Between now and then comes the wonderful Christmas Holiday which I always spend with one or both of my brothers, Tim and Tom. This year I have been invited to be with Tom and his extended family that includes two little ones who make the day even more special.

My brother Tom's extended family inevitably reminds me of my own - the friends that plan and work with me to create Opera In Focus.

We have Paul Guerra, a Michaelangelo wielding needle and thread, costume sketches and sewing machines, who is constantly creating exquisite costumes for the opera, or giving unmatched performances. What a stroke of luck when we met at Kungsholm thirty six years ago.

A more recent stroke of good luck was the night twelve-year-old Mark Boudreau first attended a performance during our opening week in 1993. He's become a wonderful puppeteer with a grand memory. Now he's eighteen, finishing High School and going off to college. He'll be sorely missed but always a part of the puppet opera family.

Another member, whose friendship I've enjoyed since the first day I went to work in the "movies" is Will Harder, whose generosity with his knowledge of rear projection and computer graphics has greatly enriched our professional appearance.
 

Add to that the wholehearted help we have received from Dave Kaufman, who has designed a web site for us along with volunteering to be an under-study puppeteer. Of course, I'm still computer illiterate, but I do know our address out in the "cyberspace" - www.operainfocus.com - Give us a visit!

Very much in the extended family is life-long friend Tony Mockus and his wife Mary Lou. It's his rich voice that does all of the narration for our productions. He and Mary Lou, besides being long time fans of the Puppet Opera, occasionally offer constructive criticism, which late last year led to my meeting with a remarkable artist in sound recording, Dan Anderson. The last fourteen months have been involved in re-recording our entire repertoire, including narration, and switching over to CD reproduction. That project is still ongoing. We now "sound" better than ever!

So I'm very proud of my little extended family and look forward to all the creativity they'll bring into my life in the future year.

To you I wish every joy of the season - and as Tiny Tim so aptly put it - "God Bless Us Every One!"
 

Bill Fosser