I was recently the guest of a small university in Texas as they performed one of my plays.
It was grand.
Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, flew my wife and me down and put us up in a campus suite. My old and dear friend, Dr. Nancy Jo Humfeld, met us at the airport in Abilene. It was wonderful to see her again and have the opportunity to spend time with her.
During our stay, we saw the final dress rehearsal and two performances. I had the pleasure of taking a bow for the audience at both performances. I wish we could have stayed for them all and traveled with the troupe to their festival performance, too. I also had the opportunity to speak with a small gathering of students about writing and the writing life. That was particularly enjoyable. And I got a chance to sit down in a quiet setting with the cast of the play and grill them about their experience of putting the work together – an invaluable opportunity for a playwright.
I must admit that it was a hoot seeing my name up on posters again and I even walked away with a cast t-shirt with my name emblazoned on it, right under the show title. The newspaper and online mentions were additional ego boosts.
Times like these are intoxicating. It makes me want to ditch it all and go back to the life of the artist, but I also recognize I’m really enjoying the work that I do and the life that I lead today. But I’m going to push for more productions, look for theatre companies that might be interested in working with me, and get busy on my latest script.
Times like these in life should be cherished. It was such a pleasure to share it with my wife, Diane, our friend Nancy Jo, and the very nice people at HPU.
Now back to work.
Additional info: The play at Howard Payne University was “Grimaldi: King of the Clowns.” The working title of my new play is “This Place On Third Avenue.”
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