Peddling literature to a retirement community
In the nine months we lived at Vineyard Place, part of the Holiday "independent living" corporate octopus, I formed a readers theater group that performed two projects. One was original and one was from a scrpt I had written for First Unitarian Church in Portland; and I also gave a literary reading. (I used to write and direct a couple "drama services" a year.) The literary reading was special in several ways. On the plus side, it was on my birthday and I wasn't selling any books. Literary readings usually happen at bookstores or universities and in the former venue, the whole point is to sell. On the negative, a retirement community was far from the academic environment I had lived in for the past twenty years. I had noticed that the reading tastes here were focused on pop lit. I didn't see anyone carrying around Shakespeare or Moby Dick. I was a fish out of water. My motivation was different. I wanted to remind myself that I had a body of work I could be...