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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for May 31, 2011

TT: Into the woods

May 31, 2011 by ldemanski

4051254193_a4708bed10.jpgIn theory, Mrs. T and I divide our time between New York City and an old farmhouse deep in the woods near Storrs, a college town located in the quiet corner of Connecticut. Alas, this theory has taken a beating of late. We flew down to Florida in January so that I could put in my annual stint as a scholar-in-residence at Rollins College, our new home away from home, and I didn’t set foot in Storrs again for the better part of five months. No sooner did I return to Manhattan than I got stuck on Broadway, reviewing show after show, and in Philadelphia, seeing Danse Russe onto the stage. Not until Memorial Day was I able to pack a bag, rent a car, drive to northeast Connecticut, and rejoin Mrs. T at our little place on Chaffeeville Road.
New York is…well, it is what it is and then some, and if that’s what you want, you know what to do. I’ve lived there for a quarter-century and find it hugely stimulating. Most of the time I love catching cabs and sitting on the aisle and seeing my beloved friends whenever I please. But regular readers of this blog don’t need to be reminded that I’m a small-town boy from way back, and New York, for all its self-evident splendors, does have a sneaky way of grinding you down.
Constable_cloudstudy_nga.jpgNot so Storrs, which is as tranquil as a cloud study by Constable, so much so that longtime residents not infrequently refer to the town as “Snores,” sometimes affectionately and sometimes wryly. Mrs. T, as it happens, was born near Storrs and moved back to her old home town many years later, and when I visited her for the first time five years ago, I knew that I wanted to spend as much time there as I could.
I sleep better in Storrs, flinging my bedroom window open to hear the gentle sounds of the night, and I write better, too, no doubt because of the near-complete lack of opportunities for distraction. In New York I have to be constantly on guard in order to get anything done. In Storrs, by contrast, I can sit down at my desk secure in the knowledge that nobody is likely to bother me.
1104081607.jpgNeedless to say, I didn’t plan to spend the whole spring in Manhattan, and by the time I finally managed to hit the road on Monday, I was well and truly frazzled, in part because I’d spent virtually all of Sunday writing a 2,500-word essay from scratch. But no sooner did I cross the state line than I felt my cares melting away, and when I pulled into our driveway, smelled the deep-green scent of the meadow across the way, and heard the neighborhood rooster, who has the confusing but endearing habit of crowing not at sunrise but whenever he pleases, I knew I was home again.
fn_919_2.jpgI hasten to point out that I’m not–repeat, not–on vacation. I have to write and file two Wall Street Journal columns this week, and once they’re done, I have plenty of other work to do before we go back to New York on Friday to see the Mint Theater Company‘s revival of Rachel Crothers’ A Little Journey. But I don’t have to start writing until Wednesday, so Mrs. T and I plan to take today off. We’re going to sleep late, have lunch at the Vanilla Bean Café, then go for a nice long drive to nowhere in particular. Come evening we’ll eat a home-cooked supper, curl up on the couch, and watch a movie.
That sounds to me like the best of all possible days, spent in the company of the best of all possible wives. So if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got plenty of nothing to do, and I need to get started.
* * *
Mildred Bailey and the Delta Rhythm Boys sing Alec Wilder’s “It’s So Peaceful in the Country” in 1941:

TT: Almanac

May 31, 2011 by ldemanski

“Any book born of a grudge is built on sand.”
Wesley Stace, Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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