Before you start …

In this special back-stage, back-story salon, my goal was to tell the story of “The Golden Cage,” playing some of the music from the show, sharing the back-story of how it came into being, why it took soooooo long and how that’s been both a heartbreaking delay and one of the most inspiring things that could have happened for the show – and my own life.  I also planned to leave plenty of time for “AMA” (“Ask Me Anything”)

This was a FIRST-TIME broadcast from my composition studio in my attic, so expect some bumps in the road – and a lot of fun.

15:41:07 From Alex Ives : I had that job for 10 years. I can identify.
15:42:26 From Vera Stern : i was stuck in chronc pain for twenty years, hoping to one day be free….
15:42:33 From Betty Herloski : Feeling overwhelmed and feeling I can’t change – even though I have “dreamed” of escaping, but I’m still afraid to let go
15:42:35 From Linda Obedzinski : The stories we tell ourselves can become self fulfilling prophecies
15:42:37 From Carol Henley : I hear the desperation of the times we live in now, and my feeling powerless
15:42:41 From Laurie Grant : I’ve heard that when you get stuck – it’s difficult to see the possibilities… I have found that as well
15:43:39 From Susan Regan : I can totally identify with her, for 52 years I was in the same studio 7 hours a day. I was scared to change but the change has been the best part of my life.
15:43:48 From Laurie Grant : Your show was just waiting for this perfect timing… 🙂
15:44:56 From Cherrie Mooney : Change can be hard, leaving the security of the known.
15:54:59 From Nancy Cochran : Hello Deborah an dEveryone
15:55:52 From Linda Obedzinski : You may not be able to change your circumstances, but you can change your perspective, and that can make all the difference.
15:56:10 From Alex Ives : Perfectionism frequently screws up the last thing. If I don’t finish I can’t be wrong. Totally resonates. Also seeing the cage as being good because you’re not quite ready.
15:56:17 From Sally Walstrum : Yes, it resonates with me. I terrified to make changes in life that I know could be made.
15:56:42 From Linda Obedzinski : YES, Alex!
15:56:59 From Betty Herloski : It’s hard to let go of things you’ve collected, but aren’t you anymore. Fells like they are a part of my identity. Even though that’s not me anymore
15:57:30 From Laurie Grant : These things we have to go through are our ‘practices’ – we go through the process and the changes evolve
15:58:34 From Tina Tourin : Memoiries of all our stuff is the hard part to let go!
15:58:46 From Laurie Grant : Yes, very interesting! 🙂
15:59:56 From Alex Ives : You have all your parts in your characters, ones you like, ones you are ready to give up
15:59:58 From felicity Collins : Yes, I found it hard to make leap and leave a lovely home in London to follow the pull/the call of the wild. People thought I was crazy but I had to take the leap and move to Scotland. That leap had been the best decision!
16:00:00 From Charlene Elderkin : You were making a fairytale for your life, and the archetypal personas and themes are relatable to the human experience.
16:00:30 From Joke Verdoold : I can feel with Althea, but don’t recognise is personally. I love change! Mostly looking for it on purpose.
16:01:00 From Joke Verdoold : is=it
16:09:13 From Joke Verdoold : Oh no, I don’t want to be Boris, no way. The only prison I experienced was made by the care after my accident, not ever again. Better to go over the edge, not growing wings.
16:13:04 From Cherrie Mooney : We all need a network of people supporting us in our journey.
16:15:14 From Vera Stern : what we often ignore is that healing is in our build in system
16:15:14 From Alex Ives : Need to be pushed, kicking and screaming all the way.
16:15:41 From felicity Collins : Deborah, did you choose the name Althea for its meaning? It appears to be related to the Greek for healing, – or is this a beautiful serendipity
16:15:46 From Linda Obedzinski : How did you cast the show?
16:16:16 From Charlene Elderkin : Surrender. You have to really mean it. And what comes next cannot be known ahead of time. So there is trust, a leap of faith. In my own life I had to be in significant pain before I would surrender. I’m trying to do that (surrender) with more ease now.
16:16:16 From Jolijne Viergever : For me that is very true: help me to get to places I could not imagine going!
16:16:54 From Vera Stern : it takes letting go of wht we have inadvertently absorbed and is imbedded in our nerves and mind
