Since 1998, interesting discussions, fresh concepts, and spatial breakthroughs happen around this table.  My best work results when you share your ideas and insights.  Collaboration raises the bar!

My summer reading has been devoted to the study of Frank Lloyd Wright.  In May, I joined the staff at Taliesin in nearby Spring Green as a docent.  I give tours of the Hillside School buildings about one day a week.  It has been fascinating to learn about the history of the Fellowship, an architectural & allied arts community he founded in 1932.  I love walking around, observing the space, and explaining it to people.  The esprit de corps among the tour guides is great!

  Dodgeville began as a mining camp back in 1827.  Lead deposits were so abundant that ore lay exposed on rocky knobs.   The demand for lead continued through World War II.  Besides the occasional sink hole (quickly filled in by city crews), physical evidence of the city’s rich history has been erased. 

The exception is the Slag Furnace, built in 1876 to extract marketable ore from the waste of initial smelting.  The Dodgeville Historic Preservation Commission and dedicated volunteers have raised funds to restore this relic. 

The City of Dodgeville will let bids for this project in the spring of 2010.  If you know a stonemason conversant in historic restoration, please send me their contact information.

  Alley Stage began as the dream of a local playwright.   Coleman discovered a forgotten quarry, its towering limestone wall overgrown in brush and vines.  Located on a back corner of Shake Rag Center for the Arts in Mineral Point, it was the perfect venue for an outdoor summer theatre.  His vision was to create original plays in a rustic, historic setting. 

He asked me to design a stage that would work for a variety of backdrops and props, with seating for 120 people.  The theatre opened in the summer of 2007, and we were wowed with the amazing talent of the playwrights and actors, many of them our friends and neighbors.

We are now looking at upgrading the audience area with tiered platforms and more comfortable seating.  Coleman covets a permanent sound booth and storage for hand props, to replace the folding table and tent now in use.  I presented this design concept at a recent winter production, and a generous silent donor offered to fund the project!!  Check it out:  alleystage.com