After three days of rain, darned if I didn’t just look outside to see the sun shining. Huzzah!
I’m still on a bit of a high from Monday night’s celebration of my friend Rick. I’ve been away from San Diego and the MFA program for 16 years now. And though I am friends on Facebook with most of my former students and am usually aware of what is happening in their lives, seeing so many of them in one place so many years later was incredibly powerful. So powerful that I was a bit shaken by the experience – in a good way.
There was such love in that room. And joy.
I forget sometimes what teaching meant to me. When we left San Diego, I was more than ready to move on. I love my coaching work. But teaching? Knowing that I’ve had an impact on the lives of my students and hearing them say that very thing so many years later reminded me that though I tend to compartmentalize the various stages of my career, that part of my life is still alive and kicking, living on in my students.
Don reminded me of all that when I called him Monday night. He knows most of those former students and knows, he says, the impact I made on them. I tend to underplay that kind of thing and deflect any compliments. But I’m going to bask in the glow of those relationships and the affirmation of the work we did there.
This peony, which is on the bush that didn’t bloom last year, is about to fully open.
This one, on the other bush, isn’t far behind.
And, now that the sun is out, I may see this rosebud open today.
Some of you have written me, sending me links about the announcement that Escape to Margaritaville is going to open on Broadway next year. I’ve known that since January, though the official press release just came through, which is why you’re reading about it now.
Don’t get too excited. We aren’t. Because we know, as veterans of the theater, television and film, that nothing is guaranteed. A lot can happen between a pre-Broadway tryout and the eventual Broadway run. Scripts can and will be rewritten, characters might change, actors can be replaced. I’ve seen it happen. Don has seen it happen even more than me and he has certainly – as has every actor – had roles promised to him only to see them taken away.
No one in the cast knows anything about a life in this musical beyond the run in La Jolla. And the producers and director won’t be making any decisions until after that run has ended.
Yes, it would be wonderful. But…we’ll see.
Even Anastasia, which was a rare transfer to Broadway where most of the cast remained intact, replaced one lead actor and several ensemble members. It’s just the way of the world.
But thanks for caring!
Happy Wednesday.
