Chance = Change

YAY!!!! After a quick 7 hour flight, through most of which I really was not terrified, we arrived home at about 12:30 am (5:30 am London time, which we were really still on). Both Peter and I were so deeply tired, we hardly spoke, just got into jammies, spread the quilts over the bed so to get real nice and toasty, and fell fast asleep...Woke up in our own home, in our own city...I was excited, so got up to come watch tv here in the living room, while snugging down into our new leather sofa..more quilts...we have spent the day emptying things: old trunks down in the storage room, boxes of stuff from our Virginia move,a large box of mail saved for us while we were away...our minds to each other. So much to do. So much to do. Peter has been valiantly attempting to hook up our new DSL service, only to discover the modem they sent us is faulty and so they are sending another. I have been laboring away on the kitchen. We go to a reading of the first act of a new musical at CAP 21 tonight. Then to dinner at Paul and Steve's. Paul returned from Chicago today. The future looms and there is excitement ahead, I have a feeling.
SO GOOD TO BE HOME, Just IM'ed with Mark Lamos, who is off to London next Monday to do a piece of theater at The Barbican for a week or so...some sort of workshop thing he just workshopped at Lincoln Center...then we shall have lunch on his return. Dear old pal, Lamos. Northwestern days seem far far long ago, yet oddly like yesterday. Already have an audition for this week, for something at Rattlestick Theatre Company...my agent seems to really want me to go to it, and i am intrigued after reading the script, so, whew...here we go again. !! I must change my website to reflect our return home. I have been emailing Rick Rose rather daily, as I miss him and the whole Barter thing already. Of course I do...it is a wonderful place to be, the Barter. And just becasue we are here right now, does not mean we are also not there in spirit and mind. SO much I wish I could put into practise, that I saw in London, not the least of which would be the putting together of a play working on it entirely from the perspective of voice and body. Creating a theater event, using a conventional play, working from the actors instrument almost exclusively. Hmmmm...I miss talking with Rick, and with Amanda...and with Joan..and with so many others, but one day again, I will...i know i will.

Even London theatre!!! Last night, we were subjected to an under-cooked, poorly directed, blahly acted hour and a half of A LIFE IN THE THEATER(Mamet) starring the usually wonderful Patrick Stewart (who was not at all wonderful since he was forced to act opposite thin air in the form of) Joshua Jackson, a pallid TV star from the US (DAWSON'S CREEK)...OY!! was it awful...incomprehensible, it was so poorly directed, and the sad actors were totally at a loss as to what the hell to do with what they had...badly designed (a cumbersome wagon coming on and off and on and off and on and off to represent the small dresing room the two actors share) and stupidly lit...i could see so little of the action, that i may as well have napped through the entire thing...we were both angry and depressed by it, and I wanted to ask for our money back, and though we would of course not received a refund, at least I would have made a stand against consumer fraud!!! I can only imagine Patrick Stewart needed the job..that they only had a week to rehearse, and that the director, some Brit who does all of Mamet's stuff over in the UK , had better things on his mind...he was clearly absent from any helpful process. It was awful.Awful. Awful. And if Patrick Stewart does not know that, I would be surprised. But I am reasonably sure that Josh Jackson thinks it's swell! Ecch! Today, FESTEN at the Lyric! Please GOd, let it be good enough to take the taste of last night's mistake out of our mouths!

Once again, showing us how it must be done, The Royal Shakespeare Company, right here in their London season at the Alberry Theatre , refreshed my committment to the art of acting! We sat through a 4-hour KING LEAR that felt like a mere 2 hours, and Corin Redgrave and company had me in tears of heartbreak by the final curtain. It was deeply important for me to be reminded in that visceral way of what the "real thing" is : actors at the top of their forms, vocally and emotionally thorough, committed, revved and warm, there 100 % to give life to a work of art written 400 years ago! A work of theater writing that defies the ages, as it continues to live and breathe the air of real life tragedies right back in our modern faces!!! I once again, as when I was a child seeing theatre with my Momma, did not want to leave the theatre after the final curtain rang down...but neither did I want to run away with that particular circus, as I used to want to do before I had had years of my own work experience ...no, I wanted to sit and think and feel...I wanted to sit and be reverent and quiet in the face of life's overwhelming horrible beauty. That a man could write words that enable us to experience the complexity of it all: no pre-digested talk show pap, giving us the "truth" of people behaving badly, no...but rather the event, the true event of human lives at the mercy of the winds of fate and that most terrible thing of all, our own emotional wills! The Greeks really did have it right: we are filled with that particular hubris that makes us think we are gods...I think that is why we believe we can behave towards each other the way we do...Lear, a most foolish man...and finally a most wonderfully heartbreaking and wonderfilled one. What a night in the theatre. Tonight, we see Patrick Stewart in A LIFE IN THE THEATRE. yesterday afternoon, we saw Penelope Kieth in BLITHE SPIRIT. what more can I say...except...well...this is a great time to be in London.

