One day this spring, Gina heard an unbelievable rumor: Construction crews were getting ready to demolish and fill in the Ruth Gordon Amphitheater, a natural outdoor performance space at Quincy's Pageant Field.
Overlooking the Atlantic, Pageant Field is the crowning jewel of the city's parks system. It received some upgrades this spring, including a new water-view picnic pavilion and a half-mile walking path around the park. And, it turns out, the city was also getting ready to fill in the underused theater as part of the project — something we only learned about and confirmed after a friend at the Quincy Tree Alliance spoke to a parks employee at the construction site days before demolition.
I was flabbergasted and furious. The amphitheater is built into the slope of a hill, with terraced rows of seating facing a large, stone-studded stage. It's kinda beautiful, and it was one of the things I remember loving about Quincy when we first decided to move here.
But it's been years since the city has funded performances at the theater, and so apparently officials thought it was in a state of disuse. (Despite the fact that kids love to put on impromptu plays there all the time.)
Anyway, we and other local artists and activists bombarded city officials with emails and phone calls, and after enough outcry they hastily walked back the idea. A group called Friends of the Ruth Gordon Amphitheater formed, led by the daughter of the theater's original architect, and they convinced the city to fund a concert series every Friday night this summer.
All of which is to say two things: 1) Activism works, get involved in stuff! And 2) I'm playing a set of original (!) songs on Friday, July 14th (scratch that, the Friday show was rained out! new date is Saturday, July 22nd) around 7:30pm (show goes 6:30pm–8:30pm).
