Chance = Change

...cool, crisp, but not too....sunny and gently breezy...the way a day is meant to be...deeply invigorating....lovely...

No response yet to any of my questions previously posted...it would seem that common sense would answer most of them....that being said, a public blog, with any hopes of offending no one at all, will have to skate along the surface of many subjects...to strongly express opinion or critique is bound to hurt someone somewhere sometime....even if it is only a personal opinion, reflecting no others...and all my life, since my first journal when I was 15 years old, i have worked hard to write exactly what i was thinking and feeling...this is obviously not the thing to do in a public blog...ergo, thereby, a personal public blog becomes rather an ad site, a place for a "pitch", a place with a purpose: to make people happy and make them like you....to sell something. And, why not?

The world is to full of wonderful things, odd things, good and bad things, ups and downs, not to observe and enjoy and discuss them all...honest discourse...expression of thought...should everyone agree? Of course not. Do we all need to be "handled"? Hardly. The most refreshing and empowering people seem to be the ones who speak what they feel and think, directly and clearly. They are usually the ones with genuine affection intheir hearts for others, so their direct communications come out as creative and inspiring. Perhaps, at times, angry-making...but good honest anger has its place.

Enough on that, however. Enough already.

Peter and I hung a lot of art on our walls last night, finally, after being home 9 months, and it looks so good....we decided not to wait til we re-paint, which depends on when the windows are replaced, which depends on a Board decision which always seems just around the corner from being made....i trust it will be made in time, and meanwhile, we wanted to put some art on the walls...it looks so good. And there is more to hang. We have already collected so much as a couple, since we bought a lot at the yearly Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon, and now we are so glad we began to collect there...there is one engraver/print maker named John Furches whose work we became really hungry for, and we bought a lot: beautiful engravings of old buildings and interesting houses, old and full of character. The one he did of the Barter Theatre itself is really lovely. But we bought a lot more than that.

I feel so comfortable in this apartment of ours. Even though things are not set yet as we want them to be. It feels more and more like our home.

Tomorrow are the 2 performances of Peter's show at the NYMusical Theater Festival ...i will go to one of them....down on 45th Street.

My first Festival show ever....i'm interested, and look forward to it.

Bye for now. xxev

....all of you who read this particular blog: talk to me....answer this question if you fell like it: WHAT IS A BLOG?

...and these...:

HOW "SHOULD" IT BE USED?

WHAT ARE IT's ETHICAL AND PERSONAL LIABILITIES?

HOW HONEST SHOULD THE BLOGGER BE?

WHAT SHOULD COMMENTS AND CRITICISM CONSIST OF?

WHOSE ADVICE SHOULD A BLOGGER LISTEN TO?

WHERE SHOULD A "LINE" BE DRAWN CONCERNING HONESTY OF EMOTION AND OPINION?

SHOULD THERE BE A "LINE"?

I sure would like to know what you all think of these questions?
So, please, write answers....and , in advance, thanks.

I am in a genuine quandry today about such subjects as friendship, honesty, support, caring, enablement,clarity and devotion. THe glorious thing about marriage is that it creates a structure in which two people can work through such vital life issues together, because the basis of that structure is love, pure and simple.

But what about in friendship? Where there is no official shape or plan to sanction its continuity and growth. How honest can friendships really be? We are all so scared of so many things. I beileve the two things that unite us all in brotherhood are our fears, and our deep knowledge that love actually does conquer all.
But what of the struggle in between those two "goalposts"? The game in between...
A good title for something....

There is no question but that no matter what, we all defend something, no matter how much we may protest that we are not defending, we are defending. And we are all scared of loss...this is common. To pretend otherwise is also very human. So knowing that, in the meantime, how does one get through....it's an axiom of human relationships and life in general: do not do anything while experiencing a high emotion, like anger or hate or ecstasy....wait for it to subside, to re-balance, and then see what you have...balance emotion with intellect...calm....level....

Analyze.

It would surely be good to know how you all think about some of the above ideas..
And if any of you have run into things that beg such questions as the ones above. That is, in relation to any blogging you may do or have done...