After the most glorious few days (far too few) in Edingburgh, Peter and I are back in what has become a more familiar London, and it rather does feel like coming home, since we decided to stay in the same comfortable B and B we stayed in before we went to Scotland.We cancelled the reservations we made at another place, and were happy to return to the neighborhood we have come to enjoy, this Gower Street area, where across the Street is RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and just a block away is the Goodge Street Underground, from which we can get practically anywhere we wish to go. It is also the nighborhood of the University of London and the British Museum, so there is everything all around us we could ever want in the way of conveniences. Today, for example, with our Abingdon friends freshly departed for the U.S., we are really resting and doing laundry and catching up on emails,etc. All in the same block!! We have become, not exactly what I would call, old London hands, but we are ever so much more familiar than we were when we arrived, and this helps us to gear up for the theater-crammed week ahead. As for theatre, here is what we have seen since our return from Scotland: WOMAN IN WHITE , Sir Webber's latest musical, with lyrics by American David Zippel. Based on Wilkie Collins turn of the century novel of the same name. Audience seemed to love it, and it was totally sold out. We venture to the South Bank to get tix for whatever we can at the National Theatre, and LEAR and THE OLD VIC and FESTEN are in our future as well!!!
We send love to all who read this and care that we ARE HAVING THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME EVER EVER EVER!!!!! More soon!! xxev

Oh my God, this is all too wonderful, really all too good: Peter and Evalyn in this astonishing town, this city of cities...this London, England...so deeply superb. And the perfect way to celebrate Peter's birthday yesterday, to be in this city and be enjoying so very much! Our little hotel, The Arosfa, run by the dear Mr. and Mrs.Dorta, is so sweet, and small but so very surprisingly comfortable, we can hardly believe our luck, and all the things I thought would bother me about it, bother me not at all...we are snug and cozy in our ittle room #6 on the 2nd floor, and the bed I thought would be too small is actually perfect for Peter and me to sleep well in and cuddle more than we usually do! Even the one pillow apiece is perfect,as it is a perfectly structured pillow for me, and the one towel they give us each day fresh is exactly right for my bath and hair wash...my self-perpetuated myth about how i always need more towels is now exploded!!!! We are quite comfortable there. At the moment, I have found a small Internet Cafe, where for 1£ an hour I can check our email, and do fresh blogging...Peter and Anne and Chris Johnson, our friends from Abingdon with whom we are travelling, are doing the rare bookstores along Charing Cross Road, as I sit and write, and this is swell, because it gives my legs and feet and back a rest! We have walked miles and miles it seems, over the past three days, all wonderful miles, but tiring in ways I have not experienced in years. All good though.
Our first full day here ended in our seeing JERRY SPRINGER- THE OPERA, in the West End,and it was outrageously offensive and funny and fun! So glad we caught that one first,as it may never get to America, and I have heard so very much about it...it was swell and performed by wonderful legit singers playing amazing roles no other Opera would ever call on them to play...a unique evening in the theatre for sure...not something one will ever see in Abingdon, Virginia!!! No way, no how! Last night we saw another show with Anne and Chris...one we thought they would enjoy: JOSEPH AND HIS AMAZING TECHNICOLORED DREAMCOAT, atr the New London, also in the West End...a real good newish production, great fun, good performers and the music sounded great! Glad we saw that one for many reasons, not the least of which is Peter has never seen it before on stage...we all four of us had a swell fun time.

