Old Friends - New Friends

I got up yesterday to do a bit of shopping at my favorite spots. Also, I was going to meet my former student and dear friend Mitch Maguire and his 4 month old daughter Sadie so I needed to stop by Barnes and Noble. I picked her up all my favorite titles: Horray for Wodney Wat, Where the Wild Things are, Chrysanthemum, Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Bedhead, Fancy Nancy. Mom had also china painted her a baby bootie with her birthday and vitals.

It was so fun to see Mitch and his new daughter. She is absolutely gorgeous with eyelashes that go on for miles and soft blue-grey eyes. I got to hold her the entire hour…loved it. It was good to catch up with Mitch; he will forever be one of the most important people in my life.

Next, I dashed off to the Atlantic Theatre Company to interview Doug Hughes for my book. Wow. He is not only a brilliant director, he is gracious, warm and refreshingly unguarded. He was the easiest interview yet; he just free associated the words with not only his approach to the stage but also just him as a man in the world. Considering how swamped he is with work (he had just finished rehearsal the then they had a preview performance at 8), I was thrilled that he gave me an hour and a half window.
On the way out, I grabbed a student ticket and who was working? Fran who I met numerous times through the Women’s Project and had already ran into at the performance of Speed the Plow. The theatre world is very, very small.
Farragut North was frighteningly time relevant. It was about the dog eats dog world of political spin. It starred Chris Noth and John Gallagher Jr. The young girl was particularly good. The space is very small; it seats around 200 and her choices were subtle and smart.

After the play, I waited to tell Doug Hughes how much I enjoyed the conversation. I did say hi to Chris Noth, but I did not remind him that we were in Alaska together in 2002. As I waited, I could not help but watch Olivia Thilby . I decided that I would ask him for an interview as he would certainly lower the age demographic, and – let’s face it – since his performance as Moritz in Spring Awakening, he is the hottest young actor on the scene.

He was wonderful to the all of young people waiting to speak with him. In fact, he was so good, that it took forever for me to speak with him. When I did, he acted like I was the first person to ever give him a compliment. He gave me his full attention and preceeded to tell me how lucky he is. I told him that there may be a bit of luck, but he is successful because it is obvious that he treats people with respect. He will always work because people want to work with him. It would be fun to interview him.

I went home happy again. I saw good friends, good theatre and good manners.