In case you missed my heartfelt thank you's posted late last night, DRs... Thank you, thank you, thank you (that's THREE thank you's) for all the lovely birthday greetings! If you care to look, a more detailed thank you is posted late yesterday. Otherwise, I hope this will do. And have I mentioned?...Thank you!
FS Pogue - Yes, William Redfield's book is one THE best. I saw the Burton Hamlet at the O'Keefe Center in Toronto when it first opened. Went with my mother and sat way in the back of the balcony -- but it was still thrilling. Saw John Gielgud sitting in the lobby at intermission and la Liz was in the audience.
As you like this sort of thing, if it's of interest, I could lend you EVERY INCH A LEAR, which is a rehearsal journal of the 1979 Stratford production of Lear, starring Peter Ustinov. It's written by Maurice Good, an Irish actor with whom I worked at the Shaw Festival in Caesar and Cleopatra.
A side note: I made (and won) a somewhat juvenile and wholly unprofessional bet regarding something I would do to Mr. Good during a performance. He was playing Apollodorus and I was either Charmian or Iras, can't recall (I alternated the roles). In one scene I was lounging beside him in my diaphanous gown as he lay on some sort of Roman chaise in his shortie tunic. Now I have to add that we'd been running and touring for a long time and we (the company, that is) were bored out of our minds. One of the actors bet me that I wouldn't have the guts to reach under Maurice's tunic - I'm talking right under, folks, if you get the picture - as he was mid-speech in a rather complex dialogue scene with Caesar. The second part of the bet was whether he would or would not lose a beat in his dialogue. Well, natch, I reached under (he and his wife and I were friends, so it was fine, just fine to do such a scandalous thing) ...and Mr. Good, the ultimate pro, did not miss a beat. Although the look he gave me was priceless. I was a bad girl back then. Now I'm good. Very very good. Almost angelic. Really.
