Happenings

We came home to North Lenoir

Twenty-eight years after I graduated, I spent an afternoon back in the auditorium where I learned how to do this.

Coming home was about much more than nostalgia for me. It was about seeing the artistic lineage continue. Eleven North Lenoir Drama alumni sang, from across nearly three decades of the same program, and current and former students came on for the closing number. Thank you to everyone who performed and attended. You made it magical.

Clifton Cuddington, who has played piano for the department’s last two musicals, shared his gifts as our guest artist. Nygel D. Robinson was there via video from New York, sharing his great love; he has spent this year with Mexodus, the show he wrote and performs with Brian Quijada, and it won him a Lucille Lortel Award. Wayne Peede ran the sound.

Marian Kennedy co-produced and co-directed the concert, in partnership with ALL Creates. She has taught and produced here long enough that the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon gave her an honorable mention for it. Marian, you are a powerhouse.

One perfect moment: I sang “être,” a song I wrote in May, accompanying myself on piano in front of an audience for the first time (outside my living room!). The microphone kept falling down, so my dear teacher, mentor and producer-extraordinaire came onstage and held the boom mic. This is the magic of live theatre.

The icing on the cake was a parade of amazing costumes from 35+ years of shows. We raised more than we expected, and it pays for a live orchestra under this fall’s White Christmas. Bottom line: Eastern North Carolina is chock full of talent. I left inspired.

With Parker Ball, Allison Manning, Anna Marshburn, Lindsey Manning, Molly White, Abigail Hull, Anna Hull, Holly Holder, Garrett Southerland, Lindsay Casey Norwood, Samantha Sutton Warren, Clifton Cuddington, and current and former students in the closing number.

Where

Young H. Allen Auditorium, North Lenoir High School
2400 Institute Road, La Grange, NC 28551

Benefits

North Lenoir High School Drama Department

North Lenoir drama alumni return home for September 13 benefit concert

Neuse News on the concert, the drama department, and the road from La Grange to a national tour of RENT.

Published by

Neuse News

The first three Auntie LouLou books

mama, rage and fury, and bigger than me. A small book series, published under the pen name Auntie LouLou™.

mama is about the many directions we seek in life, and how — in the end — they all point to love. rage and fury takes life’s inevitable pains and turns them toward it. bigger than me asks how love feels in the face of the most painful moments there are.

Each one is a book to read in a half-hour and savor for a lifetime. The influences are Shel Silverstein, Maya Angelou, Don Miguel Ruiz, Thich Nhat Hanh and StoryPeople.

Love In All Its Forms is out

A debut jazz album about every kind of love, recorded with my father on piano.

Ten songs, cut at LMNL Studios in Santa Monica. Musical direction by Jeff Babko of the Jimmy Kimmel Live band, with Sean Hurley on bass and Zach Danziger on drums.

Resiliency The Podcast begins

A global conversation of changemakers, co-hosted with Dr. Kelly Culver.

A genocide survivor. A Navy captain. A chef who walked across America. The question is always the same one, and the answers never are.

A TEDx talk in Paris

Walking Confidently in the Wrong Direction, at The American University of Paris.

What happens when you realize you are pointed the wrong way, and how to keep going forward while you turn around.

Where

TEDx Talk: The American University of Paris