Ann Mayer has published a new e-book (June 2017) about plants and animals of Nepal. This is what she has to say about it:

“For nearly 8 months I have been writing a second book of poems for children about Nepal. This one “Exotic and Endemic Plants and Animals of Nepal ” has just been published as an e-book. Once again, I had it printed in Nepal. This one is illustrated primarily by a 14-year-old boy from Nepal who lives in the Nepal Orphans Home. He has had no formal art training, and his pictures are colorful and dynamic. You may read the book and download a free copy HERE.

Thanks to the connection with Ann Kingman Williams, I was introduced to Michael Hess, former Director of Nepal Orphans Home, who helped me find the young artists and also helped oversee the project.”

I hope you will look at this lovely book by Ann Mayer. It is a nice documentation of exotic and endangered animals and plants of Nepal. It is designed primarily for Nepalese children—but certainly appropriate for all children (and adults). Ann made a wall hanging to thank the Nepal Orphan’s Home (‘Papa’s House’), and it is now hanging in a place of honor on the wall in the Community Center. Here is a photo that the Home sent to Ann. And click on the blue link to see the close-up of the Plaque for Ann Mayer.

Ann Mayer’s Wall Hanging She Made for the Nepal Orphan’s Home

Tina Marsden Gillis has a brand-new book (April 2017), published by CreateSpace, and available at Amazon.com. This is what she has to say about it. I, for one, am ordering it ASAP! (AKW)

Where Edges Don’t Hold [CreateSpace, at Amazon.com)

 by Christina Marsden Gillis

Where Edges Don’t Hold , just published with Amazon (CreateSpace), is my second  collection of essays inspired by spending all the summers of my adult life on Gotts Island, Maine.  In a number of short pieces–some of which were  published  earlier in literary journals– I look at the complicated dynamics of an island: a place where all roads lead to the sea and tidal cycles govern the passage of time.  The notion of constant motion, whether in the ocean or on the land, affects the experience of island life. I hope that my essays, illustrated by my husband John’s line drawings, reinforce the value of thinking, and living, beyond temporal and spatial boundaries and “edges.”

Coco (Carol) Klein Mack has published a new book, dedicated to her husband Peter, who died this past fall. “Without A Trace and Other Plays” is a collection of four of her plays, and it has been met with a very positive response. Some of the accolades read as follows:

About ‘The Accident’: “I came away believing that Mack is a major new playwright and that her play is one of the best new things that has been produced in Boston in quite a while. The comparisons here are to Pinter and Beckett.” (Jon L Lehman, The Patriot Ledger, Boston).

About ‘A Safe Place’: “A SAFE PLACE, the new play being given its auspicious debut at the Berkshire Theater Festival is a drama of high impact. (RC Hammerich, The Morning Union, Springfield, Massachusetts).

“Carol K Mack has clearly demonstrated that she is a playwright with an individual voice and with something to say.” (Leida Snow, WINS Theater Critic, New York City). High praise, indeed!

Coco is planning to visit close friends in London, and while there, she will be present at a reading of her new play, ‘Silent Partner’, on Thursday evening, April 20. It will be held at The So & So Art Club, Capital House (4th floor), 42 Weston St., London SE1 3QD. She cordially invites any classmates who might be in the area to attend the event. Thank you, Coco, and congratulations!

Ann Mayer has written and produced a delightful book of poems for children, titled Endangered Animals of Nepal. Moved by the devastating earthquake in Nepal, she thought about all the indigenous animals there who were also affected. From her home in Ithaca, NY, where she lives in the Assisted Living unit of the Kendal facility, she researched, wrote, made connections literally all over to world, raised the money necessary for production and finally has been successful in her efforts. My heartiest congratulations to Ann! I hope our classmates will take the time to read about her journey, which she has logged HERE. It is a long read, documenting persistence and dedication. You are indeed an inspiration, Ann!

Ann sent an update on her book, and herself. Her retirement community (Kendal at Ithaca) profiled her experience with writing, producing and distributing her book in their recent publication, the cover of which is reproduced HERE., with a nice picture of Ann. This article itself is linked HERE.

Carol Klein Mack has been instrumental in producing a very powerful play, ‘Seven’, which she talked about at our 55th reunion. It premiered in 2008.