The skies grow grey and greyer over Manhattan today and Fall is in the air. Peter is at rehearsal. I have time to clear both the apartment and my mind, the luxury of both. Such a lovely place we have to live. Such a real home. Soon, it will be time to have people over for dinner parties, and peter can cook his delicious chili and I can make the cornbread and we can pour the wines and solve the world's problems for a few hours...soon.Even if the futon mattress is in the dining room,while the guest room is being re-modelled...even if the place is not yet picture perfect...even if our windows have not been replaced yet...that dining room is begging for some visitors and food and wine....it is ready, even if we are not.

Maybe I will cook a potroast for dinner tonight....xxev

..was so exciting...I am really enjoying this private teaching, especially as the classes that have come together are really, now coming together in ways that are strong and creative....and there are such talented individuals in each class, i would love to write about them and the work they are choosing to do in each session..however, a friend advised me last night not to write about my private students (without their permission ) because I could run into all sorts of troubles later, if the individual student was somehow offended by what I had written,etc. all of this in the context of the many dillemi developing as a result of the universal popularity of blogging...everyone reads everything...though i consider this friend's advice wise and, finally, instructive, i do regret not being able to discuss the events of my class more freely. However, this i will do in my private pages. Suffice it to say: the two night sessions I am currently teaching are really exciting. Much creative work is being accomplished and it looks like growth for all concerned. The three hour sessions fly by,and i feel so grateful for what goes on in these rooms.

And I am learning so much

Tea with David Staller was delightful yesterday afternoon. Joe Allen's was as familiar as ever, and so quiet at 4:00 pm...a perfect time to have a tea and talk...and we did...we talked and talked and talked...what a dear gentle man he is. And so passionate about his work with the Epic and about theatrical notions altogether. He has a deep and smart understanding of process and pretense...he wants to accomplish something to do with getting writers and actors to grow, and in his way, cognizant of how much of this sort of activity goes on in NYC, he nonethless strives to contribute his ideas to the mix, and so is guiding the Epic in the direction, if he can, of contributing in a unique way...his base is, I would say, extremely political, and he seems to be looking for ways to help people understand that individualism and a person's right to be who they are, is paramount in a civilized society...i would say that is the basis for a strong mission, and we had a good time discussing it...of course, he is also aware that political agendas are dangerous when it comes to raising monies, but on the other hand, if presented in a humanistic way (one of his idols is Shaw), people with a passion on both sides of the political fence, would see the advantage in helping his company, and i think that is a good good thing. I did enjoy his intelligence yesterday. Next time, the tea is on me!

He is planning a series of Shaw readings at the Players Club starting in November...good combination, the Players and Shaw...Staller's plan is to go through Shaw's entire cannon of work over a two year period...every last little bit of theatrical writing, no matter how obscure...this sounds interesting to me, and of course the writing can't get much better, at least in our language...meanhwile he looks for new writing, and friends like Kathryn Houghton and others bring their plays to him for help. People need intelligent arenas for their artistry.David seems to be supplying one.

...though the days have been gorgeous, full examples of how stunning this City can be in the early Fall season...Peter is in the midst of rehearsing for a reading of a new musical for the New York Musical Theatre Festival...one based on CAMILLE, written by two folks from LA who Peter says are very nice people....they called him in at the last minute to replace someone, and he has been rehearsing since Sunday. Our pals Todd Johnson and Bill Evans are in it as well, and I look forward to seeing it this coming Saturday afternoon...Peter is meeting yet more interesting new folks, and getting to wrap his good voice around new music, which he loves to do...

I meet David Staller later today at Joe Allen's for "tea" as he put it, at 4:00 before going on down to teach my class..David, a pal from days past, is elegant and well-spoken, talented and warm. Also, tall and handsome in the extreme, it is good to catch up with him and re-kindle that interesting friendship.He is Exec Producer of a group called The Epic Theater Company, and is holding a series of Monday night readings that sounds really intriguing: the playwright, always present, casts the reading of the new work ,cold, from the gathered actors, who have never seen the script. That way, the actor has no time to craft a "performance' or in any way attempt to save the writing...thus, it is also not in any way directed...such a process speaks, therefore, to what is simply written on the page as it is..i like this idea. And a discussion ensues, i gather, only if the writer has specific questions he or she needs answered. It is very pointed to the sheer craft of the thing. Peter and I will go to the next reading in October, at the Irish Rep, though David usually uses the Players Club for the gatherings. I will be glad to see and talk with Mr.Staller.

