Well, as if doing Shakespeare isn't hard enough, it's even harder without a stage to perform on.
Please go to The Meadow Amphitheatre's home page to see the latest images of the stage in Tamanend Park.
It is sad to say that the stage in The Meadow Amphitheatre is gone. We demolished the stage last weekend due, in large part, to the destruction and increasing problem with vandals. I made the determination that I was no longer willing to keep repairing the stage, not only from volitional damage done by vandals, but also from the effects of entropy. The Township and the Park Board also determined that they were no longer willing to endure the liability of the miscreants who have been wandering the park and making the stage their hang-out, so activities in the Meadow Amphitheatre are suspended until further notice.
There have been quite a few people who have expressed their distress over this situation and we thank you for your thoughts.
My next approach to the stage is that I pan to rebuild the stage as a more durable, portable stage of the exact same configuration, only using an improved design of my own making. This portable stage will be an accessory to the workshop truck that I am building, so that we will have not only a stage that can be easily set-up anywhere (and taken down to avert such damage as we have seen by vandals), but we will also have the workshop truck to work off of and connect to the stage to supply power and storage of supplies on location. The RV that we have been using to support the concessions is being rejuvenated and restored for this purpose as well.
An older shot of the 1962 International CO 1600 Loadstar.
The dumping stake-bed is being turned into a barn
and the truck has a crane arm for lifting sets, air compressor,
welding, generator and pressurized water.
I also have a 35' house trailer which could also be put on location and used for production activities. It is a 1944 Star Trailerized Home, a real museum piece. I had been restoring it when it went into storage and although it will need work, it would serve well as a location office. The CO1600 was being built to pull it.
Here's a shot of the trailer when I had it set-up as a writing retreat.
It's been in a storage yard since 2003
A note here is that- I am also proceeding with my plans to build a parade float truck and I may look at combining this with the reconstruction of the stage we used in The Meadow Amphitheatre. The stage platforms of which I speak will, also and more importantly, be constructed primarily as a rental stage and be applied to the set needs of "The Gnomes of New Hope".
I invite persons who have an interest in these things to communicate and participate.
In addition, we anticipate pursuing puppetry for "The Gnomes of New Hope" and it might be interesting to consider doing some Shakespeare with puppets. AG
