Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
Congratulations to Auggie, my paisano!
hooray for auggie ben doggie! may the force be with you!
Congrats Auggie, you deserve some time in the spotlight.
I'm sorry I missed the reign of Namo. This is the best double header since.....who the hell am I kidding, I couldn't make a sports reference if my life depended on it.
Let's just say that Auggie is one of very few people who could follow Namo.
Congrats Auggie!
I don't know if you're still hanging around, but I think they've been way too easy on you today. So, I'm giving you a little homework. However, if you don’t feel like doing it, there’s not much I can do about it.
What’s your dream job?
If we asked an important person in your life to describe you, what would he or she say? How accurate would it be?
What’s something that you’ve never done, but have always wanted to try?
Name a place that you’ve never been, but would like to visit.
Describe your perfect day?
And finally, tell us something that you think we’d be surprised to know about you?
Yay Auggie!
Auggie, Thanks for telling us about the Hattie McDaniels bio. I am, obviously, way out of touch when it comes to current dramatic biographies. I will get that one immediately.
Here's a question: What is your all-time favorite novel? Or three.
Penny, If I step outside the classics, it's the entire body of work by Anne Tyler. Even the "minor" ones move me. If I could respond to many questions here with answe question -- what decade would I live in, where am I happiest, etc. etc -- it's in the world created by Anne Tyler. She has provided us with an alternative universe that is both real and imagined, completely grounded and miles beyond our terra firma.
More later, before I pass my crown.
I am so old, practically ancient (in a good way )...when I think novels I always think "the classics." So, what is your favorite "classic" novel?
Favorite poet(s)?
(I like Anne Tyler, too, but not as much as other writers I won't mention because it's YOUR day, so it's all about YOU!)
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
"before I pass my crown"
Oh, my. I do hope that isn't painful.
Shameless, here's my best, or at least, my best effort at 11 p.m.:
What’s your dream job?
Probably, realistically? Many I've had but didn't fully appreciate at the time. I too often thought of them as "transitions." Many took place during the happiest eras of my life, yet I saw those times as the mortar between bricks. Ah, beware the overrated bricks... They can so weigh you down!
Anyway, though I'm not ancient, I'm not young enough to dream with a clean slate.
My dream when I was ten? Ushering at the National Theater in Washington, which Frank Rich talks about in GHOST LIGHT (I grew up there, approximately when he did, minus a coupla years.) Right now, there's something about ushering that seems pristine, a pure, unadulterated love fulfilled. Probably isn't, but I hold onto my old romantic view of it, from childhood. Seeing a show eight times a week. Each time, holding onto the "experience," as Ouisa says in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION. Holding onto each moment, knowing they will come again, but never in quite the same way. Still the magic of theater. The same, always, only different, always.
My dream job when I was thirty? Not needing a dream job. Thinking any job that wasn't called a "job" was a dream. (I had a lot to learn.)
My dream job at forty? Hoping I hadn't been too busy to appreciate a dream job when it came along.
If we asked an important person in your life to describe you, what would he or she say? How accurate would it be?
A coupla people probably would say I'm two halves, split. Driven by extremes. Neither wins. Jack Nicholson in FIVE EASY PIECES springs to mind. It would be accurate. Bipolar, torn, two.
And I'm a Libra, so why not?
What’s something that you’ve never done, but have always wanted to try?
Not sky diving. Not being Donald Trump's apprentice. Maybe walking into a room full of strangers, and seeing them, deep down, strong, together people, and not {too easily) the opposite. Not wanting to compete with them on some level. Being so comfortable with myself, that I didn't waste valuable time on earth judging others.
Name a place that you’ve never been, but would like to visit.
Any off the beaten path place in Italy, where no one speaks English, and my shaky Italiano skills can be tried out without my selfconscious fears setting in.
Describe your perfect day?
Anytime I'm more interested in what I don't know than what I know. And take steps to narrow that gap.
And finally, tell us something that you think we’d be surprised to know about you?
That I care about every single post that responds to one of mine. Honestly. And sometimes wish I didn't care.
Harvey Fierstein, from Torch Song Trilogy:
You know, in my life I've slept with more men than are named and/or numbered in the bible, Old and New Testaments put together. But not ONCE has someone said "Arnold, I love you"...that I could believe. And I ask myself: "Do you really care?" You know the only honest answer I can give myself is "Yes."
I care. I care a great deal...but not enough.
Amen, PJ.
And related, in an odd way: To quote, or at least paraphrase, Marianne Williamson, whom I began this day discussing with great affection and awe (the only way I can see her):
I'd STILL love to learn a valuable lesson. That the secret in life is not trying to avoid being attracted to the wrong people. The secret is not giving them your phone number.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
Auggie - we post sometimes with the faint echo of true emotion - really striving to feel. Truly, your thoughts and words have touched me deeply, and I am so very grateful. I know not of your particular journey, for that is yours alone to know, but what you have chosen to shine a light on is inspiring - not only in content, but in the extraordinary gift for communication that you possess.
Thank you for participating here - and may your continued path enlighten, inspire and ennervate all that is to come.
Thank you.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
Not to pat myself on the back too much, but it looks like the day's gone well, it looks like the best job I've ever had is Picker of Number 22. Auggie, had I known you were on dial-up, I would have lobbied for you to be Celebrity of the Day and a Half.
So Aug, what's your favorite hairy body part of Stanley Tucci?
As long as we're quoting Marianne Williamson, a prayer for BroadwayWorld:
Dear God,
Deliver us to our passion.
Deliver us to our brilliance.
Deliver us to our intelligence.
Deliver us to our depth.
Deliver us to our nobility.
Deliver us to our beauty.
Deliver us to our power to heal.
Deliver us to You.
Amen.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
DG, PJ, the many kind souls who took the time to post today -- and especially Namo: grazie for a graceful day, and an expecially full-of-grace place to say 'night. Will pass the flame tomorrow.
(But please, keep talking, y'all. The night's young; it's only midnight.)
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
Be careful what you ask for, Auggie -
Where would you most like to spend some time 'getting away'?
DG: Big Sur. White wine at sunset, by the outdoors fire on the deck at Nepenthe, then ...
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
That's my answer PJ, followed by right above the crack, followed by the chest, followed by the taint. All on display in Frankie & Johnnie.
But the question was for Auggie!
I think he's gone to sleep.
So, Namo--what's YOUR best hairy part?
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
Perhaps a little more involved - what would you be getting away from?
"by the taint."
Oh my.
Videos