The re-cultivation of good friends.
Gotta go for now...more later....xxev

...like the joke my brother Richard just forwarded me in honor of National Speak Like a Pirate Day: (let's see if I can get this right): So....a pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel in his pants. The bartender says to him "Hey, you know you have a steering wheel in your pants?" And the pirate replies, "Arrrrr, and it's driving me nuts!"....I love that one!

Terrific Class #2 last night... Another tonight.

The day sparkles....fresh Fall-ness definitely in the air.

So...returning to the subject of Barter Blogging:

Anyone from Barter, including Alumni, may post.......others can view the site by going to bartertheatre.blogspot.com.
and after reading, if you want to comment, you can post your comment right there!!

All of you, go there, read...write! Talk about the Barter! If any of my fellow actors from the Company are reading this, go to the site and post an entry! Tell people about what you do there! And tell me about your lives...I want to know...'cause I miss you all so!

SO...WRITE!

Soon, in October, dear Krista Guffey will marry our dear Michael Poisson, and i do wish we could get down there for the wedding....Monday October 10th....it is slightly possible that we could do that...but time will tell...meanwhile,we shall see. I can just imagine how it will be, in that lovely church, Abingdon all decked out in its Fall colors...the reception at the Hardware! On a Monday day off no less! Then, back to work for them all! Peter and I know that schedule so well.

An incredibly gorgeous New York today....perfect time to take a nice long walk in Riverside Park...and so I shall...bye for now....xxev

On our ride home tonight from the Upstate House, where we did spend the most beautiful weekend, both working on the house and just being in the great early Fall outdoors....today especially was cool and wonderful, and the trees have that look of letting the summer go, blushing with the promises of a colorful Autumn..still quite warm, but something definitely in the air that makes you think of baking pies from the apples you pick yourself at some local orchard.I had a great time driving around on errands that took me through lots of gorgeous country side. Anyway, as I started
to say, on the way home from Upstate tonight, Steve asked if it was easy to tell when someone in one of my classes has what he called "it", the promise of making it big, etc...could I tell from their work in class...something special that distinguished one student above all others...of course I had to tell him that that was not at all the case...that indeed we all have, everyone has an "it" , what I define as something special to give the planet ....and , sure, certain people make certain impressions at certain times, and if those times are lucky and meant to be seen by certain others, then something happens that moves the energy into a bigger arena...that may be called "making it"...BUT, really, that same impressive energy may just as possibly have gone awry in the same instant and impressed no one...it is all fate and karma and energy and hard work, and one student who starts out dull or unpromising can turn around in a certain time and be stunningly wonderful..so i have given up judging the way I used to judge...it serves me not at all to judge in such a way, and it certainly does the student no good if I prejudge them in any substantive way...so, what is "IT" , anway?

Interesting question, though, so i thank Steve C. for asking it of me. In fact, generally speaking, I thank that dear man for many things, not the least of which is his pure loving energy and good heart...also, his fantastic delicious meals he cooks for us all up at the House...his berry cobblers are now my favorite food. He takes such good care of all of us. I love him.

IT feels so goodto be home tonight with my dear husband and our exhausted puppies...they are lumps of fur on the sofa, because they have run and run and run through the woods today, and caught sticks, and caroused in the underbrush, and they are TIRED!!!!!! Exhausted clumps of doggie fur and soft tummies...sleeeeeping!

To all Barter-ites, reading this blog: did you know there is a Barter Blog? And that you can write on it? There is a password,etc. so you need to get that from Rick R.or Joan B. ...but it is accessible on this blogsite, and even audience people are invited to write in it...so...DO!!!! Ann J., find out about it from the Barter Office folk and write in it....encourage others to do the same! And I need to get more Barter actors and tech people to write in it as well...it could be such an interesting site for all concerned..a real chance to creatively write about the intricate and often mysterious things we all do there..I have made one entry, long ago, and am dismayed to find no one else has even written in it after my entry...so come on folks: WRITE!!!! Talk about it...share what you do...write about it!!!

