July 9, 1993
Dear Everyone:
Vacation in Oregon went well, lots more pluses than deltas.
(Pluses are things that are good.
Deltas are things that "need
improvement".)
The weather was a Major Plus. I
can't remember when it was so cool and comfortable at the Festival.
I think it might've happened once
before in 1988. This is because I
have an old sweatshirt with the 1988 playbill printed on it.
I wouldn't have bought a
sweatshirt unless it was cold. I
have more than enough sweatshirts for the short winters here.
On the other hand, having more
than enough T-shirts didn't stop me from picking up two more.
For the first time in many years, I actually needed my Wooley Bear
halfway through the evening performances.
For those of you who haven't been introduced, Wooley Bear is a
knee-length, hooded poncho that I made a couple of decades ago.
Since it's made of camel hair,
when fully closed and with the hood up, it gives the wearer the
appearance of a sort of walking sand dune.
It's very practical, though, and
excellent for traveling; if my car breaks down, it can double as a
tenant.
“Jeannie” getting sick was a Definite Delta.
The poor thing didn't even make
it to
Antony and
Cleopatra, but stayed in the hotel room that night.
On the plus side, it took Mother
all of 90 seconds to find a buyer for the ticket.
Our room at the “Cleopatra” Hotel was a plus, facing east instead of
west, so we didn't get the sun all afternoon long.
Even the bathroom was a plus,
compared to last year’s; this one was at least
twice the size of a postage
stamp, complete with the inevitable sliding-off-all-the-time toilet
seat. (The owners don't spend a
lot of maintenance money on this place.)
The Noon Lecture at Carpenter Hall
would have been a plus if the
speaker had been James Newcomb as was advertised.
James (notice how we're on a
first name basis with all the actors?) had several good roles this year,
including the evil brother in
The White Devil
and Puck in
A
Midsummer Night’s Dream. But
most importantly, he played Ivan, the Anarchist, in last year's smash
hit, The Ladies of the Camellias.
And several of our group were
looking forward to asking him to explain why everyone in that play
assumed that dentists beat people, especially actresses.
Alas, the possible plus turned into a decided delta when the Noon
speaker turned out to be our Esteemed Artistic Director,
Henry Woronicz
who spoke at considerable
length about our Esteemed Artistic Director, Henry Woronicz.
Several people were quite
chagrined, particularly in light of the fact that they didn't always
approve of Henry's artistic direction. Later,
“Frankie” and “Alice” were heard to be muttering something about looking
into the possibility of commissioning "Let's Kill Henry" T-shirts.
After all, they'd paid
money to hear
James.
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream
was certainly a plus, one of the best I've seen in years.
Catching “Jeannie's” cold was a delta. But
it's just a summer cold, certainly not enough to keep us from going to
see
The Firm
after we got home. I give the
movie an A for Effort, particularly for the brilliant casting of
Holly Hunter.
Anyone could've played the
earnest wife;
but only Hunter could've pulled off her character.
I won't say anymore since I'm
sure some people haven't seen
it yet.
I got back into the office on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday), to face a
week’s worth of mail, phone messages and PROFS Notes.
And a LaserJet printer that
suddenly developed a kind of multiple personality disorder and started
spitting out 78 copies of everything was sent to it.
Vacation's over.
Love, as always,
Pete
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