'I Have Been Busy All Day' brought to life by Laconia playwright

LACONIA — A stage production about one woman's experiences living in late-19th century New England is all about family — both on-stage and off.

"I Have Been Busy All Day" which premieres this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Belknap Mill is a dramatic adaptation of the journals kept by Anna Samson Bradley, a forward-thinking Connecticut housewife who wrote down her thoughts on a host of issues, ranging from ordinary child-rearing and housekeeping duties, to profound questions about the meaning of life and death.

Anna Bradley was in her 30s when she chronicled her life from 1893 through 1899, the year before she died at age 38. Upon her death, Anna's journals were passed on to her youngest daughter, Edith Bradley, who married James P. Rogers, co-founder of Allen-Rogers Corp. in Laconia, a manufacturer of turned-wood products and for many years one city's larger employers. Edith gave the journals to her daughter, Ann Rogers Stamps, and some years after Ann's death in 2000 the journals came into the hands of her son, David Stamps.

David Stamps brought boxes containing the journals any other family memorabilia home to store. It was then that David's wife, Judy Buswell, found the journals and began to read them. Their contents fascinated her — not only because they provided vivid detail about her husband's great-grandmother, but in addition provided an intimate glimpse about what life was like for ordinary middle-class women before they had the right to vote, let alone chart their own destinies.

The fascination with Anna Bradley's life became a three-year project for Buswell, which ultimately led to adapting the journals for the stage. Bringing Anna Bradley's life to the stage provides yet another family dynamic to the undertaking.

When the curtain goes up Friday and Saturday for "I Have Been Busy All Day," the role of Anna will be played by Buswell's daughter, Tamara McGonagle, while Judy will have role in the performance as the narrator who at times interacts with her daughter's character.

Both women have had considerable involvement with community theater — Judy with Laconia Streetcar Company and the Wesley Arts Players, and Tamara with Winni Playhouse and the Pittsfield Players. The last time that mother and daughter shared the stage was in a Gilford High School production of "Steel Magnolias" when Tamara was in high school. "I Have Been Busy All Day' also makes the first time since then that the two women have performed under the direction of Faith Rupert, who for 18 years was the drama director at Gilford High.

"This is the first time I have directed a play written by one of the cast members — a rather awesome experience," said Rupert.

What both Buswell and McGonagle find remarkable about Anna Bradley's journals is that they show how even an ordinary life can make a difference.

"She was not a Clara Barton or Abigail Adams, but she still had a real impact on the lives of other people," said Buswell. "You may have a quiet life, but what you do for people around you has eternal implications."

"She was a real a real person, and I have to honor (what she wrote in) her journals and who she was," McGonagle said of playing the role of Anna.

Buswell says what the journals reveal and what the staged readings are intended to convey is that while Anna Sampson was in many was ordinary, she was also very community-oriented and read and studied in order to broaden her horizons.

"She had interest in things outside of herself and she wanted to improve," said Buswell.

But the journals also provide interesting glimpses of how Anna dealt with momentous events in her life. She records the birth of her youngest daughter, Edith, with something approaching nonchalance.

"A little baby came today," was all she wrote.

And while in the weeks before there are references to making baby clothes one might assume that she is making the clothes for someone else's baby, as she makes no mention

whatsoever of being pregnant. However, she may have hinted at it rather slyly. Starting some months before Edith's birth she began writing a number next to each day's

journal entry, a number which decreases by one every day until the day Edith is born.

But while Anna kept her own counsel when it came to her pregnancy, she was extremely open about dealing with the death of her 2-year-old daughter, who passed away two months after Edith was born.

"She struggled with reconciling what she learned from her religious upbringing with the promises of the future," said Buswell.

Buswell hopes that Friday's and Saturday's performances will not be the last for "I Have Been Busy All Day." She said she hopes that historical societies or other such groups will ask her and McGonagle to bring the production to other venues.

In addition Buswell is in the process of taking one portion of Anna Bradley's journals and making it into a one-act play which will be performed at the Winni Playhouse this spring.

Note: Tickets to the performance are $8 per person. Call the Belknap Mill to reserve at 524-8813.