News

Visit Your Relatives

noreply@blogger.com (Beth) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:36:00 +0000

One of the oddest venues I play is Lakeview Cemetery. It commands a spectacular view atop Seattle's Capitol Hill and contains graves of many Seattle pioneers. I give tours periodically in the character of Louisa Boren Denny. She introduces her guests to friends and family, walking through the city's history as well as our changing cultural expressions around death. This shot is courtesy of the kind folks at the Washington Athletic Club.

All I can say is I'm REALLY glad I've invested in a better wig.

It's the season of Dies de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. May you enjoy quality time with some of your family who have passed over.

noreply@blogger.com (Beth) — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:41:00 +0000

Emma Speaks!
After two years, dozens of books, one trip to Down, England, and hours of imagining, Emma Darwin's Helpful Suggestions for Surviving Life with a Scientist has been birthed. It's a thirty minute visit with Charles' wife, as she dishes up tales of rumpus rooms, worm research, and life lived according to the scientific method. So far it's performed in a couple living rooms, the Washington State Science Teachers' Association, and University Congregational United Church of Christ -- a suitably diverse grouping of habitats. She is an approachable woman with a dry sense of humor that is appealing to audiences:

"This living history presentation was absolutely one of the best I've ever seen."

Thanks are due to my director, Cynthia White, my wig mistress, Sally, my team of respondants (Zeta Strickland, Kelly Huffman, Cecelia Frye, Blair & Craig Brooke-Weiss), my new friends on Flickster who shared wonderful images, and my husband James, who proposed this project and served as a sounding board (and model for CD) throughout.

Count Your Blessings & Watch Your Worms

noreply@blogger.com (Beth) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:19:00 +0000

Lately I've been reading the writings of the Darwins: the bearded ferocity of Charles and his lesser-know wife, Emma. We apply his name to to any sharp competition (the most obvious being Athletic Darwinism -- a silly phrase), but when it came to his domestic habitat, CD was a pussycat, a constant invalid, whose dependence on Emma was quite complete. Their home life was devoted, warm, funny. I'm especially taken by the tale of the family assisting Charles as he researched the sensory powers of worms. Bernard provides the high notes of a whistle. Frank offers a bassoon's bass. Emma pounds the piano. Charles takes notes. And yet there was a significant rift. Charles was an agnostic, dedicated to the scepticism of scientific inquiry. Emma was a devout Christian. This was a source of much pain for them, especially in Emma's worry for his soul. Yet the partnership endured.

How did the Darwins find respect across the divide between science and faith? Why can't we? This year, I aim to explore the question in reading, looking at social models, playing in the studio, noticing my own relationships, and listening to the nudge of spirit.

Here's a link to a site with Darwin's worm monograph:
http://charles-darwin.classic-literature.co.uk/formation-of-vegetable-mould/

And to a book which their daughter Henrietta wrote about Emma:
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/1490