No Man Is An Island...even in Manhattan

Another day where I had to pinch myself. I had cappuccino and croissants with actor Kathleen Chalfant in her West Village four story brownstone. As I said in yesterday's blog, I am not going to include all the notes from our conversation, but I will share that she was generous with her experiences and opinions. She needs to write a book. Besides having a theatre and film resume that reads like a who's who and what's what of theatre in the last three decades.

As a reminder to those reading, Kathleen "Kathy" was the original Vivian Bearing in Wit....and she was also in the original Hannah Pitt (the Mormon mother) in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. She is a legend. More than that, she could not have been sweeter. I want to just hang out with her and her husband Henry (a documentary film maker).

I did a little Christmas shopping afterwards. Note to all those who know they are on my list...please lower your expectations a bit of me this year. Not only have I spent every penny I own on my housing, but I can't lug a lot of gifts home. So I may have to do that 'coupon thing' kids do when they are little. I will be handing out certificates for babysitting and snow shoveling, I think.

I went to Pumpgirl by Abbie Spallen. It had an interesting storyline (a bit like an Irish Amy Fischer story). I did not dig the style of the writing. It was fragmented monologues....a lot like The Exonerated. I would have bought this for the first act, but why couldn't the second act be attacked completely differently? Also, ironically the only actor originally from Ireland was the lightest brogue to understand. To say the least, the dialects were unbalanced.

Afterwards, I met Greg LaFollette, and we went to Angus for dessert. We caught up on our last couple of days. He shared this great story that combined theatre and accounting that revolved around the Cohans. Only he could combine numbers and the stage! I am never bored with Greg. We said our goodbyes and will meet again back in good ole SFSD.