One of the things I miss most about working in person with my TTBOOK colleagues – Anne, Steve, Charles, Joe, Mark and Angelo – is how we’d gather in the office several of us shared on campus of University of Wisconsin-Madison and brainstorm about a show in front of a huge whiteboard on the wall. We’d move parts around, deciding how to start and end a show, what guests would go where, and which parts Joe would sound design.
Like a modern archeological remnant, that whiteboard still has the lineup from the show we were working on right when the pandemic hit, which aired March 14, 2020. It was, appropriately, “Traveling By Book,” a show about how many places books can take us without ever leaving our homes. We’re airing this show again this weekend, featuring Philip Pullman, Ruth Ozeki, Petina Gappah and Robert Macfarlane.
There are glimmers of hope we’ll be back at least a bit in those offices soon, brainstorming face-to-face again instead of on Zoom. But until then, we’re still reading, and traveling, with you.
–Shannon