Just had one of the strangest experiences of my life: hearing the Rotary Club of Portland sing “Little Boxes.” As a red diaper baby from New York, now calling Berkeley my home, I was expecting at least a soupçon of disorientation at my first-ever Rotary Club meeting — but it never would have occurred to … Read more
Shortly after I arrived here in Portland, Ore., for the current run of Ben Franklin: Unplugged at Portland Center Stage (through Nov. 22), I wandered off during a break in search of coffee-making equipment. (I hadn’t brought my Melitta stuff from Berkeley.) At the popular Stumptown Coffee Roasters I became entranced with the idea of … Read more
Had a fun opening at Portland Center Stage last night. I love this theater, the people who work there, and this wonderful city. And it’s really fun to be performing Ben Franklin: Unplugged again, after several years away from it. Ben Franklin is great company — and his brilliant historian Claude-Anne Lopez, the heroine of … Read more
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