Good morning, all! Page 3 at 7:45 am? Well, good gracious!
This morning I see my doctor since I'm worried about my toxin levels, and we'll see if he dismisses me with a "you're okay" or orders a few tests. I may have to give him a lecture on the treatment of bed bugs and mites as well. After that, since I accomplished little after my naphthalene scare, I've got a bit of Toyland writing here.
Last night I watched the first two episodes of JOHN ADAMS, and I cannot recommend this series highly enough. It was nice to see old friends John Dossett and David Morse, even if they had no scenes together, cast in the same production: when I worked with them, it was arranging the music for and MD'ing a Circle Rep Theatre Lab student production directed by the Theatre Lab director, Stuart White, one of the first AIDS casualties I knew personally. Stuart was one of the most talented directors I've ever known and he should have had a huge career. His companion Clifford Stone, a novelist who had written a beautiful novel THE GREAT SUNFLOWER, died soon after Stuart.
I had met Stuart through a Miami University theatre student Rebecca Bondor, who was in the Circle Rep Theatre Lab, at a party thrown by a playwright in the Theatre Lab, Paula Cizmar (who wrote a wonderful play DEATH OF A MINER). The next day, Stuart called me and said, "you're really funny; we should work on a project together and I have something at the Theatre Lab." The "project" was a showcase for the students, and the rehearsals went on for several years because students tok acting jobs and left the group for six weeks and Stuart would postpone production. In the meantime, he would come and see things I was working on, and I remember seeing David Morse in a beautiful production at WPA of THE TRADING POST, which Stuart directed.
The "project" at the Theatre Lab turned out to be a revue of 1930s materal, and after rehearsals, Stuart and I would walk uptown together singing in harmony Rodgers & Hart's "I'll Tell The Man In The Street." The longer the project got delayed, the crazier my schedule became and I finally dropped out of it so Stuart found someone else to play the show. When I talked to him last, he was working on something at Yale Rep and then he was diagnosed. He's one of far too many talented people I know who died far too young, and I still miss him and Clifford. And the survivors need to tell the tale.
Oy, the things an HBO series can dredge up!
