RABBIT TRAILS: DISPATCHES FROM THE SHED
Updates, news and blog stories from around the Ted and Company universe.
Next week Ted & Company will present four performances of Fish Eyes to celebrate 20 years of this beloved show. From April 10-13, Ted Swartz and Jason Hildebrand will take up their nets and don their (figurative) fisherman’s waders at Court Square Theater in Harrisonburg VA, drawing audiences into the first century lives of Jesus’ disciples Peter and Andrew. One week later, dinner theater guests in Ohio can also enjoy Fish Eyes at Dutch Village Inn in Columbiana OH. Ted and Jason have both noted that they discover new nuances to the stories each time they perform. We hope many others, who perhaps last saw Fish Eyes 15 years ago, will enjoy experiencing the stories afresh, particularly as the performances offer a perfect segue into Palm Sunday and Holy Week. And there is a whole generation of teens and twenty-somethings who have not seen Fish Eyes – this is your…
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Last week Ted and Company launched a Kickstarter campaign. This is our first endeavor in the world of crowd-funding, but Learning to Play seemed to be the perfect project; still developing, pertinent subject matter, lots of energy to make it better. As you might imagine it is a bit scary as well, and so, it was no surprise that I dreamed about Kickstarter last Monday. In the dream things went a little crazy and we reached a total of 4 million dollars! It was amazing and then horrifying. I panicked. “What are we going to do…that’s so much money!” It was terrifying to have the responsibility of some much cash, and I thought—in the dream—“I need to find someone who could emotionally handle this—and might be looking for another career.” As you can imagine, as an artist I don’t typically find myself showered in money and this struggling-artist-life has not…
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Our oldest son Eliot is a first grade teacher. He was a “pied piper” when he was a kid—younger children always seemed to be following him around. He wasn’t necessarily cultivating their attention, there just seemed to be something about him. So it was no surprise to Sue and I when he decided to become a teacher. The past 2 years around Christmastime, Sue and I have been invited to visit the school where he teaches. I read Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”…needing to tell a couple of the kids that, while Theodore Giesel and I have the same first name, I am not, in fact, Dr Seuss. It’s good alliterative practice to read Seuss and always wonderful to watch faces of rapt attention. Sue and I then help the kids make “Grinch” faces–what makes the Grinch grin? Thanks Eliot for the gift of sharing your class. Lovely…
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As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s time to start thinking about pies. Of course, in addition to the usual kinds of pie, we’ve been thinking a lot about peace pies. As many of you know, in 2012 Ted & Company partnered together with Christian Peacemaker Teams to produce the Peace, Pies & Prophets (PPP) tour in the US and Canada. This new way of collaborating combines peace work, thought-provoking theater, fundraising and the talent of local pie bakers. What is Peace Pies & Prophets? This interactive event aims to raise both funds and awareness for peace, presenting Ted & Co’s “I’d Like to Buy an Enemy” starring Ted Swartz and Tim Ruebke. During the show Ted and Tim intermittently don cowboy hats, blow an air horn and begin the bidding of homemade pies, the proceeds of which benefit CPT or other peace work. Bringing in over $40,000, the enthusiasm and funds raised through…
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In the last two years Ted has been approached by several people about writing a show based on the church’s journey with sexuality. It’s a difficult subject to know how to talk about, not least because it affects all of us and yet all of us experience it in very personal and very different ways. Well, the time has come. Ted has spent the last few months exploring a topic that makes many of us uncomfortable, to perhaps understate it. This project isn’t meant to answer or “side” with a specific viewpoint on “the homosexuality question.” It’s not meant to take a specific biblical viewpoint on what is sin and what is not sin. The task is more difficult. It is to provide space for a genuine conversation to emerge in the church; a place for hearing different voices with varied views and histories. The intent of this show is…
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There was excitement this week at Ted & Company – the long-awaited re-release of Ted’s book. Re-release, you ask? Well it’s a longer story, one you may enjoy reading sometime. The decision-process for choosing the final cut for the new cover was a long and arduous one, fraught with great questions like: Should the rubber chicken be in the tool belt or on the Bible? Should Ted be wearing the tool belt or not – do we all really need a book with Ted’s backside on it? And what really is the relationship between the chicken and the Bible? Big questions. Ultimately we’re pretty pleased with the end result. We think our readers will be too. Wednesday evening Ted planned a re-release of Laughter is Sacred Space along with fellow local Mennonite author Shirley Showalter who just released her own memoir Blush. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Our…
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