DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CLASS OF 1981 NOVEMBER 2017 NEWSLETTER SAVE THE DATE!!! “Feeding the Dragon” Magic Mountain Ski Weekend Hartford Stage March 2 - 4, 2018 A One-Woman Show by Sharon Washington ‘81 Dartmouth and skiing are deeply tied, and we are blessed Friday, January 26, 2018 at 8pm that eight members of the great Dartmouth Class of The Class of ‘81 is excited to invite you to join us at Hartford 1981 got together to revitalize a ski area one hour from Stage’s production of Feeding the Dragon, written and performed by Hanover. One short year later, Magic was just named one our own Sharon Washington ‘81. of the five “best-kept secrets” by The Wall Street Journal. We’re planning to meet for dinner at a We are travelling to Magic the weekend of March 2-4 to nearby restaurant, and then head to the celebrate winter sports and to have fun with each other. theater to join the Dartmouth Clubs of We will join some of the classmates who banded together Hartford and Pioneer Valley for pre-show to save this Vermont ski area. We are lining up some fun dessert and mingling. After the perfor- events for the weekend. So far we have: mance there will be a special opportunity to meet Sharon and join her in a talk- back session facilitated by Hartford Stage. The Little Girl Who Lived in the Library Sharon Washington plays nearly 20 characters in her own true story of growing up in the custodial apartment of a Manhattan library, where her father toils night and day to load the fiery furnace with coal, or in the eyes of a fanciful little bookworm, to feed the drag- on. Shrouded in family mystery, Sharon’s story boldly examines how both the power of forgiveness and her lifelong love for the written word have helped her battle dragons of all forms. *Discounted lift tickets *A block of discounted hotel rooms at the nearby Hampton The theater is generously offering a 20% discount (code Inn in Manchester, VT. Watch for the link. DARTMOUTH) to Dartmouth alums who buy their tickets now. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://ticketing.hart- *Apres Ski Music and ‘refreshments” at the Black Line Tavern fordstage.org/single/SYOS.aspx?p=638. *Dartmouth ‘81 Group Dinner at Black Line Tavern Saturday Carol Davis Fiske ‘82 is opening her home in Hartford to any ‘81s night who want to spend the night, and Ellen Brout Lindsey ‘81 also has *Live music and Dancing to the Blind Owl Band at the BLT beds and floor space up in Amherst, MA (just under an hour away, 8pm -11pm straight up I-91). For those of you preferring more standard ac- commodations, there is a Marriott hotel just a few blocks from the Contact Geoff Hatheway ([email protected]) or theater. Sally Reiley ([email protected]) for further info. RSVP to Sally Reiley ‘81 ([email protected]) if you plan to join What could be better than springtime in Paris? us, then purchase your tickets online at the link above. This perfor- Travel to Paris with Annette Gordon Reed! mance is about 2/3 sold out, so buy your tickets now. If you can’t join us at this performance, the discount code (DARTMOUTH) is May 20 - 27, 2018 valid for any night of the show. For details, visit http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/learn/ alumni-travel/paris-thomas-jefferson We hope to see you at the show! Sally Reiley, Ellen Brout Lindsey, and Sharon Washington www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/81 Sharon Washington: The Coolest in 2009 she was inundated with offers from feeds one person creatively may not do and then we were let loose downstairs to think it was where really old books were But when I sat down to write, a deeper Kid in the Class people wanting to write it - so she decided the same for you. That being said, I was an roam amongst the stacks. I remember that stored and catalogued. And of course the more adult personal memoir began to take the best thing was to do it herself. She only child and certainly my imagination I was attending Dalton by the time of the nooks and crannies in the basement, where shape. Given my almost 30 year career as Not only is our finished writing the first draft of “Feeding was fueled by all the stories I read in the second party and by then it wasn’t as cool my father shoveled coal and “fed the an actress, and having spent the last sev- creative class- the Dragon” at Dartmouth in 2015 as books around me and my after hours play because classmates were having private Dragon”. eral years working primarily on new plays mate, Sharon part of the NY Theatre Workshop Summer in the library. All kids make up “playsto- parties in screening rooms, penthouses, - using my body as a tool to help bring Washington, one Residency. It received its first full produc- ries”, I just happened to have had a very country estates and private dance clubs so the playwright’s words to life - as I began of the most tal- tion and world premiere at City Theatre in unique playground. the library wasn’t that exciting anymore. to further develop my own story I used ented members of Pittsburgh in 2016 and will begin a run at the same techniques on myself. Reading Q: Is there a particular library book that our class, but she Hartford Stage from January 11 through the dialogue aloud to work out the kinks - you recall was your favorite as a child? hands down had February 4, 2018 followed by its debut Off- that’s when it evolved into a solo play. the coolest child- Broadway at Primary Stages at the Cherry It’s a tie. The library had a beautiful col- hood of us all. A native New Yorker, Sharon And yes, writing and performing has been Lane Theatre in March/April 2018. lection of the Andrew Lang Colored Fairy spent ages 5 – 12 residing in apartments the most challenging thing I’ve ever done! Books (which I still covet today!) and located inside three New York City libraries We caught up with Sharon recently and she As an actor our goal is to disappear into From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. where her father was the custodian whose graciously agreed to share her story with the character - to disregard our point of Frankweiler. I could relate. round-the-clock presence was necessary us: view in service of the truth of the char- to maintain the coal furnace. In the early Q: Were there secret library “spaces” acter. As a solo performer telling my own 1900’s, Andrew Carnegie donated funds to that you had access to? story I am sharing my personal point of build new libraries in NYC, thirty of which view of the world; how my specific experi- had apartments within them for the fami- ence has shaped me and made me who lies of the custodians to reside in. Sharon I am today. No character mask to hide spent the majority of her childhood living behind. Just me. Alone onstage. Putting it The “Dragon” - The coal furnace required con- at the St. Agnes branch on the Upper West out there in the hopes that in sharing my Sharon’s mother in the Yorkville branch kitchen stant attention. story you’ll recognize some of your own. In Q: As a child, what was the reaction of Q: You resided in the apartments of my writing I’ve found the adage to be true your classmates and friends when they three different libraries. Which was that the more specific your story is the realized you lived over the library? Did your favorite and why? more universal it becomes. It’s important everybody want to have a “playdate” at to me, especially in the current divided I lived in the St. Agnes Branch, Yorkville your home? climate in our country, to show that even and finally the Harlem Branch. St. Agnes though we might have different narratives When I was younger I don’t know that is my favorite probably because it was the we share many common experiences. For I really talked about where I lived that first. It’s where I spent my most formative a moment, in that dark theater, we come much. Remember it was my norm, so years. It was also the biggest of the apart- Sharon and her father up on the roof together. unless where you lived came up specifi- ments. Three large bedrooms and a huge Q: How did your access to the “after cally I don’t know that I spent much time Sharon and her grandma on the roof living room and kitchen. The architectural hours” library impact your creative side, talking about it. I might have mentioned details were much nicer in this apartment. especially your decision to pursue a ca- it if we happened to be taking a school Yes. Our family had access to the roof of Yorkville was more modern and smaller - reer in acting? trip to a library - lol! I did have parties the library which was an enclosed space with no roof access. And by the time we there. I remember two birthday parties; got to the Harlem Branch I was over liv- That’s an interesting question which I’ve with a black tar surface (like most NYC the first when I was around 6 and then ing in libraries and like any young person been asked a lot during this process.