(From the website) “SEVEN is a documentary play… 

…conceived by Carol Mack and written by seven award-winning playwrights: Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith, and Susan Yankowitz. A riveting piece of documentary theatre, SEVEN tells the true stories of seven women who bravely fought for the well-being of women, families, and children around the globe: in Russia, protecting women from domestic violence; in Cambodia, rescuing girls from human trafficking; in Guatemala, giving voice to the poor; in Afghanistan, empowering rural women; in Nigeria and Pakistan, fighting for women’s education and rights; and in Northern Ireland, promoting peace and equality.”

Sue Cochran Swanson and Mary Ann Sparklin Woodruff have been successful in bringing the play to Seattle, where it was SOLD OUT!!
 
Here is a review from Pat Kennedy Ascher, who was in attendance:

“Seven” in Seattle

For the last 8 years, “Seven” has had a busy life, being produced all over the world, but never anywhere near San Francisco! And then, Mary Ann Sparklin Woodruff and Sue Cochran Swanson decided to present it in Seattle on March 6.

After hearing Coco Kline Mack read from “Seven” at our Reunion class dinner, Mary Ann and Sue were so inspired that they returned to Seattle and found the space, a director, financial donors, a steering committee, and actors for a hometown production. All this in ten months!!  I am in awe.

“Seven” is probably not like any theatrical experience you have ever had. It was the brainchild of Coco Kline Mack. She found six other playwrights who, with her, wove the true stories of seven women from different countries into an extraordinary tapestry of courage against insurmountable odds. One of the playwrights, Anna Deavere Smith, is a personal favorite of mine. She interviewed and wrote about Afsat Abiola, a Nigerian who founded the Kudirat Initiative, which is an organization that provides leadership training for young women in Nigeria.

Playing to a sold-out house in Seattle’s Town Hall, every one of the seven actresses was a leader from the local community, including a former governor and a judge from the Washington Supreme Court. This was no light-weight group. Former productions have included NATO Generals among the actors!!

I watched “Seven” with my daughter, Catherine, who lives in Seattle. We have seen a lot of theater together over the years… from Irish rebellion plays in Dublin, to Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” in New York. I think that this play, more than any other, took us inward and demanded something of us. It connected us to every little girl who struggles to receive an education without being beaten up, with every woman who fears to speak the truth without being destroyed. The play made their struggle our struggle and said,” You, too, can be strong. It is possible.”

And this review from July Sayler Olmer:

“SEVEN” in Seattle

Mary Ann Sparklin Woodruff wrote in Nov. ‘15 to say that she and Sue Cochran Swanson were organizing a production of SEVEN, Carol (Coco) Klein Mack’s project to use the voices of seven women activists from around the world to portray the range of terrible violence and mistreatment suffered by so many women and how each had tried to combat such treatment and improve the lives of women and girls through education and empowerment. In Mary Ann’s words, “Following Carol’s presentation at one of our 55th reunion dinners on her play SEVEN, Sue and I looked at each other and determined we would try to bring SEVEN to Seattle.” Less than a year later, a stunning production took place in the Seattle Town Hall on March 6, 2016. Like Pat Kennedy Ascher, I was lucky enough to be there for it; I took the daughter of my best high school friend, and we both found it moving, deeply sad, yet exhilarating and inspiring, showing women who found their voices and moved ahead to help others. A sold out crowd, mostly women of all ages, with a sprinkling of supportive males, cheered the performance and the panel discussion following it, and Sisterhood was powerful in the air. Two links at the end of this article provide video of the performance and the panel discussion afterwards.

Carol Mack had hoped to be in Seattle for the production, but she was unable to come. However, a few of us from the class of ’60 were able to attend. The evening before the production, Mary Ann and her spouse Mary Dispenza hosted a grand dinner for some of the people who’d worked so hard on the play, including Sue Cochran and several members of the steering committee, along with several of us lucky out of town visitors—Pat Ascher, Carolyn Casady Schwenk Derby, and me. Pat’s and Mary Ann’s daughters also were there. We all enjoyed an excellent dinner in a spectacular setting—Mary Ann’s and Mary’s condo on Lake Washington.

SEVEN has now been performed in more than 30 countries and many places across the US, and has been translated into dozens of languages. Carol heard one of the stories at a meeting of Vital Voices. Turning to one of the Vital Voices founders, she asked “Do you have more stories like this one?” “Hundreds,” was the reply. So Carol got Vital Voices to put her in touch with seven women and their stories, then recruited six other female playwrights. Each playwright interviewed one of the women, in person if possible, using Skype if not. Then each writer created a monologue telling the woman’s story. Together, they wove the monologues into the play called SEVEN. The website, seventheplay.com, is a great place to look for more information about the play and its history since 2007.