Two private classes this week...i can hardly wait...i keep getting more and more inquiries about these classes..I am fighting to keep them small...and because they are my classes, run and shaped by me, the only person I am fighting with is MYSELF!!!And that is rather nice....I know how to argue with myself much better than I know how to argue with other people...and there is such exciting potential in these Tuesday and Wednesday night classes...so much can be lovingly accomplished with all this extraordinary talent. i feel honored to have each and every actor there.
For me, there has always been something powerful in a gathering of actors. And really tht is all a class is: a gathering of energies excited to learn and grow.

Maybe that's what "it" actually is.

....both of which I strolled tonight : Ninth Avenue and the 42nd Street Area...I had to go down and see a show at the Westside Arts Theater (more on that later) and in so doing, I was able to stroll the neighborhood that Paul and I did a lot of our New York growing up in....the Playwrights Horizons years, when Paul was Managing Director there, and I was doing several of my earlier NYC shows at the Westside Arts: I CAN'T KEEP RUNNING IN PLACE (with Helen Gallagher and Marcia Rodd), HIJINX (directed by Bob Kalfin and with Scott Ellis as the dance lead! we were rather good friends during that run, Scott and I)....those were the JERRY's GIRLS years, when I was running back and forth between the Westside and Ted Hooks' Backstage Club where JERRY'S GIRL started before it went to Broadway a couple of years later...it was in that dressing room at Backstage that I met Pauletta Pearson's then boyfriend Denzel Washington! They fought all the time....now they have been married many years, and I still remember the first time he came to our dressing room! Gorgeous even then...ANYWAY: tonight, as I strolled waiting for JEWTOPIA to begin at the Westside, all these memories came flooding back to my mind, and I remember the many meals we all ate outside at the various restaurants on 43rd Street bewteen matinee and evening shows, and how Paul would always meet me, because he was diligently tied to his Managing Director's desk at Playwrights on the weekends so he could spend some time with me...Playwrights Horizons was busy discovering and producing Wendy Wasserstein and Chris Durang's first works...it was a busy arty neighborhood back then...still is, I guess, since Theater Row is still abuzz with activity, with all new theaters, and the Westside Arts filled from top to bottom with long running little hits like JEWTOPIA and I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE...there is a cleaner, newer, hipper look to the old neighborhood, and even the old stores have new faces...keeping up with the times...i strolled and looked....then i went to see JEWTOPIA...and why, you might ask...

Well, my agent got a call asking if I would be intersted in auditioning for a role they were needing a quick replacement for for the rest of the year. When I asked for a ticket to see it, one was quickly booked for me, so I felt that i should at least honor their generosity and go see it before making up my mind whether or not to audition for them....already I was fairly certain that with my teaching schedule and all the things Peter and i have to do to make the Fall really work for us, that I could not suddenly thrust myself into a full Off-Broadway performance schedule, but I wanted to see it anyway, before turning down the audition,and so I went last night.
The audience had such a good time. But i will not waste their time auditioning. Unfortunately, even if they simply asked me to do the job, it's not something that is right for me right now. And so, I will ask my agent to tell them i pass this time around...but thanks for the ticket. That was generous to "comp" me.

The men who wrote JEWTOPIA are clearly clever, and fun. Probably warmly ensconced in a good tv network writing gig by now, since i did not get to see them last night, but rather their understudies, who were energetic and ingratiating. Adorable even.

And so I will call Gary and "pass"...

Then I will go water Drew's plants and get Upstate as soon as I can...this has been a good week,full of discovery and good teaching moments,etc...but it has also been a week in which the United Nations General Assembly opened for business and President Bush visited, so bus travel above ground was stupid and snarled and then add rain to the equation and you have a city worth getting out of, if even for only a few days.

By the by, in preparation for directing the reading of BLITHE SPIRIT for the CAP 21 Monday Night Reading Series, I have made generous cuts in the delicious and meaty script that I think will work and will effectively make the play a palatable length to sit through, so that is done...what a swell piece it is. That takes place october 16 or 17 or something like that. Eliza V. will be "Arcati".

