At the Theatre Museum Awards Gala, there were stars in everyone’s eyes –musical          performers, award presenters, and award recipients – notably Stage Door Manor – a performing arts camp that presents an astonishing thirty-nine shows (plays and musicals) a season!  Presenting the award was Richard Maltby, Jr. who conceived and directed two Tony-Award winning musicals (Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Fosse) and, as lyricist, co-created Tony-nominated Baby and Big – along with two gifted daughters, who are Stage Door Manor alum.  Konnie Kittrell, accepting the Theatre Arts Education Award for owner Cynthia Samuelson, glowed: “Stage Door Manor is designed to create a community where dreams are shared and validated – a safe place for dreams to soar!” Our ebullient host was John Bolton musical theatre star (Christmas Story and touring companies of Music Man and Same Time, Next Year). Award recipients included Frederick O. Olsson, actor, master carpenter, stage hand (Career Achievement Award)  who shared anecdotes about hauling up Cleopatra’s barge and auditioning for Richard Rodgers, Theatre Communications Group, and theatre historian Don B. Wilmeth. Presiding over the festivities were Theatre Museum Chairman Stewart F. Lane, five-time Tony-Award winning Producer, and President Helen Guditis.  The Theatre Museum presents events and exhibits in many venues –honoring theatrical history and nurturing the stars of tomorrow.  What better place to salute our theatrical heritage than the legendary Players Club?  As we drank a champagne toast to the award recipients, presenters, and performers, I imagined that the portraits of stars of yesteryear (Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, John Barrymore, Jason Robards, etc.) also raised a ghostly, gleeful, glass! Happiness/Success Habits Celebrate your heritage, community, and common interests.  There are many kinds of community (religion, ethnic, gender, family, work, friends, etc). Most of us belong to more than one community and have more than one heritage. and our need to belong can be satisfied in many ways. Celebrate and value the beauty and power of the arts and your own gifts, whether or not they lead to fame and fortune.  The arts touch the heart, and free the spirit, and express the deepest self.

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos