Ozark Mind Games 2004 Report: Friday Night Coffeehouse


The Ozark staff transformed the dining room into a warm, inviting coffeehouse with subdued lighting, lots of candles, a well-lit stage, and special menus featuring coffee drinks such as "Ray's Bio Brew."

Chef Ted had prepared all the yummy desserts from scratch: gigantic cookies and muffins, and various cheesecakes--which all went well with the rich chocolately and cinnamon-y coffees, espressos, and chai tea. The food this week was so over-the-top excellent and delicious that some of us dubbed the week the "Ozark land cruise."

The staff had brought the living room furniture--comfy couches, chairs, tables and lamps--into the coffeehouse, further adding to the intimate ambiance.

Everyone was invited to perform whatever they wanted to do. And since it was a coffeehouse, we were encouraged to snap our fingers instead of clap our appreciation for each performance. Stuart Torrence starts the snapping before he even got started with his imitation of a red-bellied Australian snake.

Bek Davis showed her drawing of a stick figure from a comic book. It was a postmodern kind of performance.

Michelle Sweeney read us a poem she had written and had published.

Erin Singleton reprised her role of Yenta in "Fiddler on the Roof" by performing a couple of soliloquys from the play she had been in this year.

Scotty Wayne Wayne (the root'nest, toot'nest, sharp-shoot'nest cowboy of allllll time) made one final appearance, lip-synching to some western song that involved a lot of whip-cracking sounds. Following Scotty, we all watched a slide show of some of the pictures taken during the week, which was also shown the next morning at the closing session. The students then participated in a special game run by the Ozark staff. . . and if you want to know what it was, you'll have to ask one of the now-alumni or come yourself!