Bye for now. xxev

...and I do mean "class" , as in "classy", upper class,etc. i understand a new meaning to the concept....last night was the first meeting of the CAP 21 Alum Class I put together for the next few months and though certain people showed up I was not expecting, and certain people i was expecting called to beg out because of colds (starting next Tuesday instead), it was a most hard-working and satisfying room last night, and we all left feeling like we had gotten to know each other better, and looking forward to learning more. There is considerable talent in that class already,because, well, after all they are CAP 21 graduates, their training was therefore good, and they would not have gotten into CAP unless they showed some degree of gift to begin with...combine that with the fact that each of them has lived a few years now, done jobs, know themselves better and have continued studying voice, etc, and the power in the room last night is clearly understandable....that did not make it any less surprising and exciting, however, and I was reminded of the joys of teaching powerfully gifted actors and singers. Suffice it to say: a good time was had by all. The hours between 7 and 10 flew by.

Lauren Shealy, Michael Miller, Jesse Factor, Ashley Eichenbauer, Jenoa Harrison, Jen Blood, Paul Johnson...wonderful! Exciting. More to come next week....and next week begins the Wednesday night class as well...

I felt really glad last night (and that feeling remains this morning) that I had decided to put those classes together. Shaping them the way I see best, keeping them small, and having them at night, enables me to give fuller attention to each and every person working in class, and I can "custom-build" the instruction to meet the specific needs of each...and in so doing, each student contributes uniquely to the general pool of learning that takes place in the room...this is especially true of a group that is already so highly motivated and interesting... they can really learn from each other. And I learn too.

In line with my idea that actors are basically singers of stories and that singers are actors of the highest caliber, each and every class will begin with singing...last night I had planned to have each student sing only one or two songs..but the event that shaped up dictated we do more, and so each got to sing at least 5 songs, interspersed with monologues, and this we all did as a sharing group (I call this the "Round Robin", in honor of Larry Moss, who first introduced that courageous concept to me in his class), and whereas it has the effect of finally relaxing each student as they get to know each other through song, the initial idea of simply, out of the blue, singing to total strangers when you hear your intro being played is nonetheless a real confrontation, no matter how experienced you are.

I remember so clearly the terrors I would feel(years ago) when i heard my song being started...then one day, Betty Buckley showed up in class, an old pal of Larry's, she would drop in whenever she simply felt like singing or working on a new song....she joined the Round Robin onstage with the rest of us, already a sort of showbiz legend, I admired even her courage then, and she simply opened her mouth (the song was You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman..I'll never forget it..)and out poured the purest emotional sound I had ever been close to...raw, pure, she seemed not to care how it sounded, only that it SOUNDED! Only that she perform the necessary ritual of singing because she simply had to express what it is she was feeling....the music was her lit match and she became the fire. Of course the sound was gorgeous, but mostly what I remember is the feeling of freedom....FREDDOM...and absolute necessity: there was no way she could not sing!

It was a genuine lesson to me that day that I have never forgotten...freedom and necessity...the sheer act of gift-giving...so i have tried to do a Round Robin in every class I have ever taught ...there is power in the circle of song, even among strangers....especially among strangers.The room rocked with it last night.

By the way, the orchids Pearl Berman gave us are as strong and fresh as the day they arrived, gorgeous, tall, white and pretty...they seem to like their place by the windows that overlook 104th Street, and i spray them everyday. I will see Pearl tonight at the CAP 21 Board meeting.

Peter had a good audition for Deborah Brown yesterday, ostensibly for the Sir Peter Hlal Earnest which will go on tour with Lynn Redgrave...but it may simply have been a reason for Deb to give Peter a general "look see", which is not bad either...it went well, Peter felt. Deb is a smart woman, and a seasoned Casting Director: she knows a good thing when she sees it...I trust Peter made a good impression. He worked hard and perfected a really strong audition. And, as he pointed out, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST seems to be a play that crosses his path with regularity, so let the karmic games begin!!

Hey...gotta go to the gym!!! It has become a healthy habit lately....so, before I lose the impluse, bye for now...xxev

...and the glories of it on a day like today: sunny, fresh. green. cool. warm. populated with interesting Sunday New Yorkers and their inevitable pets...I saw a man and his wife walking their enormous and gorgeous gray cat on a red sparkly leash...many doggies, used to much crazier sights, walked right by...whatever happened to the supposed war between dogs and cats...is it time to say: "they got along great ! like dogs and cats!!"??? Anyway, after a superb little breakfast up on our Roof Garden here at 890 West End, Peter and i got Starbucks' iced things and walked over to the Park (after an emotional run-in with a person I shall dub Dog Lady, and about whom I shall write more later...perhaps Dog-Faced Lady would be more apt)...anyway a gorgeous leisurely day with my husband in this city of our choice, this New York...