Much more to tell...but for now, my chums await....so...TaTA...Hip Hip and all that rot!!!

Well...tomorrow at 4:15 a.m. we are being picked up by our 777-7777 car, taken to Newark International Airport, and at 8:20 a.m. will fly off to London! Yes, it is finally happening.
That is, if the boxes which surround us all over this apartment do not multiply and swamp us into submission!! Yes, I am sure of it: they do mate and multiply behind our backs, and then move their little cardboard bottoms around until they form seemingly impregnable walls to trap and keep us here! But, we are (usually) bigger than they are, and so I hav confidence we shall get out alive!! We've managed to escape several times, to see THE RIVALS at Lincoln Center and to see Drew Eshelman in Tony Walton's production of AFTER THE BALL at the Irish Rep last night...Drew is such a wonderful actor, really, especially in roles that most people would give surface treatment to, he manages to find the core of the person that character is supposed to be, and so we are compelled to really care for whoever he plays...the night before, we meet for dinner at JoeAllen's, six of us: Rick Rose, Amanda Aldridge, Eliza Ventura, Frank Ventura and Peter and me...such a great evening....we ate and we drank and we had much to talk about...I am discovering that wherever I go, inevitably I will see someone i have known throughout the years here int he City, and at Joe's that evening,I saw Gary Beach , who I have known since we were young actors starting out...in fact, we met before we ever got to NYC, I believe, when he was fresh out of North Carolina School of the Arts,..when i played "Tiger Lily" at the Academy Theater in Atlanta Ga, and a pal of his Gary something was playing "Peter"!!! Lord,now there's a long-ago memory...whew! Anyway, I also find that everyone I see treats me with such warmth and care...it has been a pleasure...even last night, at Irish Rep, when led to met Tony Walton he hugged me warmly and we discussed memories of DAY IN HOLLYWOOD...we did together for Tommy Tune years ago!! Spent some time at CAP 21 yesterday, before our 6:00 pm Board Meeting...there is much to contribute there, and as soon as I vacation and get some real rest, I can be useful to that organization again. Meanwhile, only small mountains filled with boxes to move today before we leave on our United Kingdom journey..stay tuned!!

...fabulous town!!!! And here we are, back in it!!! I mean so back in it! It's as if we never left, as if there is no Abingdon, as if the idyllic and quiet busy days at Barter were a dream! New York is so real, so absolutely in your face at all times, day and night, it does feel impossible that any other town truly exists at all...as if NYC will not be denied, no matter how far away from it you move, and the sheer getting things done of it all is, well, strenuous..but, because I have genuinely missed it so much (with out really knowing it), I find myself attacking each task with joy and a certain aliveness, with smiles and good humor, even. Nothing seems to be getting me down, and I can only attribute that to my freshness, my having been refreshed by my 3 year hiatus from the city...I fairly bounce with friendliness and I can only hope that this frame of mind stays alive for me..it feels so good. Many adventures to relate already: already a couple of voice-over auditions, really radio spots and semos, from my faithful crew back at Access Talent, none of whom I have seen in over three years! But, the minute they got word I was returning home (we sent them a notice along with 100 or so other people of our move back), i got a call from them with an audition i couldn't even go to, since we were smack in the middle of our drive back from Virginia, but then when i did get home, they asked me to come down for another one, and then I was able to see them all and catch up on life as it has been lived over these past years. it was good to see Linda Weaver and Chaz Cowing again, and to see how the office they established together after J.Michael Bloom's office dissolved is doing so well and thriving, really while so many others have died!! We picked up our conversation as if it had never been interrupted! Ah, New York!

