A Day Retreat at Ellen Burstyn's House

A day retreat at Ellen Burstyn’s house

On Monday, in the early morning, we went to Ellen Bustyn’s house for the rehearsals.
She welcomed us to her beautiful home and wonderful garden.It is like a Ashram garden with prayer flags and a statue of the Budda..
We all started the discussion about the drama with a meditation session.After the meditation, when we were talking about some of the Gathas and stories behind them, ,Linus suggested that we include a meditation session in the drama. I had had it in my thoughts when we started to prepare the script but I was very happy when it was suggested by one of the cast. Ellen offered us a great cup of tea made from herbs grown in her own garden.

She had prepared a Dana meal as well .After the lunch there was a surprise birthday cake cutting for Michelle who was having a wonderful day. This was the first time in her life that she had been given a Buddhist blessing on her birthday and the traditional blessing string on her right wrist. We had more discussion about the script and Nicole was so humble about accepting all the suggestions we made. She never said ,“No this is my script.I would like keep it as it is.” On that night, until 2.00am ,Nicole and Jessica rewrote the script. Every one wanted to make it great and give the real message to the audience in a clear fashion.

At the end of the day Nicole said, “What a wonderful day .We felt it was like a day retreat!”