We had, while in the Park, the most wonderful chance meeting with the delightful Howard McGillan, and his dog Terry...we must have relaxed and chatted together for 45 minutes....such a lovely day to do that in...i like Howard very much. I asked about his son Brian who (I knew from our GOLDEN APPLE weekend) is a Tulane student, and who had evacuated the new orleans area the Satuday before the hurricane hit...Howard told us that Brian is fine and living in New York, preparing to go to NYU very soon...it happens that NYU, well versed int he ways of emergency and need from 9/11, opened their doors to all Tulane kids who needed room and education...
So Brian McGillan for now is home hear his Dad...this seemed to make Howard happy.
Also, October 3rd he re-enters the cast of PHANTOM on Broadway and Peter and i vowed to go see him in it...I have actually never seen that PHANTOM, so it will be fun to see it with a talent i really respect in the lead...we vowed also to get together for a Fall dinner party..I want to have Howard around a good dinner table with certain folks...

Got the nicest email from Terre Land..a woman I love and respect from Abingdon...i look forward to seeing her and her dear Bob sometime around Thanksgiving , if we are here in the City...

Monday, September 12....another gorgeous day, bright, cheerful and perfect...i just returned from a most rigorous at the gym, and will work with Peter soon on his monologues forhis Sir Peter Hall audition tomorrow...at least it is a screening, from which he stands a chance of meeting the great man...our agent is at work.

Tomorrow is a day full of CAP 21 activities for me: Board stuff, meetings,etc. then at night my first class meeting ofthe Alum Class...it will most interesting to see the sort of work that group is capable of generating...I am looking forward to what will go on in that studio room...though I have things I can certainly do to structure the class, i am more interested in the group itself defining what it needs and what it wants to do to help itself grow...I hope to keep it to a maximum of 10 people, and right now we are nearing that number, but we shall see...i want it tobe intense and hardworking. Musical and dramatic. Scary and hard, but also fun. THe following week, the Wednesday Night class will start, and that will have more of the people from the summer, younger and less experienced, but talented nonetheless. And so the Fall will go...I do wonder if I will ever be in a show again as long as I live, but right now I am so content to be doing and learning what I am doing and learning. THe sheer volume of stuff I am learning about myself and my life is enough to fill yet another volume of journal work, though so much of it is in process and so I am unable to express it fully yet...there is alot going on, let me say, and much love in the process, no matter how confused I may feel by it all sometimes.

Heard from Rick R. that Scarlet Pimpernel at Barter is very good, and I heard that from other Abingdon sources as well...I do miss seeing al that , but well..,such is life...I miss long conversations with Rick. I miss that a lot. A lot a lot. He remains one of the truly strong and intelligent men i have ever had the privilege to work with. Conversations with him...well i always grew from them, one way or the other.And he is an enormous amount of fun in the process.I miss that as well. No one quite fills that place for me here. Peter acknowledges the same. I believe he too was genuinely challenged by Rick R. and loved him for it.

So, meetings begin tomorrow morning quite early over at Nancy T.'s office on the East Side...and I have much to do to prep for the first class. So,bye for now...

(Peter has composed the sweetest ballad, and arranged it in such a fine jazz way..
his music writing is so good....this one is very melodic...lovely......he calls it WHISPER).

...OF VERONA last night in the Park...the 2nd offering of the Shakespeare in the Park 2005 Season...Peter, his mom Pat and i managed to snag 3 tix (thanks to Michael Raine fo rthe 3rd) and we had an extremely NYC evening in the Park...so nice.

And the production was friendly, lively and rather perfect for the Park, with Galt McDermott's music (oh yes, it is the musical we saw not the play) provig to me once more that he comes to us from a different galaxy, somewhere far away! And i love that galazy, wherever it is! There is an energetic innocence in his music, an expectation of some sort of shred silliness, that so works for me...it comes to genius fruition in HAIR, of course, and I have profound respect for him since directing that CAP 21 production several years ago...but TWO GENTLEMEN...is so clever and blithe, and witty in an American verbal way...hip for the '60's and catchy ...ear-catching..i found myself on the edge of my seat following the language of the songs...and how Galt set that language into the songs....made me smile a lot with appreciation. Kim Grigsby conducted, with a sexy little wiggle from atop the upstage center orchestral platform, high above us all...she is such a showgirl that lovely Kim...so along with her consumate musicianship, she is a rarity among Broadway conductors: pretty and witty and girly. Audiences adore that. This in no way undercuts her musical authoritativeness....she is damned good at what she does...just such a pretty loon!

