I’m just about to do the second preview performance of Ben Franklin: Unplugged at Portland Center Stage. I’ve been having a great time: the theater staff is amazingly friendly, helpful, and erudite; the first preview audience, last night, was warm and receptive; and, thrillingly, I’ve been able to hang out a bunch with my theatrical … Read more
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today,” advises the late James Dean on a poster mounted in a hallway at the U.S. consulate in Chennai. As far as I was concerned, his latter point was especially well taken: It was Aug. 14, and I was feeling quite nervous about my … Read more
Earlier in this trip (I’m writing to you from Mumbai, the fourth of six cities in this India tour), when we were in Chennai, one of our hosts, Ratna Mukherjee of the U.S. Consulate, woke us relatively early so we could visit the famous Kapaleeshwarar Temple. Outside there is a vestibule where everyone takes off … Read more
This was really fun! I was conducting a storytelling workshop with a group of theater students in Bangalore — in the lobby of the magnificent Ranga Shankara theater, where I had performed Citizen Josh the night before — and one of the students mentioned that she’d had to give a presentation on the evolution of … Read more
Greetings from Mumbai, where I am ensconced in my hotel room. I’ll be performing Citizen Josh this evening at Mumbai University. (Showtime is 6:30 p.m., for those of you in the area.) In my room they’ve left these two specimens of a rather testicular-looking fruit. Can anyone identify them? Are they safe for consumption? And … Read more