Nov 13, 2018
In
tracking down some family history on her Dad's side, Mia's first
desert experience was in Sedona, AZ. Later, frequent travels with
theatre companies or just her own wanderlust seeking out a place to
call home, Mia began using Joshua Tree National Park as her
're-set' location. She'd stop in on her way out of Southern
California and again on her way back to enjoy the peace and quiet
and get some balance and focus before heading back to the
city.
Right
out of high school Mia was hired to work for the California State
Park Service and was stationed at Big Sur. There, she met some
locals and five of them formed The Big Sur Players, creating dinner
theatre on the deck of a restaurant. In this
episode, Mia talks about how this experience led to
her 30-year career in theatre as an actor, set designer and
technical director. When she crossed the country to Brooklyn, there
was less involvement in theatre and more focus on woodworking,
creating organizational shelving for small city apartment
dwellers.
At one
point, Mia got an RV and made some trips to various locations
around the U.S., to figure out where to lay down some roots. As her
50th birthday approached, she began thinking she wanted to be near
family, but also wanted a slower place where it was peaceful and
she could switch gears and pursue her new passion of furniture
building. Enter Joshua Tree. Mia staked her claim at the
Joshua Tree Lake RV &
Campground, but a few weeks later was told she'd
need to vacate for a few weeks due to the Joshua Tree Music Festival.
Turns out Mia was in the perfect place as a new resident with a
background in theatre production and construction and found herself
right at home helping with some construction of the festival
grounds, as well as assisting with food prep for the volunteers and
ultimately, found her community here in the
desert.
View
Mia's work and contact her for your custom furniture and
woodworking needs at: