Lacuna Group produced a few actual shows back in the day; most of our work was workshop oriented with no clear performance goal.
2024: Every Brilliant Thing
Every Brilliant Thing, by Duncan Macmillan (with Jonny Donahoe) is a heart-warming, heart-breaking, and often very funny show about depression, suicide, and every brilliant thing in life that should keep you here. Dale Lyles directed, Alexis Colon Ortiz performed, at Southern Arc Dance Center, Sep 13–15, 2024.
We had hundreds of submissions to the Brilliant List, which you can find here.
2007: William Blake’s Inn
In May of 2007, Lacuna Group showed what a complete performance of William Blake’s Inn might look like with our “hot glue and cardboard” stagings of The Man in the Marmalade Hat Arrives and Two Sunflowers Move Into the Yellow Room. We presented the complete work to an audience of about 100, who were entertained and impressed with the music.
William Blake’s Inn was sung by (l-r) Mary Frances Hones, Denise Meacham, Melissa Houghton, Anne Tarbutton, Malcolm Lelliot, Mike Ferrante, Marc Honea, and (not pictured) Dale Lyles.
Collaborators in this performance: members of the workshop team (Marc, Melissa, Laura, Carol Lee, Molly); Mary Frances and her Newnan School of Dance students; Sherry Lambert and her kindergarten class of hedgehogs (and their parents!); Bette Hickman and the Newnan Cultural Arts Commission for the sponsorship, the invitations, and the reception.
Lacuna members meet Nancy Willard
On Monday, April 2, 2007, members of the Lacuna Group had lunch with Nancy Willard and her husband Eric Lindbloom at Docks Oyster Bar & Seafood Grille on Third Avenue in New York City.
We were delighted to find that she is as magical in person as she is in her writing and in her correspondence with Dale. Her husband Eric is a gifted photographer, so it’s a mega-creative household in Poughkeepsie, NY.
We had brought gifts: a copy of Herb Bridges’ Postcards from Coweta County, which Dale had annotated with personal memories; and A Taste of Georgia. Also, Carol Lee had brought one of the prototype sunflowers, which surprised and delighted Nancy.
When Dale and Carol Lee asked her to autograph their copies of William Blake’s Inn, Nancy took the copies home with her and mailed them back with lovely paintings inside: suns, moons, and angels. What a thrill!
Above: Nancy Willard and Eric Lindbloom in front; Ginny Lyles, Dale Lyles, Carol Lee Shankel, Mary Frances Honea, Molly Honea, Marc Honea, and Galen Honea.
Nancy passed away in 2017. Here is Dale’s remembrance of her.
2008: Coriolanus
The boys of Lacuna Group pulled off a production of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus on October 25 & 26, 2008, in the Greenville Street Park, and on November 1 at Newnan Community Theatre Company.
l-r: Dan Coleman, Jeff Allen, and Marc Honea
They worked together from August through October on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings, hammering out the production as a collaborative group. With a cast of eight and no set or lights to assist in the illusion, the cast devised staging to show large armies clashing on the battlefield as well as intimate scenes.
Much of the fun in the work came from not only exploring Shakespeare’s text but in creating the multiple characters each actor had to handle.
The cast included Jeff Allen, John Bilon, Jeff Bishop, Dan Coleman, Marc Honea, Greg Lee, Dale Lyles, and Kevin McInturff.
For more info/files/commentary, see the old blog page.
l-r: Jeff Bishop, Dale Lyles