Small but appreciative house
Small but appreciative house tonight for GRIEF AT HIGH TIDE. A couple sitting in front of me were seeing it for the second time. I noticed the husband responding quite emotionally to the play toward the end. After, his wife turned to me and thanked me for writing it. She said that, like one of […]
Read More9/10 on September 10
As we approach the end of our run of 9/10 on September 10, we are also approaching the anniversary of the date the play commemorates. So this weekend would be a great time to take a moment with us at the Gene Frankel Theater to remember and also to support off-off-Broadway, which for years now […]
Read MoreWilliam Friedkin
William Friedkin has died. I just saw THE EXORCIST a few nights ago at the Academy Museum and was reminded all over again of one of the most electrifying moviegoing experiences of my life. As the guest that night, makeup artist Rick Baker, said, “I wish you could see it through 1973 eyes. There had […]
Read MoreTom Ormeny
I just heard that Tom Ormeny has died. It was about two years ago now, when I was slowly beginning to turn back to writing for the theater, that I got a life-changing phone call from him and his wife and producing partner Maria Gobetti to tell me they wanted to produce the world premiere […]
Read MoreMilan Kundera
When I think of Milan Kundera, who died yesterday at 94, I am suddenly in my early twenties again, newly arrived in New York City and working at the Classic Bookshop at 48th Street and Sixth Avenue, where I fell under the influence of a coworker and friend I have frequently, and with great affection, […]
Read Morea boy I knew in elementary school
I had an errant thought this morning of a boy I knew in elementary school. I remembered that when we were given the assignment to act out something from Shakespeare, he and I had done the first scene from ROMEO AND JULIET, which is not a romantic scene between the hero and heroine but just […]
Read Morebegin quietly
John and I have spent a terrific couple of nights revisiting two Hitchcock classics, PSYCHO and THE BIRDS. We both found ourselves reentering the minds of moviegoers seeing these films for the first time, and realizing how deeply disturbing both of them must have been. And both begin quietly. It was a technique copied by […]
Read MoreGordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot has died. There are so many of his songs that are part of my Canadian soul — “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Rainy Day People,” “Did She Mention My Name” — but this one has haunted me more and more over the years. From “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”: Behind the blue Rockies […]
Read MoreHarper Lee
Harper Lee would have been 107 today. She wrote my favorite novel, which became my favorite movie, and totally unbeknownst to me, she lived almost directly behind me in New York for decades, like a secret guardian angel. Her narrator, Scout, describes meeting the much feared Boo Radley at last. “Atticus,” she says to her […]
Read MoreRobert Patrick
After some degree of mystery, it seems to have been confirmed that the playwright Robert Patrick has died. I discovered his work when my high school acting class was offered tickets to see KENNEDY’S CHILDREN at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver. Life-changing for me! I LOVED the play, and I knew that the character […]
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