The March 6 production was part of a worldwide project to encourage as many people/organizations as possible to present a reading of SEVEN during March 2016. Tickets were priced affordably, at $20, and the 852 seats in the Town Hall sold out very quickly.

How did this happen? First, Mary Ann and Sue recruited an “amazing” 14-woman steering committee for the production, including several other MHC grads: Judith Lonnquist, ’62 (Mary Ann’s ‘little sister,’ who served as attorney); Nancy Skinner Nordhoff, ’54, founder of the Cottages at Hedgebrook, a woman writer’s sanctuary, who was a big help with contacts and fund-raising; and Emily Dietrich, ’85, who is the leader of the MHC Club of Puget Sound Writer’s Group, to which Mary Ann and Sue belong. In addition, several members of the Writer’s Group and MHC club board served as volunteers, helping with ticketing, ushering, and other requirements. As Mary Ann said, “No one dropped a ball. Sue and I were really blessed by how everyone came together and worked.”

They found a “fabulous” director, Anita Montgomery of Seattle’s ACT Theater. Anita and the sound tech she recruited to help her were the only people in the whole SEVEN production who were paid. Even the “actors,” women who read the roles of the SEVEN women, were volunteers.

Virtually all of the impressive women recruited to embody SEVEN’s characters quickly agreed to participate. They included:

Former WA state Gov. Christine Gregoire, who voiced Inez McCormack of Northern Ireland, an activist for women’s for human and women’s rights and former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions;

Retired Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, a Vietnam Veteran and the highest ranking officer to challenge the military’s prohibition against homosexuals serving in the military. She voiced Marina Pisklakova-Parker, the founder of the first domestic violence hotline in Moscow;

Mary Yu, associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court, who spoke for Farida Azizi of Afghanistan, who fought the marginalization of women under Taliban rule and since;

Sutapa Basu, executive director of the U of Washington’s Women’s Center and a founding member of the anti-human trafficking in Washington State, who represented Mukhtar Mai of Pakistan. It was she who brought the four men who gang-raped her to justice, started an organization that builds schools, and is a champion defender of women’s rights and education in the Punjab;

Three other outstanding women gave voice to activists from Cambodia, Guatemala, and Nigeria.

The steering committee organized in-kind and financial contributions from businesses, individuals, and co-sponsorships–organizations active in women’s and human rights. Before the doors opened on March 6, the lobby was filled with tables on which organizations involved in the issues explored in SEVEN offered information on their work, a sort of activist’s fair.”

SEVEN received plenty of local publicity, with director and “actors” interviewed on the local NBC affiliate and NPR. As Mary Ann says, “By the time we were seeking media attention, the play was already a sellout, so the tie was to the fact that it was the beginning of International Women’s Month and that the play celebrated stories of incredible strength on the part of these women in confronting violence of all sorts.”

Mary Ann provided one amusing story from the production of SEVEN in Seattle that said a lot about cultural changes around the world since our adolescence in the ‘50’s. Former Gov. Christine Gregoire, playing the part of Inez McCormack from Northern Ireland, began the play talking about a group of women sitting around in North Belfast and reading the Declaration of Human Rights out loud “’til we get to that word ‘inalienable,’ and it’s hard to pronounce, so they start laughing and think I said ‘alien,’ and maybe I’m talking about outer space, and I say ‘it’s hard to spell, too!’ ‘But what does it mean anyhow?’ one woman asks me. ‘The word inalienable, it means all those rights we’re reading, they’re part of every human being!’ ‘What do we have to do to get these rights?’ ‘They’re yours, I tell them!’ She looks at me amazed. ‘Well, that’s the best fuckin’ kept secret in the whole world’s all I can say!’ Mary Ann: “Christine got a big laugh over that. . .later, she said that neither her husband nor her daughters had ever heard that word cross her lips, and she gave a little bit of grief to Judith (Lonnquist), who had asked her to play the part.”

https://vimeo.com/townhallseattle/review/157980356/3d68ab6140 (Play)

https://vimeo.com/townhallseattle/review/157979372/43dc1b7b99 (Panel Discussion)

Mary Ann Sparklin Woodruff  Last of the Good Girls (2013)