Season

Season

Dear Animal, This is my last letter to you, and it begins where I left off, Animal-on the far left coast of Canada, at that time of year when summer starts to turn and a new season is in the wings. After time in Vancouver and on the Sunshine Coast, I crossed the...
Pass With Care

Pass With Care

Dear Animal,   I’m thumbing through a red notebook the size of a folded bandana. It is on my seat, between my legs, as I drive. Using my teeth, I pull off the pen cap. I usually text notes to myself, but it’s crowded in the car as we drive 1500 miles, and I fear...
Parade

Parade

Dear Animal, Before I was a director or a playwright, I was an actor. I started in kindergarten and kept going, including seven years of higher education. I never did much professionally, but I’m shaped by those years of acting study.  An acting teacher once told...
rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

Dear Animal, ‘Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb’ is what you might ask an actor to silently mouth as an extra in a scene. Rhubarb creates a believable background, as it simulates conversation, and because the word rhubarb doesn’t have any recognizable consonant clusters, it...
Welcome to Terrible’s

Welcome to Terrible’s

Dear Animal, As you may recall, I work in a lot of different media– snow and ice, water, moss – but my new medium is road. Moving to the foothills of Colorado has upped my driving game considerably, I have a 16-year-old, so I am a driving instructor and my youngest...
turn the earth

turn the earth

Dear Animal, If my voice seems a bit muffled this month, it’s because I am buried deep here. Still, the design is fantastic, I marvel at that white sky. In the mountain hamlet of Sunshine, I’m told by the locals that this fall, 3 feet, is manageable; it’s 4 or 5 where...