Adventures in Traverse City and Interlochen
I’ve just returned from a lovely weekend on the southern shores of Lake Michigan, home to a whole host of exciting cultural attractions including The Interlochen Center for the Arts and the prestigious Traverse City Film Festival to name just two. My son was finishing his 6-week program at Interlochen, and I went up to see his final concerts before we traveled back home together. While I was there I had a couple of other lovely experiences, some quite unexpected, that I wanted to share here.
On Friday, just after I arrived, I headed down to Horizon Books for a How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare event, where I met some wonderful people. In particular, I got to meet the folks from Old Town Playhouse who will be producing The Game’s Afoot in January. Huge thanks to everyone who attended and to everyone at this fantastic bookstore for organizing this event, especially Jill, who started the ball rolling.
That evening, my family and I had dinner at Trattoria Stella in Traverse City. I have to tell you, it is one of THE great restaurants in America and one of the best I’ve ever been to in my life. The people that run the place, the staff and chef, are true artists. During our meal, one of the co-owners, Amanda Danielson, came up to our table and renewed our acquaintance. To my surprise, she told me that she’d just bought two copies of How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare—one for her daughter and one for the daughter of a colleague - and I had the pleasure of signing both of them. If you ever get anywhere near Traverse City, don't miss Trattoria Stella.
Then, on Saturday, after attending the Adult Choral Concert, I met Matthew Wilford who shared this love story with me:
He was the Technical Director at the Croswell Opera House in Adrian, MI. In April 1998, they produced Moon Over Buffalo. So, on the opening weekend, after the performance, as he was locking up the theater, he told Angela (his now wife) to sit in the sofa on-set and he went to the production booth. He set the house lights to 1/3, and played some music, and then went to the stage, got on one knee and proposed. Of course, she said yes! And this November, they’ll be celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary.
Matt said, “So, here we are at Interlochen with you, and we got engaged on the set of Moon Over Buffalo! I didn't even have to fall into the pit, like Cyrano!”So congratulations, Matt and Angela. I’m honored to have played a small part in the Wilford saga.
And now I’m back in D.C. I’m very glad to have my son back home and grateful to have met so many wonderful people over the last three days.