THE PATH TO THE BEACH IS CLEAR AND AWAITING YOUR ARRIVAL!

Greetings Theatre Friends of TETA from Mont Belvieu in South East Texas, where from August 25 to August 29, my community recorded 61.27 inches of rain! Never did I imagine I would live through a catastrophe of the likes of Hurricane Harvey. While I have “rode out” a few tropical depressions, the end results of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and after being directly hit by Ike, I have decided that I would much rather experience the few hours of a direct impact than the long days of waiting for the rain to stop and for the water to recede.

But now all roads leading into Houston and Galveston are clear and ready to transport you across the causeway. Flying into Hobby airport and traveling to The Island is as it was last year. Don’t think that you’re going to have find alternative routes to circumvent piles of debris to get to Galveston. The mounds are gone! Harvey can’t hold us back. Hey! The Astros won the World Series in the weeks after the flood, so nothing should stop you from coming to Texas’ upper coast and Theatrefest 2018!

Galveston is awaiting our return with open arms. Believe it or not, our island enclave received very little damage from Harvey and Moody Gardens actually didn’t experience any damage. So they are ready for our upcoming arrival and your Board of Directors and the Convention Directors and Staff are preparing for yet another fabulous conference.

So “Come back to Galveston.” Life is good when you can dip your toes in the surf, experience the beauty and history of Galveston Island and share in the joy of your love of theatre with teachers from all over the great State of Texas.

Like many of my colleagues up and down Texas’ Gulf Coast, areas of my little suburb east of Houston were devastated by the remnants of Harvey. I have seen devastating floods on the news throughout my years, but never could I comprehend what water in the amount of 61 inches could look like.

But in the wetness of the actual storm and in the days after the waters had gone away, I was witness to the best that humankind has to offer. Volunteers and first-responders worked day after day to move complete strangers to safety at the risk of their own well-being. Clothes were gathered for those who lost so much. Neighbors assisted neighbors in gutting homes of soaked furniture and dry-wall.

Restaurants fed the tired and hungry. Men on horse-back moved livestock to higher grounds and the list goes on and on.

I am sure that you all saw news stories that showed pile after pile of discarded belongings that lined thousands of streets for as far as the eye could see. To put it in simple terms, it looked like the end result of a thousand bombs.

But now, the sun shines and the ground is dry. The daily temperature has dropped and life in Mont Belvieu and at my school has returned to a normalcy that I have always known. I don’t mean everything is back to pre-Harvey days around here, but if you were to drive through Houston or over to Beaumont or skirt around Mont Belvieu, for the most part one would never know what had transpired. Granted there are homes that are still being remodeled, some businesses have not re-opened and some schools had to relocate to other campuses within their district, but other than the tens of thousands of flooded vehicles that were brought to the Purple Raceway Park here in Mont Belvieu for processing, the casual observer wouldn’t know what transpired here almost three months ago.

Please don’t think I have forgotten those schools and theatre departments that are still displaced or devastated. I haven’t. You have my most sincere sympathy. I can’t imagine what it’s like to continue on after losing so much. But I know you have all persevered. My buddy Adam at Vidor High School moved his production of Tarzan to the outdoors after his theater was basically condemned. Some schools that are sharing campuses with others are working together to bring theatre to life. Theatre isn’t about lights, costumes or gargantuan sets. It’s about learning, performing and entertaining. Willie Shakespeare didn’t have lights, commedia troupes performed on wagons and native tribes danced around fire. So theatre is where ever it happens, even if nowhere else but the classroom.

My school district was very fortunate. We sustained very little damage. So yes, my department is blessed. Our second show of the year opens this Sunday, we’ve selected our OAP company, we’re designing costumes for it AND looking forward to returning to Galveston again for Theatrefest 2018!

Happy Holidays. Oh…..we still have traffic issues in Houston. Plan accordingly. Blessings to you all.