GIVE ME A BREAK!

DEATH..    
Man.. so.. Wally dies and it's a blessing, I guess.. No more suffering.. And, the genius designer/mentor/professor, Herb Camburn, whom I only knew slightly.. and he had been ill and it was time.. but 

Out of the blue.. a director I met years ago whom I admired and was complimented by, Andy Doe, from UC Santa Cruz.. a guy steeped in Theatre and a champion of artists bit the dust.  

And, then.. the major shock.. a true genius and avant garde director whose work challenged every aspect of what the theatre is really about.. The cutting edge and the 'stuff'.. Steven Kent.. gone.  In the late  sixties Steve fell in with a rowdy bunch of recent deportees from USC and Cal State LA to form The Company Theatre.  Along with William Dennis Hunt.. Bill. and a handful of energetic kids they opted for a new road creating Children of the Kingdom, The James Joyce Memorial Liquid Theatre and The Emergence along with crazy stuff by Megan Terry and Michael McClure that brought in audiences and turned 99 seat theatre into a haven for artistic freedom.  

To have mortality so rear its hoary head with the deaths of these giants right in a row is a reminder that we do the work (if we do the work) and then we go.  Each of these theatre guys leaves behind a legacy of changed lives and grateful colleagues.  I among them. 

We toss off "Rest In Peace" when someone dies.  Not me, boy.  I hope that this energy is carried on and on and on and just about the time we're about to drop from exhaustion, we'll hear Steve say, "One more time.  And, when you turn around, look 'Enlightened!'" Carry on.  

Carry on.  

July 12, 2017
michaelsheehan