Notes from our founder - Our 13th Year

Dear Friends,

There is a part of the experience of opening the school that never seems to change - opening night butterflies. I am sitting at my still-messy desk in the atrium, thinking back to my summers as Stage Manager for the Gloriana Opera Company in Mendocino, circa 1978. I've oiled the hinges on the trapdoor so that the Mikado can disappear in a puff of smoke, replaced the broken pulley on the curtain weights, scraped and wiped the rehearsal blocking marks off of center-stage, and now I'm standing where I will stand for the next six weekends of shows, queueing the understudies, listening to the audience, and silently fist-bumping the cast as they come off into the wings. Tomorrow the curtain goes up; tonight we have the goosebumps and butterflies.

This metaphor does a good job of capturing the feeling, but it breaks down when you ask who are the performers and who is the audience. In truth, Brightworks is not a show, and we are not performers nor are the students an audience - it is a collaboration in the truest sense of the word. We create the experience of Brightworks, students and staff together. Over the coming school year, you will hear stories and catch glimpses of life inside the school, but in the same way that the jokes at the cast party will never be as funny to an outsider, the intangible essence of being at Brightworks in the moment-to-moment unfolding can never quite be captured or bottled or measured.

This magical thing we do is an expression of who we are, and the passion we have for the work together. We make a space for, and facilitate, immersive, engaging, joyful learning experiences - it is not always easy, it is not always perfect, but it is always interesting. 

This is the school I wished I could have gone to, this is place on Earth that I always return to. Stop by any time and see it through my eyes, this is a place of dreams.

Love,

   -gever

NOTE: As we come back together this year, please be mindful that we're experiencing a national COVID-19 surge. The symptoms are milder this time around, but please test if anyone is feeling less than great before bringing them to school. Thank you for your diligence.