Talent -- 362

antelmo1 has added a photo to the pool:

Shafter, CA

This is not the best picture I have taken today, I am not a fan on the heads in teh foregrounds at all but it is the one with the most meaning.

I am at a 3 day festival in Shafter, CA called Colours and as of yesterday I did not know that its origins came from inside a church.

This play is called Meddlin' and it is written by the guy in the middle, you know the one with the piercing blue eyes, staring into the distance trying to recollect his thoughts. His name is Larry Starrh and this is the second play he has written for this festival in two years(which is how long it has been running). He is from Shafter, went away for college got a degree in theater then came back and took over the family business Starrh's & Kroeker, Inc. He was talking to his pastor one day and he brought up the idea of making something that would celebrate creation and beauty. They came up with this festival called Colours which in conjunction with the City of Shafter they have made it an annual event.

Let me take a side bar to tell you that I been to the Lincoln Center, I have have seen plays and productions all over the world and my humble opinion the quality of production value here is comparable. It revived my love for bluegrass music and it made me appreciate musicals in a way that Broadway has never done. It was fun, energetic and inspirational. Perhaps it was the layers of my attachment to this town that made me think all these things but as a New Yorker, the cynic, I can tell you no, I really think this was awesome.

Okay now lets focus on the girl on the left. Her name is Stephanie Bloemhof, from what I gather she has been in many plays around the area. She is our Narrator/Main Character. When she first spoke my first reaction was "wait she has a lisp". I did not think much of it a few minutes later because her performance was so good and I thought oh maybe that is her character.

As it turns out I was sitting next to my old English teacher who is close friends with her and in intermission she told me this story.

"She had tongue cancer so they had to remove a huge chunk of it. It is really an inspirational story, none of us thought she would ever be able to preform again but here she is and she is good. The night (she might had said week) before he surgery we all went out to dinner, and I love her sence of humor, guess what she ordered for dinner" she pauses for dramatic effect, "tongue" she blurts out as she laughs.

I went to a play my first night here at out local High School and I was really impressed with the quality of artistry, but being here in this amazing venue made me super proud of all they have done. This is an interesting town. It is small, everyone knows each other, it is a farming town with all kinds of seeds being planted including those of hope and faith. The idea that something bigger than us is in control and that brings comfort them and in some sense me. I miss it, I miss it a lot, if I could return I would.

This all started at a church the place where many go for comfort and I hope it goes on for years inspiring people who need to see beauty!!!