Well,we DID it!!!!! Not only did we get all the stuff, and i mean all the stuff, into that truck, (thank you Mark Devol, Frank Green, Nathan Coleman, Charles Yonka and my darling Peter) but we miraculously made it home to NYC and unpacked in a mere three hours (thank you Rob Moore, Carlos from our building staff, the extraordinary Paul Daniels, Chris Boyd and once again Charles and Peter Yonka). While all the unpacking was going on, my fabulous mother-in-law Pat Yonka was taking care of the puppies and driving the car around the block whenever it was necessary to move it to make way for other vehicles..the truck was finally and well-parked at the very spot on 104th Street that we needed and the unloading was therefore as easy as it could be. All our building staff here at 890 West End were so warm and welcoming...and the journey officially completed, once Charles and i took the 24-foot truck over the East 117th Street to drop it off at the Budget place, and the guy there was so grateful to get a one-way rental large truck for his stock, the check- in was easy and good. I will reccommend Budget Truck Rentals from now on...they treated us great!And the drive from Abingdon was incredibly quick, even though it took the normal 10 hours....it just seemed so much faster because I think we were all expecting the truck to go so slow (like the one we drove down there did) and that it woul dtake 14 hours like it did before...instead the truck went 70 miles an hour and whoosh we were there!
After stopping for about 6 hours sleep at a terrific hotel in New Jersey where they even took our pups , and served us a really goood breakfast before we left to finally get home. It was all so easy, the journey, so that all the nightmarish packing trauma seemed to have happened to someone else, and not to us! I must say : the apartment that is our co-op home here in New York looks swell, well-tended and clean! It feels wonderfulto be home, no matter how many boxes we have to contend with! All I can say is "YAY!"..so much to write about, but now: I nap!

Astonishing! I began sorting, throwing out, selling,throwing more out, sorting and packing packing packing well over a month ago, and the more I threw out, sold, sorted out and threw out again, the more stuff there seemed to be! It is an amazing phenomenon: it's like the stuff mates and multiplies and mates and multiplies some more the moment our backs are turned!! No one on the planet has more STUFF than we do! The 1st Act of the comedy today began when we picked up the 24 foot truck and Peter had to drive it from the rental place to Kiser Furniture to pick up all our new furniture (yes we bought more stuff) and he realized what it took to turn a corner with a truck that large...poor guy...it took him hours to recover, and he was so scared he would run down a human being or two, and crush at least one small child on his journey...of course, as is always the way with Yonka, it all went perfectly smoothly and he parked the damned thing like a champ, all neatly backed up to our door later for loading the first of about 3ooo(surely!) boxes we have to load....in other words, Peter always does well, he just gets spooked by the difficulty and strangeness of the experience. And I can hardly blame him...I mean 24 feet worth of truck!!!! Larger than I could ever manage and larger than either of imagined . SO: the bottom line on that part of the drama (of course, like all good theatre, this adventure is a comic drama, or vice versa) the bottom line is that Peter's folks (dearest Pat and Charles) will drive over tomorrow from Michigan (having just left) and help us drive home to NYC. Charles has had real experience driving large trucks and so his company and wisdom wil put Peter at ease, and it will be swell for Peter to have a companion all those hours. And I will have the joy of sharing dearest Pat's company for the long stretch in the Chevy Caprice...we shall be learning Hebrew along the way!!! Because Pat is going to Tel Aviv for Montessori in February...and so the truck terror is calmer for the nonce...the real terror now is: WILL WE GET EVERYTHING IN THE TRUCK???I fear we will not even come close!

Yes...practically the length of the Barter Main Stage proscenium opening!!! A large truck, and Peter has to drive it to NYC!!! With me "spelling "him a bit along the way, if I can possibly drive it. I have never driven anything that large, so it will be yet another part of our adventure. It seems as if there may be enough room for all our goods and boxes and furniture...Good God, I hope there is...We drove down in a 17 foot truck, and it was packed to the very walls as tightly as it could be packed, so 24 feet may be the right idea. We are now decided to pick the truck up tomorrow (instead of the day after) thereby giving us one extra day to actually pack it up before we leave on the morning of the 6th (Thursday, day after tomorrow). And all of a sudden the day will be upon us and I shall see Abingdon no more, at least for a while. This does not seem real to me yet. It really does not seem real. And that's okay, because it will become real enough soon. Lisa Alderman, Head of Devlopment at Barter, called this morning asking us to come by the office to pick up something Diana Haynes had made for Peter and me: a Barter Clock with photos of some of the work Peter and I did here dotting the 12 hours round it! Very sweet. Our very own Barter Clock, personalized as can be. We must write them a thankyou note.Very sweet. What a terrific group of human beings staff the Barter Administrative Offices! One of the things I have most enjoyed during my time here was getting to work with all of them,going to bi-weely Staff Meetings, helping various projects started by Marketing and Development, and just generally learning from each of them things about running a theater. They are all so generous with time and knowledge.I will miss them, but do my best to take what I have learned from them to NYC with me and help others ,if I can ,with that knowledge. I loved my office here, too. My own cozy useful place, where I could shut the door and get the job done. Read plays. Write letters to the writers of those plays. I felt useful in that office. Yep. Useful.

