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By HENLEY MOORE

September 19, 2014

EASTON — Even as Bodine Alexander Boling, or “Alex” to those who knew her well, grew up in Denton and went to high school at Sts. Peter and Paul, she always identified herself as an actor. She took part in any community theater she could, earned roles in movies by a local filmmaker and continued at Barnard College in New York City. Even as she formed a career as a freelance producer and film editor, she gained work as a voice actor.

But now, after writing her first feature film, “Movement and Location” — which she also starred in, edited, produced and did whatever else had to done — she’s starting to see herself as a writer.

“Movement and Location” will be shown Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Avalon Theatre as part of the Chesapeake Film Festival.

Majoring in English and creative writing, and being an avid reader all her life, Boling always enjoyed writing but didn’t immediately connect with it.

“I started writing the screenplay because I wanted to act,” she said. “I was tired of going to auditions and waiting around for someone to tell me that I was the right kind of attractive for the part.”

“If I didn’t have acting as the goal, then I would have given up a long time ago,” Boling said. “People kept telling me don’t give up, and I would think, yeah, sure people who know what they are doing shouldn’t give up, but I had no idea what I was doing.”

Thirteen drafts, including multiple full rewrites, a few filming fiascoes involving losing footage and being punched by a stranger for no reason, help from friends and a lot of hard work, and about two years later, “Movement and Location” is earning awards at film festivals around the country.

The casual science fiction thriller is set in modern-day Brooklyn and follows Kim Getty (Boling), an immigrant from 400 years in the future who has traveled with her husband to live in a better time. But time travel is a difficult, one-way trip, and the couple is separated.

Three years later, Kim has created a new life and started to fall in love, but that is threatened when she meets 15-year-old Rachel (Catherine Missal), who is also from the future. Rachel leads Kim to her husband, who is 20 years older and has not fared as well. Kim must choose between two entirely different lives and figure out how to continue to survive in a time that is not her own.

“It doesn’t really show how time travel works or what the future is like, just that peopleare willing to take the chance to leave in order to escape,” Boling said. “These characters are from the future, but it is mostly about human interaction.”

Since premiering at the Brooklyn Film Festival in the spring, “Movement and Location” has earned Audience Awards, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Narrative film, but Boling still is excited to share a the movie she worked so hard on and still enjoys watching it with her friends and family.

“The Avalon Theatre is such a special theater to me, too. I had my senior prom there, acted there, I was in a talent show there, and ‘Riders’ (a film by Doug Sadler) showed there,” Boling said.

Her family still lives in Denton.

Through this experience, Boling said, she found the writing is the aspect she was most proud of and she has plans to continue. With her first screenplay done, Boling has started other projects, including another screenplay and a novel.

“I am working on a screenplay that I don’t necessarily want to be in, but I definitelywant to direct,” Boling said. “I am now totally confident in my ability to do that.”

Boling’s husband, Alexis Boling, was both the director and cinematographer of “Movement and Location.”

“I have found that writing and film, as well, can inspire empathy, and I think that is the most important thing art can do,” Boling said.

“Movement and Location” is playing at the Avalon Theatre, followed by a question-and-answer period, at 6:40 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20.

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By HENLEY MOORE

November 27, 2014

EASTON — “I’m still pinching myself, I can’t believe it. I’m proud, but very thankful,” said William Peak, or Bill the Library guy, as he is more often referred to by those that frequent the Talbot County Free Library in Easton.

Peak was speaking of the publishing of his first novel, “The Oblate’s Confession,” which, 10 years after its completion, will be released Monday, Dec. 1.

The delay in publishing was not because he didn’t try earlier. For a few years after finishing his manuscript, he repeatedly submitted it to publishing houses, with no success, eventually becoming discouraged from the constant rejection.

“I fairly quickly realized if your name isn’t already John Grisham or Stephen King or somebody like that, the big publishing companies just don’t have the time to look at all the stuff that is coming across their radars these days,” Peak said.

After those few years, Peak continued with his life, eventually starting and falling in love with his job at the library as the communication manager and living in Easton with his wife, Melissa McLoud, a historian at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

And although he dealt with rejection, his writing didn’t stop.

“I continued to write but thought that Nobel Prize is just not in the picture,” Peak said.

His column, “Adventures in Shelving,” regularly appears in The Star Democrat, and he has had fiction and poetry published in both The Tidewater Times and The Delmarva Review.

Peak said it was a poem about his wife in The Delmarva Review that caught the eye of a new publishing house out of Salisbury in April.

“It was so out of left field that there was part of me that was afraid it was a scam,” Peak said.

