One night, in a moment of instrospection, I had this thought: Whoever thought that the child of a single mother raised on welfare would earn a doctorate and later travel around the world? It probably happens more times than I’m aware. (I hope so.) But for me, it seems like an extraordinary thing. When IContinue reading “How Did I Get Here?”
Tag Archives: doctorate
Some Directors…
One of my favorite Berkeley directing stories concerns the professor whom I would later fire from being my dissertation advisor. He was directing a show and my good friend Mike Foster (whom I met as a student in a class I was TA for and who later became a close friend) asked a question ofContinue reading “Some Directors…”
God, Luck, and Planning
Often I hear people claim that, “God put me in the right place at the right time!” I have never heard anyone credit God for delivering them to the wrong place in their lives. Others of course attribute success to luck, which I guess is as mysterious a force as a deity. And I rememberContinue reading “God, Luck, and Planning”
Commence to Begin
I’m always amazed to see kindergarten, middle school, and all other kinds of milestone graduation ceremonies. This never occurred to us when we were kids. We moved straight from grade to high school. Our grade school was grades 1 to 8, and when grade 8 was finished, there was no ceremony. For us there wereContinue reading “Commence to Begin”
Notes About Dreams
In a recent blog post I mentioned finding old notes about various things that might become future blog posts. Well, the future is now! Four of the notes begin: “Dream:” and have some mention of what happened in some dream I had years ago. Often when I take notes, such brief phrases are enough toContinue reading “Notes About Dreams”
“She Tipped Me A Crystal”
At Berkeley, we had a summer lunchtime theatre series. Each show rehearsed for two weeks (one week in the morning, one week in the afternoon) and then a week of performances. I directed two shows in two summers: Noel Coward’s We Were Dancing (in the Durham Studio Theatre) and Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost—which I cutContinue reading ““She Tipped Me A Crystal””
Questions Only
What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain. Over the years, the questions that made me uncomfortable have changed. I guess that corresponds to my level of maturity and leads me to where we are now. First, speaking generally of questions, I always like to come back to the Bernard Pivot questions usedContinue reading “Questions Only”
Don’t Tell Me I Can’t
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? One of the quickest ways to encourage me to do something is to tell me I can’t do it, or to speak the more passive phrase, “it can’t be done.” That’s precisely the motivation I’ve often needed to accomplish a goal. ItContinue reading “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t”
I Left My Heart…
Describe the last difficult “goodbye” you said. For most of the people I’ve said “goodbye” to over the years, it’s really been more of a “see you later.” We mostly still keep in touch, however sporadically, and I’ve lost only a few whom I’ve really cared about. But California, now… Well. That’s different. I leftContinue reading “I Left My Heart…”
Wuxtry! Wuxtry! Read All About it!
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do? In the old days of kids hawking newspapers on street corners, they’d yell, “Extra, extra, read all about it!” to announce that special edition of the paper containing what CNN labels every story, “Breaking News.” (I maintain it’s not really breaking newsContinue reading “Wuxtry! Wuxtry! Read All About it!”
