whirlwind started: graduations and talent show at kids’ school; summer camp that involved the full production of Alice in Wonderland – a musical version; Matthew’s trip to Croatia; my niece Nora performing in Chicago with Croatian Folk Dance group; going to Nashville with my sister; a very emotional parting with my mother who had spent six beautiful weeks with us; birthday parties; friends visiting…
And now, for a moment the house, and our lives, were peaceful. It felt good.
I was also at the point where I was finally happy with my house (since moving in almost five years ago). There are no walls that really need painting, no rooms to be furnished, even the toys and all the every-day clutter were thinned out and somewhat organized. The gardens were filling in this year, and after I was introduced to Mulch (!) there was nothing to weed.
So I took the rest of the day easy and counted my blessings.
Good. Because not even two weeks later, I found myself next to Matthew covered in paint. He had been working already for the entire week – taking down walls, pulling the carpet, cleaning all the debris… I guess, that’s the way we are – just can’t sit still.
We had rented a studio space for our newly founded Clifton Performance Theatre (which we partner with our friends Craig and Carol Brammer). It needed a lots of work, and since theatres historically don’t have any money, we decided to do all the work by ourselves.
So there I was, painting the backstage wall of our studio in a nice, flat black paint. It’s amazing how a little bit of paint can transform you into a world of imagination and bring all the memories back… I thought of years spent at Zagreb’s Youth Theatre (Zagrebacko Kazaliste Mladih) where I learned so much of my craft; my years at AMDA in NYC and their small performance theatre; and the few Broadway houses in which I had a chance to hang backstage with my actor friends. The black walls, chipped at places, showing the white plaster underneath, the stage curtains and black wooden floors… all so simple and yet rich with stories of hopes and dreams, of great opening nights and emotional closings, of audiences changed forever by great peformances of great plays, of memories being made and hundreds of years of theatre tradition being kept alive.
As I painted I thought how great it was going to be for my sons to have a theatre space (in a walking distance of our house) in which they will be able ‘hang’, explore, discover, lose themselves in the world of imagination, learn the power of performance arts, experience a good story being told in real time, with real actors right before their eyes (as opposed to movies which are rewindable and remote), grow into young men, learn about love and being able to express it.
I felt grateful to Matthew and my friends Craig and Carol for sharing my vision and taking on this new venture as opposed to taking it easy and enjoying a peaceful summer ?
PS. I am absolutely convinced that Clifton Performance Theatre will bring so much to the town where we live – not just my kids, but so many out there (log onto www.CliftonPerformanceTheatre.com, watch the short video and read parents’ feedback. And join our theatre on Facebook or Twitter)