From that poem, which was nominated for an award from the Review called a Pushcart, he was offered a book deal.

After meeting with Ron Sauder, editor and publisher of Secant Publishing, Peak said he realized this was for real. He finally was going to be published, after more than 20 years from the beginning of his journey with “The Oblate’s Confession.”

“I would love to claim that this is because I’m a genius and deserving, but there are a lot of really good writers out there these days, and it’s really hard for any of them to get published. So I know I’m very lucky and thankful,” Peak said.

Although his fascination with the dark ages and monastic lifestyle came into his life when he was in his 30s, Peak said, he seriously started to write when he and his wife moved to Easton about 20 years ago. It was then that he was able to dedicate his time to telling the story.

Taking place in 7th-century England, the book follows the life and is told from the point of view of a child who has been given, by his warrior father, to a monastery on the border between two rival Anglo-Saxon kingdom. The child grows up following the rule of his fathers at the monastery, but eventually, he is faced with a choice of loving one father and betraying the other.

“Part of the fun of writing the book is that in a sense you get to inhabit the plot and experience what it would be like,” Peak said. “I got to do that while writing this book, and I hope my readers get to experience that, as well.”

Peak made a career as a writer before his time started as the library guy and attempted his first novel at age 11. He said he wanted to be a writer at a young age because his father, who he greatly admired, admired writers.

“My parents gave me my first typewriter at 8, and I remember sitting at my typewriter with a small corncob pipe in my mouth because that’s what I thought writerss hould look like,” Peak said.

It is his time in the Easton library, enjoying the works of great writers and thinkers, that Peak credits for inspiring him. He has been working in the library for about eight years, but he was an active visitor before that.

“I believe that we are all people of the story, each of us tell ourselves a story every day to just get through. If we are fortunate enough, we have good stories to tell ourselves. The more good stories we can put into the world, that’s a good thing to do,” Peak said. “The fact that I was able to put a story out there is certainly a gift to me, and I hope to the world, certainly.”

He plans to continue to bring good stories into the world and is planning his next novel with Secant.

For more information about about Peak and “The Oblate’s Confession,” visit www.williampeak.com, or stop into the Talbot County Free Library in Easton and ask for Bill, the library guy.

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By HENLEY MOORE

April 17, 2014

EASTON — The Talbot County Board of Education announced Dr. Daniel Curry, Kelly Griffith and Dr. Debra Munk as the three finalists in the search for Talbot County’s new superintendent at the monthly board of education meeting, Wednesday, April 16.

The search for a new superintendent began in the fall when the board hired the Maryland Association of Boards of Education to handle the search.

Since the start of the search, with a forum held for people in the community to express what they wanted in a new superintendent, the board received 17 applications from around the country and narrowed them down to five interviews that were held in a publicly announced closed session Saturday, April 12. From those five, the board chose the three finalists.

Each of these candidates will now partake in an interview process with focus groups made up teachers, support staff, principals, central office staff, business representatives, parents and members of the community nominated by the board of education.

“The purpose of the focus group sessions is to assure appropriate ethnic, county wide and gender representation, and to have meaningful community participation in the selection of the final candidate,” Board of Education President Juanita Hopkins said.

A summary of the feedback from the focus groups will then be given to the board and a decision will be reached by the week of May 5.

Curry, originally from Fairmont, W.Va., has been superintendent of Lake Forest School District in Felton, Del., since 2003 and was named Delaware Superintendent of the Year for 2011. He is past president of the Delaware Chief School Officers and currently serves on the executive committee of the American Association of School Administrators representing Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Majoring in elementary education and minoring in speech and drama, Curry earned an undergraduate degree from Fairmont State College and a master’s and doctorate degree in education administration from West Virginia University. He has taught fourth and sixth grades, been an elementary and middle school principal, and worked in administrative positions. He was named superintendent in Pocahontas County, W.Va., at age 34 and then served in Hancock County and Wood County.

Griffith, the interim superintendent, has spent 25 years within Talbot County Public Schools. She has served as the assistant superintendent for administrative services, and has been a principal at Easton High School, Easton Elementary School, Chapel District Elementary School and Easton Middle School.

She holds a master’s degree in educational administration from Salisbury University and expects to earn her doctorate in January 2015. As an undergraduate, she received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Salisbury State College.

Dr. Deborah Munk is currently the consulting principalfor Montgomery County Public Schools. She has worked in administrative positions in schools and central offices for the past 29 years. She served as the principal of a middle school and then two high schools in Frederick and Montgomery counties and was assigned to mentor and evaluate twelve new middle and high school principals this year. In doing that, Munk has helped develop and execute school improvement plans, refine school processes, bolster instructional programs, and address leadership challenges, according to background information she provided.

