Archives for August 28, 2018

I am, needless to say, greatly preoccupied these days with Mrs. T’s health, for the moment to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. Nevertheless, life goes on, and so does Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, which has now reached the stage in the life of a successful show when it starts to be scheduled for production without my knowledge by theater companies of which I know nothing. Satchmo is, in other words, all grown up, and it pleases me to watch from a distance as it goes its merry way.

I only just found out in recent weeks about two upcoming 2018-19 productions of Satchmo. The first one is by New Orleans’ Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré, which has been performing in its present theater, located in the city’s French Quarter, since 1922, This production, directed by Maxwell Williams, Le Petit Théâtre’s artistic director, opens on October 5 and runs through October 21. For more information, go here.

The second production, by Actors’ Warehouse of Gainesville, Florida, opens next June 21 and run through July 7. For more information, go here.

To everyone at Le Petit Théâtre and Actors’ Warehouse: I hope all goes well with your stagings of Satchmo. Drop me a line sometime and let me know how you’re doing!

From 2005:

I don’t spend too many evenings by myself: I’m in the company of friends far more often than not, watching performances or just hanging out. Sometimes I find myself hungering for solitude, and there are occasions when I’m almost painfully grateful to spend a night with my prints, my CDs, my iBook, and my trusty TV, watching What’s My Line?, keeping my own counsel, and staying up as late as I like. I’ve recently discovered, much to my surprise, that I even like vacationing alone. At the same time, I’m no hermit, and like most singletons, I find there are other times when being alone is no fun at all. One is when you finish watching a really good movie and, instead of chatting about it over a drink with a friend, retire to an empty hotel room in a city far from home….

Read the whole thing here.

“Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.”

Francis Bacon, “On Friendship”