Rob’s Ramblings: Farewell to the 2024 Season!

As we put our home in order and pack our bags before heading off to lie in a hammock and stare at the sky for a few days of rest, it is hard to believe that the little slice of heaven we build together each summer has, like Brigadoon, simply evaporated into the air until it magically reappears next season.

Our 2024 season asked us to examine the concept of identity – to think about the various roles we play in our daily lives, to ponder the different masks and characters we assume from situation to situation, and to watch what happens when all that gets mixed up onstage. And yet as I watch the wonderful video montage our team posted as a farewell to the season, what shines back are the smiles of real human connection. By coming together to play the hundreds of different roles, both backstage and onstage, that are required to produce a festival like ours, we have gotten to know each other in a very special way, forming connections and friendships that will last a lifetime.

Theater has the power of revealing our true selves, of helping us find our place and our identity, in a deeper and permanent way than almost anything else. It can be our playground, our therapist, our teacher, our friend, and our reason for getting out of bed each morning. It is a world where hard work pays off, where each detail and moment truly matter, where the imaginary is the only reality, and where truth and trust always triumph over the shallow and the glib.

Now is the time to ask yourself what role the Festival played in your lives this summer. What resonated most, what stayed with you long after curtain, what provoked, what challenged? Which new connections did you make, whom did you reconnect with, what conversations did our productions inspire? If you have feedback, questions, or thoughts you’d like to share, while I may not be able to respond to everyone and reserve the right not to agree with absolutely everything I hear, I am always delighted to hear what our Festival-goers thought of what they saw (send your comments to info@glimmerglass.org or Rob Ainsley/ The Glimmerglass Festival, PO Box 191, Cooperstown, NY 13326). Theater is meant to be discussed and to provoke different reactions in different people – this is what makes it so important and revealing. It is the best mirror of our society that we have yet devised.

Next season, we dive even deeper with a season all about the creative process itself: “The Art of Making Art.” With the return of the great John Conklin to design our productions, we will celebrate our beautiful Alice Busch Opera Theater in unforgettable ways and mark the company’s 50th Anniversary by engaging with our community and remembering our storied history like never before. If you don’t already have your tickets lined up, now is a great time to start planning your trip – this is one line-up you don’t want to miss! You can renew your ticket package today by calling the Box Office at (607) 547-2255. All ticket packages will go on sale on October 7!

This is also a great time to support Glimmerglass with a gift before the end of our fiscal year. We have reached so many people, made so many special memories, and hopefully transformed and transported all of you along the way. Community is made up of the stories we tell each other and the places that bring us closer together, and the Alice Busch Opera Theater remains one of the most special places in the country where that happens. We are so happy you are part of our “Glim Glam Fam” and look forward to celebrating fifty years of amazing theater on the lake with you next summer – thank you for making it possible through your generous support!