Thursday, September 15, 2005
Memories and Old Neighborhoods
....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
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
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