I was sooo proud to see several former CAP 21 students up there in the chorus, looking fabulous and behaving like they knew what they were doing...Noah Weisberg and Dequina ("KiKi") Moore...two of my faves from years...and obviously having such a good time being up there...and Kathleen Marshall's directing sort of made the whole delightfully silly show rather come right out at us, and so it filled the Delacourt with glee...several actors also filled it with their voices and that i loved: Norm Lewis, to name one...wow, I loved his "Valentine", especially in the "Night Letter" number and all that leading up to it...sheer out and out loud and good singing...also, a gorgeous man to look at. It was a romp...missing some of the sharper bite of the original, which unmercifully commented on everything of the ear...this production soft-pedalled a few moments I remember so clearly, like "Julia's" fianl scene, Priscilla Lopez was out and out hugely pregnant, so when she dragged "Proteus" off with a stream of Spanish investive pouring from her mouth, the audience was treated to a highly satirical comment on Puerto Rican women of that era...this momnet was pretty and sort of funny, but Rosario Dawson clearly a beauty, was a very safe and gentle "Julia"...Priscilla, delightfully, was not. Therefore, I suspect that other sharper satire was probably lost in the modern translation to the Delacourt Stage , 2005...but all of that is okay, because we all had fun anyway. And there were moments when the place really did rock and roll...audience loved it .

Had the most congenial and warm run-in with Walter Bobby and his guy David Frye....Peter did SOUTH PACIFIC for Walter,and Walter and I have always been fond of each other, so we stood and talked for a good half hour before the show began...what a sweet guy.
I had the chance to tell him how moved I was by his work on SOUTH PACIFIC. He seemed pleased that it had reached me in such a way.So good to see him, and for Peter to have a chance to re-connect.

Perfectly gorgeous early Fall weather here in the City of New York.....I remember how perfect the day was that the Twin Towers were destroyed...that September 11th was one of these kinds of days.

I am determined to use the rest of this month as a time to get rid of things we do not want or need...and if I can, I will find a way to send it all down to the Hurricane victims, who well may need what we have far too much of: everything!

I so look forward to my little classes starting next week....they are filled with aome of the most interesting people I have ever worked with in classews before, and so I kniow the quality will be high and the learning fast and necessary. Intersting at the very least.

More later....xxev

...and how they are created....each and every time a group of actors comes together to work on a specific project...and it doesn't matter whether the project is a new one, an old one, a really old one,...neither does it matter where it's headed: Broadway, Off-, regional theater, someone's living rom, a college stage...wherever...WHENEVER a group of performing artists come together to create a project, an oddly terrific thing occurs: a sort of "family" is indeed created along with the project itself...and of course , the more intense the work process, the closer-knit the new family seems to be, even if it is only for the short itme of the
performance time itself...true, sometimes, sheer hatred and enmity draw a group into closeness, and though the time is tortured, the time is nonetheless alive and breathing....usually, however, it has been my experience that genuine affection and caring happen, and things are shared that are usually only shared by people who...well...okay...love each other...by the end, vows are made to stay in touch, numbers and addresses are exchanged, dates booked, future projects discussed...and every so often, some of these dates, vows and projects actually come to fruition...
but even if they are not, a relationship has indisputably been formed, and memories have been truly created that are unique to that group of people, and this counts for a lot, this sort of memory sharing, in what is usually a pretty peripatetic community ,as actors are.