Although the final decision has not yet been made, someboard members already have announced their fullsupport of Griffith.

“Having been a been a former teacher, coach andadministrator, I fully believe after watching Ms. Griffith interact with different groups in Talbot County that wecould do no better,” Burris said. “She knows the parents and teachers. She has been a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent. She is just what this country needs.”

School board member Monica Heinsohn has also expressed her support for Griffith. “The search is going well and should be winding down soon,” Heinsohn said. “Kelly has my overwhelming support. I believe in promoting from within.”

Heinsohn also said that she had received emails, calls, and social media posts supporting Griffith and appreciated the public input.

Although Griffith has support, other board members see the value of the search and community input.

“We hired MABE and that was an excellent decision. There has been pressure to cut that process short, but that would have been a mistake,” board member Greg Criniti said.

Along with the budget, the decision to choose a superintendent is one of the most important decisionst he board has to make, he said.

“This is not only about relationships, it’s about getting the job done,” Criniti said. “It’s not about politics; it’s about fair and equitable applications of the laws and policies. It’s about experience and leadership to take (Talbot County Public Schools) to a higher level.”

“I am very glad that we have done this search and I look forward to hearing back from the community,” board member Sandra Kleppinger said.

“I believe we have a good cross-section of the community represented in the focus groups and I’m looking forward to their comments,” Hopkins, the school board president, said.

Members Gloria Farrare and Jesse Gomez were notavailable for comment.

MABE is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to serving and supporting boards of education in Maryland. It does not have a vote in the process; the board of education has the final decision. MABE’s function in the search is to gather information for the board to make an informed decision and to make sure the best candidates for the job are aware of the opportunity.

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By HENLEY MOORE

February 11, 2015

EASTON — The 2005-2006 school year marked the beginning of the One to One laptop initiative in Talbot County Public Schools, making Talbot County the first in Maryland to supply each high school student with laptops for use in and out of school.

Nearly 10 years later this initiative, with modification, has expanded into the county’s middle schools, and teachers are saying they have immediately seen the benefits.

“It’s definitely been a change for us as far as teaching styles and delivery of instruction, but it was less of an adjustment for the kids,” Lee Neild, a math teacher at Easton Middle School, said. “The kids are smart, especially when it comes to technology.”

As part of the One to One program, each year, Talbot County high school freshmen receive new laptops that will follow them for the duration of their high school careers. In years prior, the graduating seniors’ refurbished laptops were then dispersed to the middle and elementary schools to be used where needed.

This year each eighth-grade student was instead supplied with the refurbished laptop from last year’s senior class. Unlike the high school students the middle school students only use their laptops while at school.

According to Neild, the biggest advantage has been the amount of resources that are readily available, whether it’s additional research opportunities, different methods of explaining concepts, or being able to teach the same lesson to students at different levels.

“I’m not the kind of person to act silly and sing a song or do a dance, but I can certainly find somebody on Youtube who has done that. That’s just not me,” Neild said. “When they see the same material in any different ways then we reach a lot of kids that we might not have been able to based on our personality.”

Using a online content management system called Frog, which students can access from any Internet capable devices, teachers are able to assign and collect work, monitor students in class work and allow students the ability to work collaboratively on projects.

“It’s made the kids more accountable, they know exactly what their assignment is when it’s due,” language arts teacher Annie Mewborn said.

Mewborn said that this also has been a tool to help her to communicate with the students who are not fluent in English, and also to help students work together in class.

“It helps break the language barrier between students” Mewborn said. She said through the use of Google Translate students can work together on a project in groups.

TCPS reported having more than 300 English language learning students enrolled this year, an increase of about 30 from last year alone and more than 100 in the past five years.

Mewborn also said among the students who might not have access to similar technologies at home, she finds they are willing to stay after school later, use a flash drive to transfer work or gain Internet access at the public library.

“For the most part I think that having the laptop has made them more responsible as middle school kids,” Neild said. “It’s something that they need and is valuable in school. For the most part they have stepped up and made sure it’s in working order when they need it.”

That’s a sentiment that Easton Middle School science teacher Kim Keech and social studies teacher Ed Keeler shared.

Keech noticed that she is using monitoring programs less and less to keep students on task, and more to help students who might otherwise not be willing to ask questions.

