The Background on How I Came to Write A Symphony Portland (Part 3 and Final)
In retrospect, I can go back to 2006, that first year we moved Portland and see the force working its way to get my attention. (Yes, I’m a geek.) My husband and I were walking to his company’s Christmas party from the downtown parking garage, when we saw a young man, sitting with a sleeping bag wrapped around his shoulders. He asked us for money. My husband handed him $20. I remember his saying, “Wow, that’s a 20.” I specifically remember him wearing duck taped sandals.
Our youngest daughter has three rare diseases. I’m not going to discuss them or the many trials we went through trying to get her medical condition stabilized. But in 2008, I found myself sitting in a waiting room waiting for her while she went through a procedure. I remember feeling very alone and wishing someone in the waiting room would speak with me. This young man walks in, waiting his turn to go back. He sits next to me and strikes up a conversation. He tells me he’s there for a cardiac cath as he has chronic heart problems. He attends Portland State University, but since there is no campus housing and because of his health, he can’t work and attend college. So, he and some friends couch surf and when that doesn’t work out, he sleeps on the street and begs for money. He said one time at Christmas, a man gave him $20. He never forgot that generosity. He told me that sometimes we have to place our fears with God and at this precise moment, he is called back by the nurse. As he leaves, I notice the duck taped sandals.
Present Time
A staged reading in 2017, several table reads, a few trips to NYC to practice pitching to prospective producers, to take a class led by Ken Davenport, to mingle with co-creators at at the TheatreMaker’s Studios (at that time called, The Producer’s Perspective) convention, numerous rewrites, and then being a finalist for the Rave Theatre Festival in NYC for 2019 and 2020. Then Covid hit and the Rave Theatre Festival was cancelled.
In September of 2020, there were two live performances via zoom. I became a founding member of Cate Cammarata’s CreateTheater ETC group, where I was able to share the zoom cast to my peers. Recently I joined TRU: Theatre Resources Unlimited. Today, July 18, 2021, through their Speeddate event, I pitched to 11 producers. I learn every day how to better pitch the musical, refine the script, learn about financing, about marketing and the potential for failure. In August of 2022, the musical will be the Player’s Theatre in New York City as part of a residency program established by Ken Davenport’s Theatre Maker Studios in cooperation with Michael Sgourus, owner of the theatre. There, it will have a limited run of 12 performances.
It’s been a long road with a huge learning curve. And I still hope and pray that someone will watch it, feel moved enough to make a change in their life that keeps a older teenager/young adult from finding themselves cold, hungry and on the streets.