1973 Jennifer Ford

How fantastic is this reunion?! I’ve had many adventures over the years, but still count my time at the Playhouse in the early 1970s among the most magical. (Remember when we had nothing but boundless energy & grandiose dreams?) I’ve continued my association with the Playhouse all these years, although on a pretty limited basis lately. The last show I designed for them was in 2008, but I’d love to “come home” and do another sometime!

I designed lighting full-time through the ‘70s and ‘80s, but circa 1983 decided to offset intellectual inertia by taking a few history and anthropology classes at Pitt. Those few led to many more, and I spent five years attending classes by day & designing at night. Often I’d run straight from late-night tech note sessions to early morning classes, and spent many tech week dinner breaks trying to read assigned texts. Where did I find the energy to pull that off?? Anyway, I finally ran out of undergrad classes to take and decided to get serious and do graduate work in American history & historical archaeology. Eventually Pitt ran out of classes for me to take, gave me a Doctorate, and shoved me out the door. I taught undergrad history for eight years, and then jumped into a career as a museum consultant. Much more fun; museum people have a wide streak of the theatrical about them!

While all of that was unfolding I got involved with alpacas (no, not llamas). Mild interest led to a consuming passion, and before I knew it I was caught up in the breeding, showing and selling of these fascinating creatures under the name “Backstage Alpacas.” Along the way I enticed dear friends & fellow Playhouse alums Craig Eslep & Bill O’Donnell into the business, and now all of our alpacas live together on their gorgeous farm in Washington County.

When the economy fell apart a few years ago, museum work dried up and blew away. So I jumped sideways and opened an alpaca clothing boutique—The Backstage Alpaca Shop—in the resort town of Bedford. Now my life consists of zipping back & forth between western and central Pennsylvania, and generally having an, um, interesting time learning how to succeed in business.

What’s next?? Well, there’s a giant open space on the second floor of the building where my shop is located. And I’m thinkin’ it would make a mighty fine theatre… .