Our fall tea is September 14 and final preparations are underway. Our members are poring over their favorite cookie recipes and determining which savories will please the palate of our guests. As usual special attention will be given to the selection of tea flavors. At the last tea there was no clear favorite flavor and coffee requests rose. Tables will be set with Clark House china and linens and pretty centerpieces will brighten the room.
Mary Jo Bowes has put together another entertaining program and as stated last month is being joined in this endeavor by David Tabish, who will perform his one act play “The Entertainer.” Mary Jo has been delighting our tea guests with her wit and talent for some time now, but David is a new face.
David had a career in teaching, with a secondary career in professional acting, since 1975. He describes himself as a character actor, who is no longer anxious for long drives for auditions, living in actor housing, or performing six days a week. Still having the urge to perform, he started exploring a process he calls “Somewhat Imagined Memoir”, which involves monologues that are inspired by real situations and then enhanced by imagined detail. The memoirs may be personal such as his love of Robert Frost or his seventh-grade teacher, or his youthful very positive view of Nikita Khrushchev. Or they could be about characters other than himself such as Santa Claus remembering letters he could not fully fulfill or perhaps a piece about Burl Ives.
With the encouragement of Ed Simpson, a long-established theater force at IUP and Sam Sherburne, an IHS graduate and professional actor/director, he rewrote, rehearsed, and performed “The Entertainer” for the Indiana Players this past spring. The play depicts the story of a young boy following certain influences that inspire him to become an actor.
Many if not most pieces are based on childhood experiences. Tabish describes his youth as growing up with a wonderful family, filled with a multi-generational collection of relatives including a dear Italian Nonna and a Polish Buba also neighbors from Italy, Hungary, Russia, and even Scotland. It was a multinational mix of caring people living their lives in a small mining town. Along with family and community, a really unique and somewhat unassuming childhood encounter was pivotal to generating the piece and trying to make it have interest and a bit of humor for an audience.
His writing rose from a desire to explore and share a childhood experience and turn the memory into a performable piece enhanced with creative imagination so that it would appeal to an audience. It demonstrates his life-long love of pretend and make believe. He believes he came out of the womb with a love of acting. Sharing the experience of his wonderful and to him ideal childhood has been most enjoyable, and and he is looking for other venues to perform his piece such as the Chautautaqua Institution. He is looking forward to performing his piece at the tea and the Historical Society feels extremely lucky to have this talented performer share his passion.
Topping off the program will be a performance by both Tabish and Bowes. They first acted together in 1989 in the IUP summer theatre production of “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” in which their moments on stage were almost always together as a duo. Tabish wonders were they Abbott and Costello? Or Burns and Allen? Or maybe Fred and Ginger, since they did a tango together, of which Mary Jo enjoys reminding him. Over the years as fellow IUP faculty/theatre artists -and since retirement Amadeus coffee drinking buddies- they have solidified a long cherished meaningful friendship.
This bond will be on display as they perform “A Mix of Memories”. Their “happy talk” will be an erroneous discussion on past memories. Who remembers better? When this question was presented to the two actors Tabish stated “We often spend long memory filled conversations telling different versions of the same story-the privilege of aging gracefully I believe.” He further notes that Mary Jo claims she is always right!!! He quips “I honestly don’t remember!”
Come to the tea for the food and stay for the entertainment. The society is so privileged to have two talented and experienced performers. Tickets are on sale at the society website.
The Northern Appalachian Folk Festival is September 7, and the fundraising committee will be participating with a table of items from our gift shop with the gift shop available for your browsing. Stop by and check out our many offerings.
The fundraising committee is working on a few new events and maybe revisiting or revamping some from the past. We are always looking for new members or individuals who are willing to help with an event or maybe bake some cookies. If interested, please email to fundraising@hgsic.org.
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