October 5, 2025

Downtown last night to see two of T's short plays at the BeBe. One was a masterpiece. The other was possibly a masterpiece, but one for which the actors’ needed a sharper conception to put fully across. Lines almost as gorgeous as mine. I kept checking myself to see if the splendor of his person wasn’t affecting my judgment. Anyone that good looking shouldn’t be able to write so well. Hope I’m getting past that. Took in the town, as I do mostly on those nights when I go to the theater. Lively, happy. I must seem a tottering relic alone on the streets like that. When I appear on my new security cameras my hesitant walk makes me look 1000 years old. 

In the car ready for the trek to Waynesville when I discovered a very flat tire. Turns out the 2024 Toyota Cross has no spare, and the AAA guy was unable– for liability reasons– to help me with the re-inflator apparatus. So, getting a tow first thing in the morning. I simp for God so much that the thoughts that ran through my mind were how much luckier it was than to have a flat last night on the downtown streets, or half an hour later on the road through the mountains. And maybe missing today’s performance of my play caused me to miss something far worse, as on TV shows when the hero misses the plane that crashes. I suspected sabotage for a moment, but the security cameras detected nothing. Probably a bolt or nail left over from recent construction. P writes me a review of the performance: 

We’ve gotten back from the play and dinner and wanted to let you know how everyone we talked to—our friends from Deerfield, Daphne and Bill, and J and D F all had things to say about your play that would make you blush were you to hear them. We loved how you treated the story and made it come alive, not as a tragedy you can read about, but a very personal account of the protagonists. Each woman, and the young man, were rounded complete people—all in the space of 90 minutes—and their personal stories didn’t have a tincture at all of the commonplace or the emotionally hyped-up.  It was all very satisfying theatre, and the actors themselves, in the Q & A following (oh, how we missed you at that) said they’d become very connected with the subjects they were performing, and had on their own gone to look up as much as they could about their roles. How often does that happen when someone’s playing Coriolanus! They also said how well your script turned into easy-to-perform dialogue, that was beautiful to hear and to speak as well. The performance (and therefore the play itself) was enthusiastically applauded with a standing O that would have pleased you.