Quickly overcoming adversity at the Highland Bowl

Posted by [email protected] | Sep 28, 2015 | Cultural Life | 0 |

David Kramer with the Players and Crew [Photo: Kathy Dauer]

• July 1, 2015

Only a few hours after yet another successful opening night of Shakespeare in the Bowl, every theater lover in Rochester had their hearts broken.

That morning we awoke to the infuriatingly senseless news of vandalism done to the stage set of Henry IV in the Highland Bowl on South Avenue. But hearts and sets can be mended.

As explained to me by Patrick White, Producer and Chairman of the Shakespeare Players of Rochester:

We are moved at the show of support from the community through social media. Our post on Facebook received over 7000 views and kind comments flooded our page. A dozen or so neighbors and Shakespeare fans showed up Sunday morning to lend a hand. One of our longtime supporters even wrote a check. In just five hours the set was rebuilt. If not for the rain the night before, I have no doubt we could have performed that night.

Democrat and Chronicle, July 07, 2015

Most importantly, as Patrick and everyone said, best show your love by showing up. Bring chairs and blankets. Bring your eyes and your ears and your imagination.

All’s Well That Ends Well.

To watch the QUICK rebuild, see:

REBUILD (1 minute, 7 seconds)

ALSO ON THE HIGHLAND BOWL

The Father’s Heart shines in Highland Park and elsewhere

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.