“It’s nice for monitoring, but also for those kids... that don’t want to bring attention to themselves because they don’t want to be the ones actually asking the question about what they should be learning,” Keech said. She said students can write private messages to the teacher asking for additional help, or Keech can see their work immediately and address an issue she sees.

“It’s certainly a different social dynamic from you standing by their desk and you’re trying to have a quiet conversation, but everyone can hear you, but now (the other students) don’t even know,” Keller said.

The program is scheduled to continue and will be expanding to seventh grade as well, according to Easton Middle School Principal Norby Lee.

“The big question is if that achievement gap is closing. We’ll see after our assessments coming up,” Keller said.

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By HENLEY MOORE

December 13, 2014

UPDATE — Since the publication of this story, Gary Tuchman reported that he will be in Indonesia covering the AsiaAir crash and unable to make the Crab Drop in Easton. His daughter, WBOC reporter Lindsay Tuchman, will be taking his place and covering the event for CNN.

EASTON — New York, London, Moscow, Beijing, Kolkata and downtown Easton, Md. are all among the places CNN will be broadcasting from to ring in the new year on Wednesday, Dec. 31.

From 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., Gary Tuchman, CNN reporter and correspondent for Anderson Cooper 360, will be in downtown Easton showing the world Easton’s First Night Talbot festivities, including the 10th annual Crab Drop as part of CNNs “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin.”

“Every year we try to find a different slice of Americana doing a different kind of drop. What people don’t realize is that there are hundreds of places in the United States that drop things for New Year’s Eve. Everyone knows about Times Square,” Tuchman said. “But what we try to do each year is perhaps show something that the viewers around the world aren’t aware of.”

Among those slices of Americana covered by CNN have been the sardine drop in Eastport, Maine and the watermelon drop in Vincennes, Ind.

The Crab Drop in Easton is part of First Night Talbot, which is a family-centered night filled with art and entertainment, including a mime, magicians and musical acts in venues throughout the downtown area.

“This is the ‘walk the walk’ of a family celebration without alcohol, modeling for the children and the community that you can have a sober celebration and an incredible amount of fun,” Carolyn Jaffe, who is part of the team that organizes the event, said.

According to Jaffe, the event attracts between 1,300 and 1,500 people each year.

The First Night movement began in Boston in 1976 as a way to provide a communitywide celebration through the arts, without alcohol. In 1994 through a two-year grant, First Night came to Easton.

“We decided that we needed to continue and that we couldn’t just let it fizzle out,” Jaffe said. She along with others raised money to continue the festivities. The celebration is now under the umbrella of the Talbot Partnership for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention.

It wasn’t until 10 years ago that Talbot residents Rich and Suzanne Hood decided to contribute to the event and built the 6-foot-wide crab that drops from 25 feet in the air.

“They got the idea after going to Bermuda, where they drop an onion,” their son Lance Hood said. Lance now operates the Crab Drop each year.

The crab drops twice each year and is accompanied both times by a parade of sea creatures. The first drop happens at 9 p.m. for those who will be warm in their beds by midnight, and then there is another at midnight.

Having worked as an anchor for WBOC in the 80s, Tuchman said he is excited to share the Eastern Shore with the world. “It’s a great honor for me to go to smaller cities that people in LA or London or Lagos, Nigeria don’t know about, but they will know all about after New Year’s Eve.”

According to CNN, the network reaches more individuals on television, the Web and mobile devices than any other cable TV news organization in the U.S., and distributes news channels to more than 271 million households abroad.

Although Tuchman said he looks forward to the New Year’s special each year, he is especially looking forward to this year because he will be able to spend time with his daughter, Lindsay Tuchman, who is now a reporter with WBOC.

“The most important goal for us on this night is to have a lot of fun,” Tuchman said. “I really look forward to meeting the people of Easton and Talbot County on New Year’s Eve.”

For more information on First Night Talbot go to easternshore.com/firstnighttalbot.

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By HENLEY MOORE

EASTON — Ronald McDonald, not the red and yellow clown, but rather the 55-year-old financial advisor and Easton resident passionate about helping the community who shares his name with his father and grandfather, didn’t always have the appreciation for his iconic name that he does now.

It was his name though that made him, along with 24 other Ronald McDonalds from across the county, the face of a national campaign for Taco Bell’s new breakfast menu.

The series of commercials that premiered March 27, feature 25 men talking about how even though their names are Ronald McDonald, they like Taco Bell’s new products.

All of their names are actually Ronald McDonald and though they were paid, they aren’t actors. The Ronald McDonald from Easton hadn’t even been in a school play before.

“When I found out the commercial was for a competitor, I thought wow, that’s just smart,” McDonald’s wife, Emily Moody, said.