A rare pleasure for both Peter and for me , during THE GOLDEN APPLE, was to get to know (for me it was to get to know better) the wonderful, inimitable Daniel Marcus, a character man in our "biz" who is so ...well..he's yummy, that's what Daniel is..."yummy!!" And gifted, gifted, gifted...smart as hell....verbal, intelligent, musical in a deep and abiding way...gorgeously-voiced and theatrically astute...a funny and odd man, with a tender heart and silly soul...with a lovely wife, a gorgeous and precocious little boy child, and all in all a fine man...dear Dan..him, along with Ann Crumb, well..I consider them two new friends...so along with the other joys of doing that strange old show in concert, here I have two additions to my life that enrich it....really, how often does that happen in any business..? I really must find a show for the 4 of us to do together: Ann, Daniel, Peter and me....hmmmm....

Well, so much else to write, no time now...i wanted to rhapsodize about Daniel tonight...and so ...to bed....g'nite all.

...and all the people who are stranded there in the horrible aftermath of Hurricane Katrina...i have never seen such devastation so close to home, though of course September 11th here in NYC had its horrors that will never be equalled...the wretchedness of that was that it was done to human beings by fellow human beings, out of sheer hatred and malice...the sad tragedy of New Orleans is that there was little to nothing that we human beings could do to guard against the sheer power of the natural world as manifested in such a hurricane...we are, finally, powerless before the elements in a way that we rarely get to experience...so , as the saying goes: if it's not one thing it's another...they get us coming and going...the powers of Fate...the Inexplicable...the Truly Powerful...what ever IT is...I cannot draw myself away from the TV screen and even stayed ont the exercise bike 20 minutes longer this morning because I wanted to keep watcing the CNN News Report from the scene of the devastation...i have never seen such misry and sadness in such a large group of Americans...but as it seems to be, the most wretched in the New Orleans are the people who are already poor, and who had no means with which to get out of the path of the storms...it's almost as if God looked at the New Orleans poor and said "Here, let ME take care of this...let ME wash it clean...and, oh, hey there you humans on Earth: PAY ATTENTION TO THESE PEOPLE!!!!!

I want to help....send money of course, but really help, but how? While working out, I kept imagining taking a family into ourhome here in the City...I kept thinking of all those huge homes out in the Hamptons, and how there would be room for at least one family in each of those houses, and certainly plenty of food, dry underwear and socks and places to sleep for these people who lost absolutlely everything...imagine not even having a pair of fresh socks to change into, or underwear, or a bra, or a clean shirt or dress....because it's ALL GONE...whoosh, wiped away and gone forever...Walmart alone could clothe and feed so many...though I see that Walmart actually is in charge of some sort of drive to help them...AND I CAN HARLDY BLAME THE PEOPLE FOR LOOTING!!!THEY ARE LOOKING FOR A WAY TO SURVIVE!!!! If i was hungry, I would steal in order to eat, if i had to, and if i saw shelves upon shelves of food in front of me for the taking...I too would become a looter...no question about it. I probably would not steal electronics, however, since there is no place to plug any of that stuff in anyway...but food? and dry clothing? you betcha! Food for my children or doggies, of course....wouldn't you?

I am off to the House this morning.....Peter will do a recording session he has been hired for by Steve Alper, and then join us upstate tomorrow...I plan a weekend of sheer meditation, chanting, and writing. And keeping an eye on the New Orleans situation. Summer is now over, and the Hurricane Katrina has put a powerful coda to it....she has showed us "what for", and without a regret, has left us to swim in our powerlessness, with 'nary a second thought...she has opened the doorway to a miserable Autumn and Winter for the folks down there, and it is possible she has also wiped out one of America's unique cities forever...I wonder when the TV miniseries will begin portraying New Orleans' misery? When the first made-for-TV movie will chas in on the tragedies of others?

We saw THE BROTHERS GRIMM last evening...very Terry Gilliam, extravagant and picturesque and detailed....and i enjoyed it finally. Loved some of the visual ideas.
Very much a summer flick...i had hoped to meeti with Frank and Eliza V. because I want to discuss my future with CAP 21 in mor detail with them, but my afternoon got eaten up by voice-over business and I never made it to 18th Street. Much I want to talk with them about.

Many meetings are coming up concerning CAP 21's growth and future...i look forward to sitting on Board Committees with Nancy T. Lois F. and Pearl B. and new Board member Susan R....powerful women all, and extremely bright and energetic.

But for this weekend (in which I will try to do a blog entry or two as well as journal write), I will put my spirit in repose and meditate on the state of the world, sending prayers and healing thoughts South to beleaguered New Orleans.

Again, bless them.

xxev