Just because I’m in Florida doesn’t mean I’m taking it easy. Here’s what I did last week:
• I wrote a 2,500-word essay about Eugene O’Neill and the first 8,100 words of the fourth chapter of Black Beauty: A Life of Duke Ellington.
• On Friday I saw the opening night of Orlando Shakespeare’s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
• I flew up to New York on Saturday morning and saw two shows, the Irish Rep’s Molly Sweeney and Classic Stage Company’s Three Sisters. Then I returned to Winter Park on Sunday, having written and filed my review of Molly Sweeney for today’s Wall Street Journal, arriving just in time to pick up Mrs. T and go hear an afternoon concert by the Brazilian Guitar Quartet.
• I rehearsed my first play.
Regarding the last of these items, I have big news: if you’re going to be anywhere near Winter Park, Florida, on Tuesday night, you have a chance to come see the first forty minutes or so of Satchmo at the Waldorf, my one-man show about Louis Armstrong and Joe Glaser, his manager. Not only is this the plays first performance anywhere, but it’a also my debut as a theatrical director. The amazing Dennis Neal is playing Armstrong and Glaser. The performance is at Rollins College and admission is free.
Here’s part of the press release:
Teachout started writing his first play, a one-man show based on Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, during his 2010 visit to the Winter Park Institute. Now Satchmo at the Waldorf is moving toward its first commercial production. In collaboration with the drama department of Rollins College, Teachout will present the first public performance of staged excerpts from Satchmo at the Waldorf and talk about the process of transforming a best-selling biography into a one-man play….
Go here for more details.