PORT ANGELES – It’s a free-ranging love story.
Jim Stapleton and Diana Bigelow met at a nature sanctuary in the Hudson River Valley some 30 years ago; in fall 1988 they took off in their van to winter in Mexico and Guatemala.
When spring came, they pointed their wheels north and found themselves ready to settle down in Clallam County.
It was early 1989, and the couple had no contacts and no place to live.
“Good fortune and a few days brought us to Joyce,” Stapleton remembered.
Ever since then Stapleton, a storyteller, has lived with his wife, a singer, in a house overlooking Crescent Bay.
They’ve shared their true tales and songs at venues all over the county, and in so doing, they’ve shown how two mates’ voices may intertwine one moment, then come forth alone and clear the next.
Now Bigelow and Stapleton have sold their Joyce house; next month they’ll move to Bristol, Vt., to be closer to their children and grandchildren.
Last performances
Their last performances on the North Olympic Peninsula come this weekend at the Juan de Fuca Festival, with Bigelow joining her friends, Vickie Dodd and Marline Lesh, for a vocal concert, and Stapleton sharing the story of his former life as a hermit in the Allegheny Mountains in “My Pennsylvania Hermitage.”
Bigelow’s performance, described as improvisational “soundscaping” of non-verbal chanting and overtone singing, will start at 4:45 p.m. Saturday at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.
Stapleton will read from “Hermitage” at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse.
The pair signed up earlier this spring for the performances, put their house on the market and expected to be around for months, even years.
“Surprise! We had a buyer in two weeks,” Stapleton said.
“It’s fitting,” he added, that the 16th Juan de Fuca Festival is their Peninsula swan song.
“One of our earliest theatrical ventures was at the festival 15 years ago with the Port Angeles Children’s Theater.”
In an e-mail they composed together, the couple wrote: “It’s a bittersweet moment, preparing for these final performances, so many fond memories, so much to leave behind.”
Their message ended with a kind of grace note.
“We hope to create just such a life in Vermont,” they wrote.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