16:17:07 From Betty Herloski : It’s hard to let go of the identity of what you used to be. I’m trying the idea of letting go of what does not give me joy
16:17:22 From Deborah Henson-Conant : Https://www.hipharp.com/blog
16:17:35 From Carol Henley : I wonder why Boris, who was free, lost that freedom?
16:19:00 From Betty Herloski : Boris was trapped in his dream of finding the perfect place, instead of being free
16:21:51 From felicity Collins : I was unable to buy a house a Scotland until I finally took the leap and sold my home in London with nowhere to go. It was a though the universe wanted to know I was truly committed to the move. I had to burn the bridge behind me for my new home to manifest.
16:22:15 From Cherrie Mooney : It’s hard to be objective about where we are in regard to security vs freedom.
16:22:33 From Alex Ives : When you think you have arrived at your goal, that closes the trap.
16:24:03 From Laurie Grant : So true, Alex – it’s not supposed to be about arrival anywhere – but rather the moment by moment journey
16:25:37 From Nancy Cochran : Dante feeding with long spoons.
16:26:27 From Vera Stern : it is the race to acheive and prove our worth to the world that can become a boulder tied on our feet as if we are stuck in an image imposed on us…
16:26:55 From Nancy Cochran : Stuch with what is familiar even if misery feels safer than change.
16:26:56 From Betty Herloski : Yes! Trying to find your place
16:28:48 From Tammy Halun : Letting someone in is not a bad thing but can help push me towards where I should be
16:28:51 From Charlene Elderkin : That I’m a bird person all along. To allow myself to become more and more who I really am.
16:29:16 From Jane Ilmola : Yes Vera, we get stuck in what other people expect from us and forget where we should be going.
16:29:25 From Laurie Grant : My hope is finding the courage to ‘practice’ openness and surrender so that the true self can feel free enough to emerge
16:29:38 From Nancy Cochran : To trust is hard of one has been betrayed.l
16:29:58 From Carol Henley : going over the cliff is taking a leap of faith, and that is a good thing
16:30:03 From Faith : As an older person, I feel buoyed by the suggestion that one can always express creative impulse, instead of succumbing to the cultural expectation that one should give up at a certain age.
16:30:16 From Joke Verdoold : What this shows for me is do not wish for something, you might get it, but it is never exactly what you wished for.
16:30:53 From Vera Stern : we all have a soul- bird inside ourselves and finding it is a journey..
16:31:07 From Alex Ives : Yes, Lauri, surrender and openness are really hard for me
16:31:42 From Laurie Grant : We all have to ‘unlearn’ the conditioning and feedback from early childhood – family and our culture – that helped create our self-criticism to keep us from being ourselves
16:32:00 From Nancy Cochran : You community gave me the strength to play hap for a Zoom meeting.
16:32:36 From Susan Regan : The hope that you have everything with in you to be where you should be at anytime in your life.
16:34:07 From Laurie Grant : Yes, every day is a beginning!! 🙂
16:35:07 From Linda Obedzinski : The dream I had forgotten was to play the harp, and seeing YOU perform 20 years ago brought me back to it. Now I play!
16:36:05 From Tina Tourin : Each year we get older it seems easier to let go! Still at 72 there is more to let go but I am a flyer. I was told that my first word in life was “GO”!
16:36:29 From Laurie Grant : This was such an interesting and insightful session. 🙂
16:36:56 From Faith : I already have my tickets! Apr 24 – hope to see you there!
16:36:56 From Linda Obedzinski : Best wishes for the show!!🌈
16:37:06 From Jane Ilmola : Exactly Linda! I had the same dream, harp and singing. Only now I’m finally getting back to my dreams.
16:37:21 From Nancy Cochran : Good to be reminded of letting go and transformation, being yourself.
16:37:28 From Deborah Henson-Conant : GoldenCageMusical.com
16:37:45 From Joke Verdoold : It was so nice to get an insight in the character of Althea and some of Boris experiences as well.
16:37:47 From Mark Hoffman : Thanks for this back stage experience. Happy first day of Spring.
16:37:56 From Linda Obedzinski : It’s so worth it, Jane! Even mistakes sound lovely.
16:38:00 From Susan Regan : Thank you DHC always an eye opening experience!
16:38:10 From Laurie Grant : Thank you!!
16:38:24 From Vera Stern : fascinating story! thank you!

[We don’t know what happened to the chat feed for this event – Tammy searched in zoom recordings  and couldn’t find it.]