Changes of Scenery
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Six years ago, painter Didier Nolet’s wife, Nona, sat down in their Lakeview home for a good read. The book in hand was Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence. When she was done, she looked up and said, “OK. Let’s sell the house and move to France.” Nolet, a French native who’d lived in the U.S. since 1979, agreed on the spot. What’s a change of surroundings to an artist who only paints the landscape in his head? Faster than you can flip a crepe, “without knowing anything,” he says, they hatched a business plan, shipped all their possessions (including a car) to Provence, and were on their way. The plan? Nona would sell clothing from the American southwest to tourists and locals. They rented a house and shop for that purpose but–zut!–failed to take into account the difficulty of dealing with French authorities. There might have been a demand for cowboy boots and belt buckles the size of hubcaps in the south of France, but they never got to find out: import regulations were a nightmare, Nolet says, and the neighbors said he was speaking French with an American accent. Seven months after they arrived, they bid France adieu. They had made a mistake, but it wasn’t too late to correct it. Next destination: Phoenix.
Swag Gag
Brian Russell announced this week that he’ll leave American Theater Company at the end of August. Russell’s been ATC’s artistic director for five years, during which the theater’s annual budget has grown from $70,000 to $385,000 and the audience from 2,200 to 11,000. “I’m planning next year’s season and will direct the first play,” he says, “but I’ve largely done what I came here to do.” ATC sent out a brink-of-death letter in October that brought in $57,500 in donations plus a $10,000 grant from Chicago Community Trust; Russell insists it’s now as healthy as most small companies. A search will be conducted for his replacement. As for him, gigs with the Breakthrough Group (which works for corporate clients) and the Lyric Opera’s Center for American Artists will pay the rent while he works on a novel and some other writing projects and thinks about his dream goal: running for public office. “I was living in Minneapolis when Paul Wellstone ran for the Senate,” he says. “He’s sort of a hero of mine.” A Democrat and a novice, Russell says he’d start with a run for Congress. “I at least want to think about it. I’m probably looking at 2006; certainly not before 2004.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Robert Drea.
