The Prize of Hope.

Hi everyone! It's the intern again.

Happy to say that 1984 closed strong at the Redcat, with many sold-out shows the last weekend and a remarkable guest speaker: Gore Vidal. Gore was surprisingly hilarious and predictibly brilliant as he lectured on the destruction of our constitution and the decay of our nation under the current administration. He closed with a morbid tale about Benjamin Franklin: When our Constitutionion was first drafted, he recounted, Franklin stated that throughout history, Republics such as the one defined under our Constitution failed within a short time due to the corruption of the people.

... (Silence for about five seconds. One thousand one. One thousand two... Then, FINALLY, thunderous applause.) It was a disurbing tale from a brilliant man.

After our final show on Sunday, Mia took over and we had a surprisingly quick strike of the set. I said auf wiedersehen to my parnter in crime Annetta, and to Erica, agreeing that we would all reunite one day for corn on the cob and sour kraut.

But while I was away, apparently, some prestigious things have been happening at the Actors' Gang. In June we garnered The Prize of Hope, from Denmark’s Institute for Popular Theatre! The Prize of Hope is awarded to a person or theater "who has worked for human hope in a daring, loving, vulgar, serious, poetic manner with sparkling energy" and is given to "those who encourage people to use their own eyes, ears and voice." YEAH! Vanessa, Justin, and Actors' Gang founding members Cynthia Ettinger and Tim Robbins flew up to Blue Lake, California to accept the prestigous award (pictured above) on June 21st.

It's also a very unique award, as the Institute created the mask specificallly to be an embodiment of what they felt the Gang represents.

I think it looks a little like Voltron. Or a Tic-Tic from 10,000 B.C., not that I'm admitting I saw that movie.

In other news our annual Summer Camp began on monday, this one for teens, and it's going great. More on that later...