Barbara J Sloan

Even when I was very young, I loved to write. And to read. And to draw and color. When I was a teenager, I penned a letter to the editor of The Birmingham News taking up for the Beatles. Adults had been sending him notes about what a terrible influence the Beatles were on us kids, and I begged to differ. Instead of putting my correspondence on the Opinion Page with the other letters, the editor called me and asked if I would like to cover the Beatles concert in Atlanta. At age 15, I became a published writer when my piece was plastered on the front page of the News!

I taught theatre at Samford University for 25 years, and was later the Creative Director for The American Village, the Executive Director of The Seasoned Performers (Alabama’s only senior adult theatre), and the Development Director for Camp Winnataska, a traditional summer camp.

I have two grown children, daughter Elin Glenn (who has three children Emmeline, and twins George and Arthur). She is involved in library theatre public relations. And I also have a son, Seth Olson (who has a son, Teddy and a daughter Lucy) — and he is an Episcopal priest.

Over the years, I have written and produced 13 scripts for plays, including one translation from Middle English, one translation from Medieval French, an adaptation of a Renaissance commedia dell’arte scenario, and a multi-arts piece. I have presented over 50 theatre and design lectures and papers at professional theatre conventions, schools, meetings, conferences. Still involved in theatre, I often serve as a guest designer, front of house volunteer, or patron. Currently on faculty of the Institute for Conscious Being (theicb.org), I love creating Enneagram Theatre, which teaches trainees and conference attendees about each of the nine Ego Types. For ICB, I am also a lecturer and small group leader.

Through the years, I have been an author, journalist, playwright, costume creator, artist, and teacher. My deep affection for art led me into the theatre’s through the backstage — as a designer. One fall and spring, I scripted 100 two-minute spots on theatre for NPR radio station WBHM entitled “Curtain Call.” Since 1980, over 300 of my stories and articles have been see in local, regional, and national magazines and publications. My first book Barefoot Among the Thorns: The Story of Dance in Birmingham was about our local art scene. And I am working on a children’s book about the theatre.

The impetus to write Theatre Is My Life! Thoughts on Play Quotes: A book of meditations for each day of the year was the personal, human side of theatre I discovered in my now almost five decades of involvement in it. I believe that even the mundane in our lives is spiritual in nature, and although theatre is anything but mundane, viewing a play or working on one can be a sacred experience. Theatre Is My Life! is a daybook of meditations based on play quotes. A vast majority of the plays I cite are ones that I designed or directed over my long career teaching and working in the theatre.