Bio Summary:
The decades since high school:
On our graduation day in June of ’65 I was in the hospital with a broken leg due to a car accident the week before. I was able to attend the ceremony for a couple of hours (on a stretcher – mortifying) only to experience the pact of silence regarding Kathy Mosenthal’s non-graduation. Mystifying.
NOTE: I wrote to Kathy after reading her update; it was remarkable to me that she bore no ill will toward the school and the town for treating her in such an unforgivable way.
I couldn’t wait to leave for Drama School in the fall, even with my leg in a cast. It felt good to get outta town. For me, Hanover was a mixed blessing and it took many years for me to even begin to make sense of it.
Carnegie Mellon was absolutely terrific, and I graduated from the Drama Department in 1969. Roger Morgan was at Carnegie before I was, although I met him for one fleeting moment in 1967 and was completely smitten. We met again in 1970 at Trinity Rep in Providence, RI, married 10 months later and moved to Manhattan. Roger was a lighting designer at the time, and for a few years we juggled our freelance careers, even managing to work together a few times.
Our daughter Abigail was born in 1974 and Sam followed in 1981. Abigail is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine in Los Angeles; she’s married to a guy we adore, and they have blessed us with 2 grandchildren. Sam is a professional photographer living in Brooklyn and has begun to experience “baby hunger” as a result of his niece and nephew. One problem: he doesn’t have a significant other, so every time he introduces us to another young woman we try not to look too interested. Our kids have followed in our entrepreneurial footsteps – Abigail has a private practice and Sam works all over the country.
Roger and I often think of our 40+ year marriage in chunks:
The 70s: Figuring Out the Questions
The 80s: Working Parents/Professionals
The 90s: Personal/Professional Partners
The New Millennium Decade: Letting Go of Our Kids and Our Parents
2010 on… Grandparenting/Mentoring/Writing
Roger wonders where the “Figuring Out the Answers” chunk is, and I think it doesn’t really matter as long as we keep asking the questions… What we know for sure is that we are blessed to have found each other. And blessed that we didn’t fall out of love with each other at the same time!
Working as an actress had always my dream, and I loved it for 20+ years. I made a living working in resident theatres on the east coast, on Broadway and off, as a guest-artist at NYU and Sarah Lawrence College, and doing voice-overs for TV and radio. When I turned 45 a few things happened: the roles for women virtually disappeared, and I reached a point where I didn’t want to work IN a production any more – I wanted to work ON it.
In the meantime Roger had quite unintentionally started a theatre design consulting firm, and because he hates business it was about to go belly-up. When he begged me to help him, I thought “what do I know about designing theatre buildings?!” When I began to look at it, however, I realized that a great gift had dropped into my lap, and the opportunity to work ON a theatrical enterprise was there for the taking.
I had worked in dozens of theatres over the years and understood the life that is lived in a theatre building, so it was an exciting transition for me. I discovered I had a talent for business, got the company out of debt and built it into a successful enterprise within 5 years.
Some of you may be thinking, Ann? Who never was exactly – um – able to conquer basic arithmetic, let alone algebra? Yup. I took great pride in asking the dumbest questions in the room, and learned that the theatre is a valuable work model for small business. In 2013 I stepped down as President and CEO of Sachs Morgan Studio: Theatre Design Specialists, tho I am still co-owner with Roger (who is picking and choosing his projects these days). In fact, I’m writing a book about that, called Theatrical Intelligence.
When I can, visiting Hanover for writing retreats. (I should call them marathons!) I stay with my ex-sister-in-law Nancy Forsythe, who used to be married to my brother Chris, and who lives right across the road from where I grew up. My parents and my brother Jim now reside in Pine Knoll Cemetery: Dad died in 2001; Jim, alas, in 2002 at age 47; Mom in 2009.
Over the years I’ve enjoyed catching up sporadically with Sara Hawthorne Koury, Meg Colton, Dona Heller, and Peggy Nutt Mitchell. I’ve recently gotten together with Mary Wrightson Boothby, whose sister Annie is a theatrical lighting designer and lives at 360 Riverside Drive. I live at 300 Riverside and sometimes I get Annie’s mail by mistake. Somehow that tickles me, in the middle of this city of 8.5 million people.
Somewhere, in the STUFF we accumulated after selling my parents’ house last year, are photographs of our youth. I’m in the process of discovering all kinds of little treasures in boxes, and when I find the pictures of all of us, I’ll add them to the “Archive of Sixty-Five”. Can't wait to share them.
