Last month, I rounded a bend and had to come to a screeching halt because there were two big cows in the middle of the road. Now it had been a long time since I'd encountered cows in the road, although it was commonplace when I was growing up in West Virginia in the 1950s.

If you know anything about cows in the road, you know that they rarely, of their own accord, move to the side and let you pass. Blow you horn, shout-- they just stare at you with those large, unconcerned eyes. If you get out and chase them, the fences and ditches on either side of a country road constrain them to hoof it a little farther up the hard top where they situate themselves as a new blockade. The best course of action is to turn the car around and find a different route to take you where you need to go.

Has Roadside, over the years, encountered some cows in the road? Yep. This year we're making new road maps. Funding cuts at the National Endowment for the Arts have caused us a loss of grant income but equally serious is the loss of touring income as the Endowment's reductions weaken regional, state, and local touring subsidy programs.

Most affected by the subsidy cuts are rural, minority, new, and otherwise adventuresome presenters-- an economically fragile group who have been the mainstay of Roadside's earned income. Given Roadside's rural location and its region's deepening economic depression, the home box office cannot begin to make up the difference.

Cuts are causing even the larger, lessvulnerable arts presenters to slash their seasons, to book commercial events that seem to guarantee ticket sales, and to rent out their theater spaces. This situation leaves touring ensembles creating original work and building new, diverse theater audiences in the lurch.

So, Roadside is drawing up some new routings: we're sticking by our arts presenters, but we're also looking for presenting partners outside the arts field. This isn't to say that we expect no cows on these new roads/ The important thing for us is not to give up on where we're trying to go.

We hope you'll enjoy reading about some of our exciting new partnerships in this newsletter. For it is thanks to you-- our presenters, audience members, funders, and friends-- that we are able to set forth on a new season of challenging work at home and away.