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By LOU HATTER
Rappahannock Neva SUIT Writer
For Nol Putnam, nationally known for the ironwork he produces at his White Oak Forge, writing provides a perfect counterpoint for his blacksmithing. “The work is so physical that I often forget that there is any cerebral or intellectual work that goes into it.
“I needed more introspection as a balance to the work that I do,” he explained. So he started writing, “for my own sanity, to make peace with my own life.”
Mr. Putnam will read selections from his work in progress, “With Apologies to Chekov,” on Sunday, Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Hall in Washington. The reading is the first in a series of four sponsored by the Ki Theatre called “The Exchange.”
* The title, according to Ki Theatre member Julie Portman, is to emphasize the fact that artists and audiences interact in any presentation. “The audience is half of it, and as important as the creator. It requires a great deal of skill in being a good listener, in having that ability to exchange.”
For Mr. Putnam, “The Exchange” provides a friendly forum to share his work.
He describes his work-in-progress as autobiographical, but adds that “it has a universal theme — only from my viewpoint. It has a universality for a certain generation and age, and how we grew up.
“I had a rich childhood,” he continues, “a rich palette from which to draw. That’s what I’m trying to do now — to draw from it.”
The first section of his work, which Mr. Putnam read last year, concerned his childhood best friend, about their friendship growing up, “about how he died and the loss of my second family.” The section he will read from this weekend, he said, describes “going back into my family to make sense of my growing up.”
Mr. Putnam said he feels that all writing is, in a sense, autobiographical. “It’s a way of sharing our humanness, daring others to take that risk.” And, he added, “that’s what living ip a community is all about — daring to be human to each other.”
Of his writing, he added, “I’ve been told by people that it touches them — I hope so — but I’m doing this for me.”
Tickets for The Exchange are $6
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