tea time

A part of tea time at the Sugar Tree Cottage can be this antique tea cake stand, and the simply beautiful clay tea pot created by Lakewood Theater's own simply beautiful Stephanie E G Irwin.

You should check out her etsy shop 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/StephIrwinCeramics 

 

April on Olive Street

Blossoms are out, grass is greening, we've had rain so puddles abound... this all means that the ducks are very happy!  Hayden Brook rushes by the Sugar Tree Cottage, antique dishes are being sorted at the Perkins House, and Swampy is being made less swampy... this is our springtime on Olive Street!

the how of making it work

The mission statement goes like this: to gently support the historic Lakewood Theater & its people along with local artists & the community; and to be an ongoing self-sustaining project.

So how is that done? The hope is that by giving folks the space to create, that they will give back. The goal is that there will be no rent, but through personal revenue generated by individual artists [actual art, gigs, and/or lessons] things such as electric bills, taxes, insurance, and water association fees will be paid. Through individuals donating their time and skill, gardens will be tended, buildings will be painted, grass will be mowed. [and all residences will have things like beautiful pottery, wooden tables, stunning paintings... all by local artists and a few friendly bees]

It has been put before me that I may be a little too optimistic, and I should also look into crowdfunding

more than bees

Related to the bees part of the project, there will now be a little donations jar at the Tower House. Vistors using the artists space, the kitchen, shower, or collecting from the community garden may choose to leave donations in the jar on the shelf in the kitchen. This money may be used by our bees if desired, just simply leave the store receipt in the jar so that the donations can be recorded. If there are any monies there at the end of season, they will go towards next season’s expenses! Cash is lovely, but if leaving a check, please remember to make it out to Dawnella Sutton* and I promise not to take off to the Bahamas with the money.

*The On Olive Street Project is a self-titled phrase, not a registered not-for-profit at this time.

Lakewood Theater

The reason we are here on Olive Street, Lakewood Theater. 

Productions for the 2021 season have been annouced and the auditions scheduled, so we know we can put winter behind us now, as is the yearly tradition.

Please visit the theater's website to read more about the upcoming season, past seasons, actors, and a whole lot of it's amazing history. 

We'll look forward to seeing you there in just a few months!  

https://www.lakewoodtheater.org/lakewood-theater

artists and benefactors

When getting down to task, or as a daily aspiration, it is helpful and often inspiring to reassess your goals.  Every once in a while it is good to look back upon ones mission statement. Read it aloud. Ground yourself with it.

In case you haven't yet read our mission statement for this dream of mine on Olive Street, it is as follows:

Mission Statement for Olive Street: To gently support the historic Lakewood Theater & its people along with local artists & the community; and to be an ongoing self-sustaining project. 

Reading it from this very blog's The Project page and then continuing down to the paragraphs which followed, there was this sentence (written by myself):  "Artists and benefactors of all kinds are most warmly welcomed"  which made me realize that although being very open about inviting artists to participate, the acquiring of benefactors is something that has not been focused on properly. Indeed, until we reach the planned "self-sustaining" part, it seems it will need to be done.

So, the question is out there now, would anyone be interested in coming right out and sponsoring an artist (for studio time or housing) for the 2021 season?

autumn again

I've neglected this blog, and been away from Olive Street for so much of this year. Happy to have simple pleasures on my visit today, watching a single leaf float down Hayden Brook. Spent much of my missing time doing research, looking at how other artists in residence applications are written, the yin and the yang of it. Here's to bringing more art, theater, music, and community to Olive Street in 2021. 

finding Joseph

Geneology.

We know Olive's parents were William Davis Hayden and Naomi (Lawrence) Hayden; William's parents were Jedidiah Hayden and Judith (Davis) Hayden, and we know many generations back from there in fact, beyond the Revolutionary War which Olive's greatgrandfather fought in, on to England. Lots and lots of Haydens

On it's history page, the Lakewood Theater website mentions "the homestead of Joseph Hayden" and this Hayden, well, I hadn't encountered yet. Thinking of the same website's mention of Jedediah Hayden's arrival by ox-cart from Gray, Maine...  and it not being the first time ox-carts have wound their way into these stories...  I dug a bit and found this info from the Gray Maine Historical Society: 

Joseph Hayden ( - 1842) was one of the first shoemakers in Gray.  He built a small one story shop (10-15sf).  It was well lighted by a hanging lamp and had a round woodstove in the center with an iron skillet setting inside the top in which he melted his wax.  These were for sewed shoes, the shoemaker using waxed thread with a needle on each end of the thread.  An awl was used to make the holes.  Someone quoted “he was a honest man, did his work well and put in no poor leather”. 

It makes sense of course, that they did additionally have cencus records of Jedidiah Hayden and his wife Judith (Davis) Hayden ; as well as David Hayden and his wife Betsy (Davis) Hayden.  Elsewhere in the records were Haydens Elisha, Richard Jr, and Jonathan, who, along with David, were indeed all brothers of Jedidiah; and all reasonably coming through Gray, but there was still no way to connect them to Joseph. This may be a good time to let it be known that Jedidiah had four other brothers: Enoch, Clement, Samuel, and Daniel [who moved here with his own young son named Enoch in 1812, as referenced in earlier blog posts] as well as three sisters, Sally, Mary, and Hannah.

And it was also noted in the Historical Society that Joseph married Abilgal Nash July 6, 1800.

I can tell you that there is indeed a Joseph Hayden on the same family tree: Jedidiah's brother Daniel (the same that moved to the land in 1812 with little Enoch in the bunch) had a son named Daniel Richard Hayden, who then had a son named Joseph Warren Hayden, born in 1860 and passed away in 1936.(his decendents still in the area)  But he wasn't one of the ox-cart travelers, and wasn't a beloved shoemaker of Gray, Maine.

I'm still looking for my shoemaker, whoever he might have been.

memoribilia

One of my favorite things about having so many places here on Olive Street is having so many walls to hang some of my Lakewood Theater memorbilia. My collection ranges from the 1920's forward, and finally I get to share some of it with other fans of the Theater and history.

traveling theater

Left over from some of my Storyteller Moon gigs, we have this fantastic theater on wheels; it folds and unfolds, has stage doors and even old fashioned candle-powered footlights for performances at dusk. Though it's a bit tall, it tows easily behind a car or truck. It's quite fun!

I think it will find a happy new home here on Olive Street somewhere...  I don't intend to start teaching (or performing) again myself, but I think it would be fun for the community to use!