Thursday, October 20, 2011

days off and absent friends



October 16, 2011

A day off, with four more to come.  The exhaustion of the last two weeks catches up with us and we nap through a long easy day, gathering around the table at eight to devour Catherine’s Sunday evening roast.  They say there’s no rest for the wicked, but today we caught a break.

October 17, 2011

The weather seems to be finally changing this morning after six weeks of unexpected sunshine and warm weather.  A strong wind rattles the windows and a cold steady rain falls on all those outside cursed with appointments and gainful employment.

Nancy and I hibernate, eating homemade macaroni and cheese, staring out the windows in dreamy silence, letting the minutes tick away uncounted.  I revel in David Eagleman’s magnificent Sum, a book that fills me with the amazement and giddy pleasure I haven’t felt since I was a kid taking Vonnegut and Brautigan down from my parents’ bookshelf. 

 Everything is put aside for today: the show, business back home long since neglected, bills unpaid, all willing to wait patiently in a quiet room down the hall from this dark, wet Edinburgh day.

October 18, 2011

The sun has returned but the day stays cool and I feel the restlessness of too much idle time.

I’ve rewritten the Awards Ceremony bit, taking a good note from Paul Lucas who saw the show on Saturday.  And I’ve got a special insert for the Glenrothes show, October 21st, which is the new date for the End of the World as calculated by Dr. Harold Camping out in California.  Camping was the guy who had it set for last May and he got worldwide attention both before and (especially) after it didn’t quite come off.  We decide to wait and see if the media over here give it any play, if so, we can drop it in on the day. 

In the afternoon I write up the cast list for Captain Overlord’s Folly which is being published by indietheater now, a new nytheatre.com outfit.  And I type the name Melissa Lynch and I have to stop and step away from the table for a moment.

Most of you didn’t know Melissa.  Most of the world didn’t since she was killed in a car wreck outside Philadelphia less than a year ago at the heartbreaking and unimaginably young age of 27.

She was here with us three years ago with Captain Overlord and I got to work with her on a couple of other things before that.  Young, talented, beautiful people dying too soon is one of the things you never accept but have to live with as you get older.

There are no words, but I miss her terribly and mourn, not just for her but for all of us who saw her burn so brightly and then saw the light snap off.

She's in the middle up above, between Eva Van Dok and Barb Pitts, in a picture taken about a mile east of where I now sit, a little over three years ago,  a lifetime ago, yesterday.

Thanks for all the good times, kid.  If there's a green room up in heaven, I know I'll see you there .

2 comments:

Nasanji Parker said...

I forgot about that picture. Really got to me. Nice to keep her memory alive. She was, and always will be - Sue.

Anonymous said...

Her loss stunned all of us.