One of the casualties of this Corona Virus is that Miners Alley Playhouse had to cancel our up-coming production of Hope and Gravity, by Michael Hollinger. I can’t begin to tell you how sad it made me feel to know that Denver Metro audiences will miss seeing this amazing production and that the actors and artists that we had put together would not be able to perform it. But in the “show must go on” tradition that is live theatre, one of the cast members, Quinn Marchman, said, “Hey, since we were supposed to start rehearsal this week, why don’t we at least gather on a Zoom call and read the play together!” And that’s exactly what happened.
Last night, the cast and the director and I gathered virtually to read the play, and quite honestly, it was magical. To hear Michael Hollinger’s words come to life, to see the perfect cast that Josh Hartwell had gathered, and just to be making some art in this imperfect way, was a sight to behold. It was especially beautiful when at the intermission break, everyone got up to stretch, and as the clock turned to 8PM we all went outside to howl at the moon.
What a beautiful community of artists we are blessed to have at Miners Alley Playhouse! We will all be together again soon.
-Len Matheo