urban excavations

I have been a happy city dweller since leaving my suburban childhood home in Western Michigan for college, several phases of graduate school, work opportunities, life experiences. Michigan to Massachusetts to Missouri and back to Michigan (the “M State” phase), then Pennsylvania to Washington DC to the most recent chapters in Chicago, a brief return to Pennsylvania, and now Manhattan.

In all these places I absorb, examine the shards of history, attempt to learn from those who came before. This site began as one of those personal rumination adventures during my time in Philadelphia while living in a shabby chic solid building, with great old bones, tall ceilings, creaking floors, and layers and layers of paint exposed during some brief clean up repairs before we took possession of our apartment.

Images of paint layers led me to ruminate on the layers of meaning I excavate in written form. Urban Excavations — practical, literal, metaphorical, theatrical, literary. Other posts about the idea, from the vantage point of several cities, here.

This site now focuses primarily on performance reflections in theaters of many kinds. Let us give ourselves over to the romance of the enterprise, and feel the exquisite anticipation of a show about to begin. In the hush between house lights down and stage lights up, thrill to what might happen — poised before the possibilities.