Chance = Change

...as I look out the two large windows in our office, next to both our desks (Peter"s idea to turn our large living room into our office/sitting room for student and colleagues is working out so well)...anyway, as I look out, I see the familiar wall of windows of the building across 104th Street from us...an amazing view into other peoples' lives, if we chose to view it, but there is a city etiquette that prevents us all from taking advantage of such close proximity, and so, except for the rare glance telling me something about the late-night tv watching habits of a few people, i know nothing about what really goes on behind those windows. For one thing, if i ever took a good look, they could see me looking, and for another, there is this unspoken law: there is really nothing there, so we all ignore what is...in any event, makes for an interesting contrast to our Abingdon life, and makes also for an interesting canvas to wake up to each morning. Our wall of windows. We rehearse tonight for a reading of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST we agreed to do on Monday the 14th for the Barbara Wolff Reading Series at CAP 21...should be fun, especially as Peter is "Jack" this time, not "Algernon", the role he did at Barter two years ago...also, a slightly differently cut version of the script...as long as people enjoy it.... That reading series has become very popular, as it now includes both new works and classics in its line-up....Studio One at 18 West 18th has become a prolific room, and much art is created in it. Two nights ago we saw the 2nd year kids do the most delightful presentation of Cy Coleman and Frank Loesser music...a really good night of theatre, even though they are so young...so much talent in their discovery mode of such brilliant writers makes for exciting results for an audience. it was terrific. Really terrific. Anyway, what I really want to write about is HIS DARK MATERIALS at the National Theatre in London, because it was truly one of the highlights of our trip and i don't think I wrote about it enough yet, if at all. HIS DARK MATERIALS, taken from the trilogy of books by Philip Pulman, really written for kids, they say, but voraciously read by adults the world over, and translated for the stage by the National Theatre, Nick Hytner and those astonishing actors. We were told we would never get tix, it's such a pop hit, but we persevered and were able to see both parts on successive nights...it was so much fun. So huge. SO gorgeously produced, using the famous "drum revolve" in the Olivier Theatre for the first time in a long time...breathtaking, really, and finally, by the end of the two night saga I was weeping. And even in two nights worth of 3-hour action each night, they still had to, of course ,cut major story lines and characters...(Peter gave me the trilogy before we went to London, so I had read them all before we even left the US, and so we were deterimined to see this thing).The National Theatre, over on the remarkably refurbished South Bank, is one large monolithic new building,which at first is pretty daunting, as it is very huge and blocky and grey and granite and modern and sort of off-putting and dark, even inside, especially inside. But soon, when you experience the daily goings-on, the way it serves as eating place, meeting place for all the thousands who go to see theatre there, you begin to feel its purpose and the entire thing warms up and becomes extremely comfortable and welcoming. It dares you to engage with it, and then when you do , it rewards with many riches, many experiences you can only have there. And for all it enormous-ness, it never really feels crowded, even though it really is filled with thousands of people seeing 4 different plays at a time. Brilliant. And of course one of the most wonderful book stores in the world. Too bad the American dollar is is such poor shape against the pound. We'd have bought three times as much as we did buy. Our trip to London would have been worth it if the only things we saw were the 2 nights of HIS DARK MATERIALS.