December 1, 2005

Hear ye, hear ye! In conjunction with the Concord Center Holiday Open House, join the Concord Players for our annual Winter Welcome! Tonight, Thursday Dec. 1, 2005, following the lighting of the tree in Monument Square. The revels begin at 51 Walden Street, at approximately 6:45 p.m. It's a not-to-missed, free event for the whole family, featuring Madrigal Singers, Sword Dancers, and St. George & the Dragon, with Mummers Michael Salerno as St. George, Chuck Holleman as the Dragon, David Gould as Father Christmas, Tim Jacoby as The Dark Knight, Pamela Dritt as the Fool, Myron Feld as Doc Ball, Lenny Megliola and Pilar Broggi as the Hobby Hos, and Tom Sullivan as Beelzebub. A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

In The Wings extends its congratulations to the cast of The Spitfire Grill, newcomers all to The Players. Our February musical by musical by James Valcq and Fred Alley features Shonna McEachern, Valerie Eaton, Sarah Telford, Sean McLaughlin, Liz Bishop, and Tom Lawrence. Director Denis Fitzpatrick and Music Director Mario Cruz are still looking for an actor with a “solid folk/rock voice with and edge” (top ‘G’) to play the part of out-of-work quarryman Caleb Thorpe. If that’s you, contact producers Sally Bull (sallybull@erols.com), or Marlene Mandel (marleneman@aol.com).

John Small will materialize as the season’s most raucous revenant, The Ghost of Jacob Marley, in Theatre III's production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, on December 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, and 17. For times and tickets, visit their web site at www.theatreiii.org, or call 978-263-9070.

The Concord Band's annual Holiday Pops concerts will be held at 51 Walden Street on Friday, December 9th and Saturday, December 10th at 8 p.m. The cabaret style show features traditional holiday music. Guest vocalist Nancy Tutunjian Berger will perform with the Concord Band and lead the audience in a holiday sing-along. For reservations, call (978) 897-9969, or visit the Concord Band Website .

Orchard House is planning a showbus to attend the Boston presentation of Little Women at the Opera House on Saturday, January 14, 2006. For further information call (978) 369-4118.

The Concord Preservation Commission will sponsor at public hearing at 51 Walden Street on November 29.  Save the date and plan to attend to hear the latest news of FOPAC’s plans for renovation.

Another date to save is March 19, 2006, when the Players' will hold their Annual Meeting.  Any ideas for entertainment?  Contact Laura Sweet, Special Events Chair at mamma_yummy@yahoo.com

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“A few weeks ago, a twenty-seven year old woman doing a doctoral thesis on some phase of medieval history came to seek my advice. I asked, ‘What’s the matter?’ and she said, ‘I’m a failure.’ It was by no means the first time I had heard the same sorry phrase from someone under thirty.

The sentiment that prompted her to speak of herself to me like that must not be confused with humility. I was outraged by her self-abasement. For me, the blessing of life is in living it. Life’s sorrows are not accidents, they are part of the process and texture of existence. It is natural to fear pain, though it is not always good to avoid it. We should not be afraid to die, though it is right that we seek to postpone death as long as possible. If life is a struggle, it is nevertheless one we must engage in with ardor. At worst my own nature echoes the Jewish proverb, ‘A man should go on living, if only to satisfy his curiosity.’

This however, is not exactly what I tell visitors like the young woman with the thesis. I tell them about those who have ‘made it’ comparatively late in life. I warn them first against the American mania of instantly ‘making it’ - everyone wants to get everything so fast. Her fixation on success might be called the dementia Americana. It stemmed from blindness to the fact that all people are famous.

We are all chips off the same block. Our separateness is the definition, the proof, of our livingness. As individuals we are heirs of eons of life; we are inextricably enmeshed in every part of it. We are bits of the ineffably mysterious and magnificent universe. We have only to strive to live as completely as our endowments permit (in doing so, we increase them) and to take pleasure and pride in them. Even the inevitable suffering of life, implicit in our being separate from the all, must be embraced not with resignation, but with joy. Living is its own reason.

We must shape our daily lives and spirits the way the artist shapes his memory and imagination and creates his work from them. Enjoying or enduring the present, preparing for the future, we should also look back, far back. Our experience is part of the wider experience of our day, of bygone ages. How can we be ‘small’ in such company! We are all historical figures.”

Harold Clurman
“All People Are Famous”

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The deadline for In The Wings is the third Tuesday of every month.

Thomas Caron, editor