...Work in progress Agent: Buddy Thomas

Directly out of college I worked at Rhinebeck Country Village, which was a community for developmentally disabled and emotionally disturbed adults. I knew I had to frame the experience because it was powerful, spiritual, emotional and shattering. I also knew it had to be a musical. The citizens, as they were referred to, seemed to speak in arias. They were void of subtext. The people who worked with them were not.

In the musical I name the universe, River Meadow Country Village. The main and title character is a young man, Austin Quinn, who has faked his suicide to avoid the consequences of the law. He hides out at River Meadow after convincing Donna, the woman who essentially runs the Village, that he is capable of filling the position of housefather. The citizens of River Meadow and Donna challenge him to look at the world with different eyes and to learn a different language. He takes their lessons and language to heart and as he is transformed he transforms the lives of everyone in the Village.

On July 15th 2003 the first reading of Austin's Bridge was staged under the auspices of Tri-Arts at Sharon Playhouse in Connecticut.

Austin's Bridge was performed in a staged reading at Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York on April 17th - 2005. A production is scheduled for summer 2007 at the Firehouse Theatre Project in Richmond, Virginia.