..,.STUFF makes the world go round...and my stuff, our stuff in this household, seems to multiply according to one rule: THE MORE WE GET RID OF, THE MORE THERE IS REMAINING! IT is an odd law of physics: I toss bags and bags and bags of stuff out, heavy full bags, and yet, I come back into the house and there seems to be more than there was before the toss!! HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN???? And the minutia..the tiny weeny details of stuff...the countless useless things that all seem so vitally required during a time in a certain place, and most of it never gets used, seen or acknowledged as even being there...then ..POOF!!! All of a sudden it is all very present...and it all must be reckoned with. Peter is working so hard today, and it is all we have been doing, both of us, except for a little nap break , during which we watched DE-LOVELY,the movie musical about Cole Porter, starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd...a very bad film, boring and sentimental and oddly illogical in terms of character and believability...a poorly written thing, although the concept starting out was so intriguing and promising...it got very very stupid by the end of the movie, and Peter had fallen fast asleep by then anyway...Then, in my continuing effort to use all the food up out of our freezer before we leave, I made us a steak dinner and it was good. We are now working on finishing up the kitchen packing. Good God, we have a lot of loot!!!! I hope our 24-foot truck will be large enough for it all!!! Good God! Honestly, there seems to be no reason for us to go out and buy ANYTHING ever again, except food, for a very long time...We have all we need...!IT feels good to throw out things...to throw away so much...makes one feel lighter! If only that were true. So, anyway: tomorrow is Monday, and then Tuesday, and then, whaddya know: we pick up the truck on Wednesday and pack it..then drive away on Thursday...heavens! Sometimes it feels unreal.

Last night, flowing over into today, we spent time with the dearest people we have come to know here in Abingdon. Rick Rose and Amanda Aldridge (Mr. and Mrs.Rick Rose),threw their annual and typically wonderful celebration, and it felt like the entire town of Abingdon flowed through their doors on this particular occasion. At least the people we have come to care for so much all seemed to be present: not only our dear hosts, but Miss Rebecca Newton(loyal Barter friend and head usher), Betsy and Lon Boyd (my favorite Board Member and her hubby), Jim and Janice Cowan (owners of the fabulous Summerfield B&B),Terre, Bob and Harry Land (a brilliant,gifted family of pals),Michael Poisson (our dearest fellow actor) and his beautiful fiancee Krista Guffey(Amanda's Assistant Shop Gal),Theresa Heimann (our amazing and loving Wardrobe Supervisor), Craig Zemsky(new Head Electrician, a genuine friend from all the years we have been here) and his gorgeous Jody, John Mahaffey (premier Abingdon real esate man, from whom we almost bought a house) and his wife, Karen Rowe (stage manager and best friend to both Peter and me), Brian and Lori (our Box Office buds),and countless others, whose faces have become familiar and dear to us, ..ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN SO VERY GOOD TO US during our time here. I felt a thrilling sense of genuine community, and not only gratitude for being a part of it, but a real awe at how Rick and Amanda have managed to make The Barter Theatre a central gathering place for this dynamic community of people. It will be one of the things I will take with me home to New York: the awareness that theater is nothing if not communal...theater matters most when it matters to the people who live near it and can take it into their hearts on a regular basis, no matter how many times they attend during a given year: the fact is: it is part of their communal life, giving and taking, with vitality, need, warmth, and conscience..a place of some sort of true worship of the human spirit. Theater as spiritual partner in a community: my best realization . I love this place , and its people, and its theater, more deeply than I ever thought I could love any place. And taking that knowledge with me, this knowledge of love will make my journey north warmer, easier.