She and their two daughters Erin, a fifth-grader at Easton Elementary, and Ashley, who is 26 and now lives in West Virginia, all enjoy the commercials.

“I was finishing up a busy work week and planning the dodgeball tournament to benefit (Junior Achievement), when I got a call from McBride Casting,” Easton’s Ronald McDonald said. That was in late February.

Junior Achievement, a nonprofit that educates young people about free enterprise, business, and economics, is only one of the ways McDonald gives back to the Talbot community. He is also active with his church’s civic outreach efforts and CarePacks, a weekend food program that serves students at all of Talbot County’s elementary schools.

The casting agency told McDonald that Errol Morris, who won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary for “The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara,” was doing a web-based series about people with iconic names. McDonald had no idea this was the beginning of casting for an ad campaign.

“I did some research about McBride and I felt comfortable that this wasn’t just a joke or scam, and I just thought this could be fun,” McDonald said.

A few more phone calls, a headshot, a nondisclosure agreement and a Skype interview later, McDonald was on his way to Los Angeles March 13, still under the impression he was going to be in a documentary.

“They arranged everything from my travel to the hotel. They said this is the week we are filming and then just be ready those days,” McDonald said.

He started suspect something was up when he got to hotel and he had to check in with his middle name, Fisher, and was told that he would be picked up the next day by a driver looking for Fisher.

“When I got to the complex, I was told to stay in the car,” McDonald said. “I watched them set up the cameras and light and then I noticed a whole bunch of other cars pull up behind me.”

After waiting for everything to be set, it was finally time to meet the other Ronald McDonalds. “They filmed us about six times meeting each other. Then they took us into the building and told us that we are here to film a Taco Bell commercial, does anyone want to back out.” Although there were 25 McDonalds filmed for the commercial series, only seven were filmed on that day.

“ At that point I was excited and I thought this is going to be fun,” McDonald said.

The commercial features a shot of all 25 Ronald McDonalds sitting together. That shot was actually a composite shot filmed on a green screen, and later all of the filming groups were put together in post production.

For the rest of the day, Ronald Fisher McDonald and the six other Ronald McDonalds got to experience a little bit of Hollywood magic by working with professionals like the director of photography who worked on all of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies and filming in the studio building where shows such as “Mad Men” and “Entourage” were shot. Meanwhile, they shared experiences about what it’s like being Ronald McDonald.

“It was nice to hear some of the others have similar experiences,” said McDonald. “The older Ronalds didn’t have to deal with the teasing as young kids, but they all had similar stories of not being taken as seriously because of their names. (Growing up) it went to the point where I was apprehensive and somewhat embarrassed about (my name), to then I was just tired of it, to now where I think the whole thing is a hoot and I have for the past few years.”

Moody, a social worker at Easton Elementary who kept her last name for professional reasons, not because of any jokes or peer pressure, said that to her he has always been just the kind, sweet, caring Ron.

“I have some very sarcastic friends and it was sort of a sensitive subject when we first started dating,” Moody said. “They would say things like ‘Oh you’re going out to dinner with Ronald McDonald? I hope it’s a happy meal.’”

McDonald explained that what is seen in the commercials that have come out so far, was just him talking one on one with the producer. “They would bring in the food, I took a couple of bites and then we talked about it and then moved on to the next one.”

Admittedly not an avid fast food eater, McDonald said he enjoyed some of the food. “I’m not a big sweets for breakfast person, so I didn’t really like the waffle, but the crunch wrap supreme was pretty good.”

Although McDonald got paid and is now a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild with all of those perks, the most important thing to come from the commercials for him is the opportunity to talk about the community organizations he is passionate about, such as Junior Achievement and CarePacks.

McDonald and Moody moved to Easton from Montgomery County in 2008. Before that, they would come down to visit her parents who have lived in Trappe since the ‘90s.

“We would come for the weekends and the weekends just got longer longer and longer,” McDonald said. “When we moved here, we decided to jump in with both feet and really become a part of the community.”

The commercial has also given McDonald and Moody the chance to reconnect with old friends including a group of friends he worked with 30 years ago who had been trying to contact him for a reunion, but didn’t know how to before.

“I have only been recognized by one person that I didn’t know on Rail for Trails,” McDonald said.

Both McDonald and Mood are only happy about what the commercial has done for them. “I wanted the project to have dignity. As someone who has had some trouble with his name, I didn’t want him to get involved with something that was going to make fun of him,” Moody said.

“The entire experience was just fun and funny and continues to be fun and funny,” McDonald said.