so, three days at Friends....

have come and gone. Should feel grateful for a;;  the warmth that I am experiencing from the students. It goes all the way from seventh to 12th grade. Tomorrow I go to the school play, Dracula---apparently it is interactive---and that should be fun; I am friendly with many of the students who are performing.  At the same time, I am tired from all the work. Only one day scheduled for next week so far---Friday---but I am sure there will be others. Friends has taken over my weekday life--not a bad thing---I am totally integrated into its world. But two theater friends of mine have small  projects set for Monday. Will I be able to attend both or either? Not sure. Only time will tell.
  Tuesday night: BAN meeting, the first in a long time. Preparations for the March on next Sunday outside the apartment house of DeBlasio's head of city planning. Do I want to be part of it? On one hand, really feel committed to the vision of BAN---I have just read another post of how the DOB allows aggressive developers to pray on Brownstone owners (particularly those of color) , and does nothing to stop it. It's frightening! So I should want to commit myself to his march. But something about where it is--close to where I live on the UWS, and some other issues, scares me off. Not that I have to go. There will be plenty of people there without me. Or should I watch from afar? A block away? Nothing is certain at this point, so just let the time pass, and see how you feel as it happens. Right, cityboy? Nothing else you can do, I guess.
   Yesterday, came home from Friends and slept--then got myself out to see the 9:00 showing of the documentary about the life of Arthur Miller, made by his daughter, Rebecca. A fantastic documentary--really a must for anybody teaching his work or who has grown up watching and thinking about his plays. Miller's bio covers the whole story--from his father's arrival in NY about the turn of the century to his death in 20007. Lots of details about the three marriages that Miller lived through---and also  about his life as a father to his three ( a fourth was institutionalized)  children. The auditorium at Cinema Village only had seven people in the audience. Strange. I wonder how many theater people are going. A cold night, but one worth going out on to see this film. 
   So where are you in this, cityboy? From the time you were nine, Miller was a household word in your apartment. You saw the first off Broadway revival of The Crucible (August, 1958) and the revival of A View From the Bridge (1965) that put the play back on the map. You were at the first production of After the Fall, and saw it four times (Once with Robards playing the lead, then three times with Hal Holbrook) --put together the many issues that the play deals with, into a comprehensive vision of Miller---at 21--then also the first versions of Incident at Vichy and the Price, a play that seemed outmoded when it opened in the spring of 1968--family issues had been overwhelmed by the Vietnam War and its opposition.
  Miller wrote the first act of Death of a Salesman in one long day, in isolation in a small work shack that he had built himself. He separated himself to create the play. That's what you feel incapable of doing, cityboy---simply creating one world by rejecting another. That dynamic, so far,does not suit you. Still, your mind works fast--you can see a conflict quickly. Can you do it, at some point?  no sure. And that is where we must leave it.
 Tonight, weather permitting (if it is still snowing, I will try my best to go) I want to return to the Brick to see more of William Burke's series of Flag monologues. Know them well by now, after seeing all nine of them last Saturday. Want to see my friend Jessie perform, as well as some new people. It is going to be interesting. Let's see what happens, as the time approaches.