Our First Show was a breakthrough for us. Sixty-five people joined us in Parker Hall for a coffee-house style evening about personal Breakthroughs. While we liked that informal setting, the overflow crowd convinced us we needed a bigger venue to grow into, so we moved to the main sanctuary for the next show.
We knew we would be successful when Regie O’Hare Gibson joined us as our host and music director, roles he has held ever since. His eloquence and originality (and also his sparkling outfits) lent a professional air to help us get started and keep us in style.
Apologia: We are sorry to say that we do not have any videos of our first two shows. At the time of those shows we were not at all sure that we would have an audience, let alone the need for a videographer. Once the audience started coming, we started making videos but we regret that we didn’t have the forethought to begin at the beginning.
Jeff Leonard
Storyteller/Musician
Jeff is a beloved music educator/performer who has recently retired from his role as the Coordinator of Performing Arts for the entire Lexington School System. Among other roles, he serves as the director of the Lexington Bicentennial Band and is on the Board of the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductor’s Association. Recently he joined the faculty at the Berklee School of Music in Boston where he is an Associate Professor.
Don Cohen
Storyteller, Writer
Don is a writer and editor who, among other things, worked for NASA where he edited a magazine for the agency. Recently, several of Don’s plays have been read as part of the Monroe Saturday Nights program, and he has received a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Playwriting Fellowship. Some of his stories have been collected as Pilgrims of Mortality, available from Amazon.
Zoe Perry-Wood
Storyteller, Photographer
Zoe Perry-Wood is a fine art and social documentary photographer who has garnered both national and international awards for her portrait photography. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The National Portrait Gallery in London, The Danforth Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, and many others across the country. She has been the recipient of Artist of the Year three years running and Best in Show for the National Prize Show at the Cambridge Art Association. Her works are available through Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Cammy Thomas
Storyteller, Poet
Cammy Thomas’ first book of poems, Cathedral of Wish, received the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. A fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation helped her complete her second, Inscriptions. Her third collection, Tremors, is forthcoming in 2021. All are published by Four Way Books. Having taught literature and creative writing for many years, she lives in Lexington, Massachusetts and attends First Parish.
Todd Rose
Speaker
Todd is a renowned speaker/writer known primarily for his international leadership in re-envisioning education for students who have typically been marginalized or excluded from high-level learning opportunities, including learners with disabilities like ADHD and Dyslexia. He is on the faculty at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. His recent books include, “Dark Horse, Achieving Success through the Pursuit of Fulfillment,” “The End of Average” and the autobiographical “Square Peg.”
