Monthly Salon for Developing Artists

The Orchard Spotlight Salon, hosted by Cheryl Ulrich, Linda Rose-McRoy and Frankie Travis, is located in their home, which is the sanctuary of a converted church in downtown Santa Rosa. Billed as a performance gallery, The Orchard Spotlight offers a monthly venue for nascent works-in-progress in music, song, writing and visual arts. On a recent Sunday, an installation of soft textiles in motion, were hanging in one corner of the stain-glassed room, while on the stage - which was once an altar - Rose-McRoy was reading her poignant memoirs of a West Coast liberal coming face to face with her own slave-owning ancestry, while on the job in New Orleans, as a Hurricane Katrina FEMA inspector. Next, Amber, a red-headed siren, who looked like she'd walked out of Homer's “Odyssey,” pressed and fingered the accordion, woefully singing an original song about Captain Ahab's widow. After Amber, Ulrich, a classical guitarist, stunned the room strumming a Spanish ballad and then masterfully segued into an improvisational theatre piece with her twenties-something daughter. The afternoon proceeded with several poets and closed with a Native American songwriter chanting the tales of his elders.

Unique to the salon scene, The Orchard Spotlight sometimes serve a community meal after the performances. A pot-luck, or snack crackers on the counter, it is not. Rather, the generous hostesses prepare a meal of hearty soup and organic greens to culminate the salon experience by breaking bread together, at the tables of their community kitchen. Grinning satisfactorily, in the gathering hall of her former church, Rose-McRoy said, “The Orchard Spotlight is a place for our fragile shoots to take root. There's The Marsh, a known breeding ground for new performance, in San Francisco; and now there's The Orchard in Santa Rosa.” The Orchard Salon meets the first Sunday of the month from 3-7, dinner included. Contact The Orchard Spotlight at (707) 542-7745.

Despite their varied forms, the salon offerings from our own postmodern backyards, appear to be true to their original intentions of being pleasing and educational. Additionally, they are a venue for people to come together in discussion and performance in a way that fosters personal growth and collective wisdom. I expect, in this county, where making connections and activating change, is in our consciousness and a part of our step, we will be seeing more salons along our walking paths. I certainly hope so. Maybe now that the Sopranos have retired from being the focus of our entertainment, there's a chance.