Retrospect(ive): Loonam

What was your first CP year?

I was a vital and integral part of the audience for the first year of CP, and have stayed involved in that way and in others ever since.  I have written, been on the reading committee and been in the audience.  I love each of them, though maybe the audience is the best.

Who brought you into the CP family/ How did you get involved?

I married into the CP family.  I recommend it.

What has been the most memorable CP play you have seen or worked on and why? 

There have been many great moments - too many to answer this question.  However, the stand out for me is the Blanket Jackson play because I was on the reading committee that year and didn’t see its brilliance.  I admit that I had to be talked into it, but it was the funniest thing I have ever seen.  I admit that I am prejudiced, but that other guy named John Loonam was great. 

So you win the cherry pie, who are you sharing it with? 

Sharing?  What is this thing you call sharing?

CP gives me the courage to…

Just write.  Working on CP plays for so many years, under short deadlines and when the school year has been at its busiest has taught me not to dilly around, but to just spit the words out and work on the kinks later.  Since retiring from teaching last year, I have seen the fruits of all that in my prose writing:  when I get stuck (every day) I know that I can produce and I just put the pen to paper and keep going, know ing that later I will find something there worth working on.  That kind of confidence has helped me as a writer enormously.

Having to keep it under 10 minutes has also helped learn to use the delete button, another important talent.

What have you learned during quarantine that you’d like to carry with you in the future? 

Pay attention when time seems to be dragging.  It is actually flying by.  

Pay attention to the simple things you do every day - you’d be surprised what can be taken away and how much you will miss it when it is gone.

Pay attention to the people you encounter every day - they are essential.  I always tried to believe that in some spiritual way, but now I know what essential means.