NOTES FROM THE Spring  MEETING - 06/01/2018

It was a beautiful Spring day, the Longfellow House garden was in full bloom and attendees were if full regalia.  Attending were:

Laura Adams - Madame Curie

George Capaccio - Albert Einstein

Sally Chetwynd - Sam (a Civil War soldier)

Stephen Collins - Walt Whitman (the younger)

Jim Cooke - Calvin Coolidge, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, et al

Mike Francis - Galileo, The Stargazer’s Apprentice

Jackson Gillman - Rudyard Kipling, storyteller

Deborah Anne Goss - Charlotte Cushman, 'Victorian Musicales',  'Anti-slavery songs', Proper Ladies

Gail Hamel - Abigail Whitney

Michael Koran - poet and producer

JoJo LaRiccia - JoJo’s DreamCart

Bil Lewis - James Madison

Michael Mack - poet, playwright, performer

Sally Matson - Susan B Anthony, Margaret Bourke-White

Tracy Messer - Calvin Coolidge

Jessa Piaia - Susan B Anthony, Rachel Walker Revere, Amelia Earhart, et al

Gwendolyn Presutti - 5 African American women

Brent Ranalli - Henry David Thoreau

Vicki Summers - Bella Summers

Steve Wood - Abe Lincoln

Sharon Wood - Mary Todd Lincoln, Betsey Phelps, Sarah Josepha Hale, storyteller, et al

Ted Zalewski   - Teddy Roosevelt, Postman Roulin, et al

Notes

If you haven’t been to a Spring meeting before, you’ve missed an event and this meeting was even a special one.  Twenty five years ago years ago a bunch of solo performers assembled at the JFK Library to present samples of our work and discuss the future of living history performance.  Jim Cooke, who performed as Calvin Coolidge, had organized the gathering, and invited everyone he knew who was performing a historical character.  That meeting was the genesis of SoloTogether.  

For several years we met at Bentley College and then moved to the Longfellow House Carriage House.  Our numbers have grown and dwindled, performers have come and gone, but 25 years later we are still going strong.  

We started in the garden with Jo Jo LaRiccia and her brother Sal videoing and photographing several of the performers.  Next came dinner, which included all kinds of tasty items.  Lots of general discussions and finally group photos.

We started the business part of the meeting with an ovation for Sally Matson who has retired from performing.

We shared personal reasons SoloTogether has been important.  Met Madame Curie (Laura Adams) and caught up on other news. Finally we celebrated our 25 years with Jim Cooke cutting the anniversary cake.  

Here’s a short slide show from the evening.

 

 

Mike Francis

Webmaster SoloTogether

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