PIANOS
Before the town wakes up, before the sun lights the steeples, the towers, the sleeping houses, before the morning creeps down the theater steps, the silent women slip from the shadows. Grandmothers, virgins, students, mothers carrying babies on their backs– people working to keep the world alive– art in every school, song in every house– poetry, sculpture, opera, dance– without speaking they uncover pianos veiled in blue, pianos on every corner of the street, painted pianos waiting for the great heart to open, waiting for someone to start the music.
In Middlebury, Vermont, near where I live, the Town Hall Theater is celebrating its fifth birthday. There are wonderful painted pianos all over town, set up so that people can play them. My friend Carol helps to cover and uncover them, and was joined early one morning by a group of students.