Consolation Bear
A little story concerning a stuffed animal toy and stage plays.
Last Saturday was the third and last performance of H on the boards with her theatre company. I brought her to the theatre beforehand and stayed around chatting and wishing broken legs etc.
I don’t think H will want to go on again, it was a little too stressful for her.
Their last pieces where written by H and others members of the cast, a collaborative effect customized to the abilities of the cast. The last piece went down very well and to date was performed seven times. It was a humorous look at old age and modern technology. And as the cast is between 65 and 85 a lot of the scenes were not acting!
The title was 'Granny! You need a smartphone!'.
Because of its actuality it won a state prize.
The prize was to collaborate on a new piece with a professional author. Again the piece was written with the cast in mind. As the company had 12 actors there was 12 scenes each with a situation dialogue. Unfortunately one of cast left the company early in the conception of the piece and H had to spring in and was given a role selected by the author. So instead of having her usual role as co-director and general dog’s body she was on the boards.
This was something new for her but she mastered it with bravo, I think her ‘training’ as school teacher helped here, a different ‘audience’ but in some ways similar. The play reviews where very good and the author was complimentary and said she should keep it up. Will see what happens next year maybe she has licked blood.
I did my part in that I filmed the first two performances with my HD handcam recorder one night from the auditorium left and the next night from the right. As there wasn’t that much time to rehearse I wasn’t sure of the scene setups and positioning and had to improvise with zooming etc. As a DVD was need afterwards of the play. I bought some video software (Magik) and tried my hand at cutting and using some sfx, using the best scenes from both nights. I also added a long credit sequence of cameos of the 12 cast members with additional music from the play. This was the first time confronted with this type of software and the learning curve was steep especially the burning to DVD (so many parameters possible!) at the end and trying to get an expectable quality from the HD film (12Gb) squeezed onto a 4.5 Gb disc.
As I came back stage after the last performance I noticed one of the cast was sitting and crocheting something. C is 85 and the oldest in the cast and when she saw me jumped up. This made me a little anxious for her as she had had recently a heart attack.
It’s a wonder she could go on at all! She has been on the boards most of her life and I think it keeps her going.
Well she pulled out of her bag a package and gave it to me (see picture – its about 16cm long). She said she had made it for me after hearing I was in the stroke unit with my memory loss episode (see A Matter of Forgetfulness ). I think most of them there thought after hearing ‘stroke unit’ from H that my ticker was on the blink and not me ‘ead!
I thanked her and then realised she had been crocheting a new one as I came in. I asked her how many she had made and she said hundreds! I was surprised until she said she was a member of a group that made them and distributed them to the local hospital’s ambulances for when they have to pick up and transport children. Each child gets one as a ‘consolation bear’! [Ed: a ‘trostbear’ in German].
What a lovely idea!
And now I have one! Although I don’t remember the ambulance ride at all! Postscript: C died this year (2020) following hospitalisation. This was not COVID-19 related.
Last Saturday was the third and last performance of H on the boards with her theatre company. I brought her to the theatre beforehand and stayed around chatting and wishing broken legs etc.
I don’t think H will want to go on again, it was a little too stressful for her.
Their last pieces where written by H and others members of the cast, a collaborative effect customized to the abilities of the cast. The last piece went down very well and to date was performed seven times. It was a humorous look at old age and modern technology. And as the cast is between 65 and 85 a lot of the scenes were not acting!
The title was 'Granny! You need a smartphone!'.
Because of its actuality it won a state prize.
The prize was to collaborate on a new piece with a professional author. Again the piece was written with the cast in mind. As the company had 12 actors there was 12 scenes each with a situation dialogue. Unfortunately one of cast left the company early in the conception of the piece and H had to spring in and was given a role selected by the author. So instead of having her usual role as co-director and general dog’s body she was on the boards.
This was something new for her but she mastered it with bravo, I think her ‘training’ as school teacher helped here, a different ‘audience’ but in some ways similar. The play reviews where very good and the author was complimentary and said she should keep it up. Will see what happens next year maybe she has licked blood.
I did my part in that I filmed the first two performances with my HD handcam recorder one night from the auditorium left and the next night from the right. As there wasn’t that much time to rehearse I wasn’t sure of the scene setups and positioning and had to improvise with zooming etc. As a DVD was need afterwards of the play. I bought some video software (Magik) and tried my hand at cutting and using some sfx, using the best scenes from both nights. I also added a long credit sequence of cameos of the 12 cast members with additional music from the play. This was the first time confronted with this type of software and the learning curve was steep especially the burning to DVD (so many parameters possible!) at the end and trying to get an expectable quality from the HD film (12Gb) squeezed onto a 4.5 Gb disc.
As I came back stage after the last performance I noticed one of the cast was sitting and crocheting something. C is 85 and the oldest in the cast and when she saw me jumped up. This made me a little anxious for her as she had had recently a heart attack.
It’s a wonder she could go on at all! She has been on the boards most of her life and I think it keeps her going.
Well she pulled out of her bag a package and gave it to me (see picture – its about 16cm long). She said she had made it for me after hearing I was in the stroke unit with my memory loss episode (see A Matter of Forgetfulness ). I think most of them there thought after hearing ‘stroke unit’ from H that my ticker was on the blink and not me ‘ead!I thanked her and then realised she had been crocheting a new one as I came in. I asked her how many she had made and she said hundreds! I was surprised until she said she was a member of a group that made them and distributed them to the local hospital’s ambulances for when they have to pick up and transport children. Each child gets one as a ‘consolation bear’! [Ed: a ‘trostbear’ in German].
What a lovely idea!
And now I have one! Although I don’t remember the ambulance ride at all! Postscript: C died this year (2020) following hospitalisation. This was not COVID-19 related.
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