December 16, 2014

Harvey by Mary Chase at Riverfront Playhouse

Need a last minute Christmas gift? We’ve got the perfect idea. Writers Forum is selling tickets to the play “Harvey” by Mary Chase. The play will be performed at Riverfront Playhouse on Wednesday, February 11th at 7:30pm. Tickets are $20 each and all proceeds benefit the Writers Forum Scholarship Fund. To purchase tickets, please email writersforumpresident@gmail.com or writersforumtreasurer@gmail.com. You can also leave a comment with your contact information and we’ll be sure to get your tickets to you in time for Christmas.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the storyline of “Harvey”:

Elwood P. Dowd is an affable man who claims to have an unseen (and presumably imaginary) friend Harvey — whom Elwood describes as a six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall pooka resembling an anthropomorphic rabbit. Elwood introduces Harvey to everyone he meets. His social-climbing sister, Veta, increasingly finds his eccentric behavior embarrassing. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her and her daughter Myrtle Mae from future embarrassment. When they arrive at the sanitarium, a comedy of errors ensues. The young, handsome, and very flirtatious Dr. Sanderson commits Veta instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When Elwood shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey, it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood’s delusion has had a strange influence on the staff, including sanitarium director Dr. Chumley. Only just before Elwood is to be given an injection that will make him into a “perfectly normal human being, and you know what bastards they are!” (in the words of a taxi cab driver who has become involved in the proceedings) does Veta realize that she’d rather have Elwood the same as he’s always been — carefree and kind — even if it means living with Harvey.

Still not convinced? Here’s Jim Parsons in “Harvey”:

Posted in Scholarships
Tagged Harvey, Mary Chase, Riverfront Playhouse, Writers Forum Scholarship
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December 15, 2014

Member Monday: The Child Within by Melva Henderson

Welcome back to Member Monday. Today we feature a poem by member Melva Henderson. Here’s a little more about Melva.

Growing up in the isolation afforded from living in the shadow of Oak Creek Canyon in Arizona during the later forties and fifties, the fourth of seven children, Jean Henderson, who currently writes under her first name, Melva, found ample time in which to develop her creative side. Her creativity manifested itself at an early age in the form of drawings and stories made up on the spur of the moment for younger siblings as well as local children she often babysat. Her imagination was fertile during a time when girls played with hand drawn paper dolls, or those cut from the McCall’s magazines. Having developed a love for the written word as a youngster, she carried that love into adulthood. When she enrolled in a creative writing class, her only formal training in writing, in order to quell the symptoms of boredom introduced by an empty nest, she activated the love she’d kept bridled throughout her life. Like Grandma Moses with her late blooming career in art, Jean has decided it’s time to dust off her creative processes and bring her lifelong ambition as an author to fruition by publishing her stories and novels.

The Child Within

by Melva Henderson

Within my heart a child exists,

Day by day,

And every so often when the time seems right,

She comes out to play,

She romps & frolics in childish delight,

With the silly things she’ll say,

She tickles the heart with laughter,

To make dark clouds part away,

Then back again she’ll quickly fade,

To hide like the flickering ray,

To come out only when the present seems dark,

To help me light the way.

A Note from the Webmaster: If you’re a Writers Forum member in good standing and would like to be featured on Member Monday, please send your submission to writersforumwebmaster@gmail.com. Submissions should be 75-750 words, appropriate for all ages and error free. Please include a short bio, a headshot and any related links. The author retains all rights and gives permission to Writers Forum to publish their submission on the website and/or in the newsletter. Thank you!

Posted in Member Monday, Poetry
Tagged Jean Henderson, Melva Henderson, Member Monday, poetry
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December 1, 2014

A Message from the President: December, 2014

Our 10^th Annual Authors Fair was a hit judging by the sales, comments, and lines at the tables. Most sold a few, some sold out and took orders for more, and EVERYONE made new friends among the authors. Many thanks to the volunteers, at all stages of the event from planning to execution, which made this possible.

Meanwhile, I am, while in between thoughts while composing this month’s President’s Message, figuring out how to imprint donated holiday cards for our service members for this year’s Red Cross “Holiday Mail for Heroes” program. In place for many years, it has evolved over those same years, changing names and procedures. This year you send your cards to your local or out-of-area-yet-of-choice Red Cross chapter; no longer is there a central drop or P.O. Box.

On tap for this month is our holiday finger-food potluck where members and non-members if there is time (usually is) can read for 5 minutes from published or in-work material. And our Webmistress gains fodder for Member Monday on our Website by using the expanded version of what you read. All you need to do is email your selection(s) to: writersforumwebmaster at gmail.com. Our newsletter editor also benefits if you email a copy to writersforumeditor at gmail.com.

Please, have a safe, sane, and most of all, joyful holiday season.

Posted in A Message from the President
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Monthly Archives: December 2014