Gerry Wright “becomes Olmsted,” entering into his emotional extremes, intellectual depths and spirited power.”Olmsted” shares his uncanny life and works in part responsible for the creating and saving Natural Wonders across America. He shares his views in the “Yosemite Report” of 1865 which was the “seed” for the creation of National Parks and much more. “Olmsted’s” views are shared on his 2015 trip to Yosemite, 8,631 miles and his observations on the many challenges for “Sustainability” in 2016.
The play is written, directed, and acted by Gerry Wright, who has been immersed in the work of conservation and human services for 50 years. Gerry Wright works in areas of human services, environmental advocacy, international relations. In the 1960s he founded DARE Incorporated, a nonprofit agency in Massachusetts which pioneered new community services for adolescents with social and emotional problems due to poverty and neglect. He has also championed projects that foster international communication, beginning at the time he ran the Moscow Marathon in 1982, and co-founded the Worldwide Running Club for Peace with the president of the Moscow Running Club. He has received numerous awards, including the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Embracing the Legacy Award and named Father of Community Based Caring in Massachusetts by president of the State Senate. Wright is founder and president of Friends of Jamaica Pond and has been portraying Frederick Law Olmsted since 2003. He holds a BS from the forestry school at the University of Maine and a MS in wildlife conservation from Cornell University. Further graduate study include philosophy, theology, sociology, psychology, and clinical counseling at Boston University and Harvard University.