• Home
  • About
    • About Last Night
    • Terry Teachout
    • Contact
  • AJBlogCentral
  • ArtsJournal

About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

You are here: Home / 2012 / January / Archives for 9th

Archives for January 9, 2012

TT: Here we are

January 9, 2012 by Terry Teachout

This is the view from our porch. You could write a book here. Or a play. Or both. Or neither. Or you could just get over a cold:
0109121038.jpg

TT: Retreat

January 9, 2012 by Terry Teachout

I don’t want to talk about the past four days of my life. I don’t even want to think about them. Suffice it to say that I flew from New York to West Palm Beach on Thursday, saw a show there on Friday, flew back up to New York on Saturday to see Porgy and Bess on Broadway that same evening, then flew back down to the west coast of Florida the next morning. That is way too much time in the air, even for an old hand like me.
b0cee893e7a0640b1db26110.L.jpgNo, it wasn’t a total loss. Nothing like it. In addition to seeing the new home of Palm Beach Dramaworks, one of my favorite regional theater companies, and dining at Havana before the show, I also got to say hello to my good friend Steven Caras, the great dance photographer. He even brought me a present, a signed archival copy of Last Bow, the best known of his countless photos, in which George Balanchine is seen taking the final curtain call of his long life.
It happens that I took part in the making of Steven Caras: See Them Dance, Deborah Novak’s 2011 film documentary about Steve’s life and work, and flew down to West Palm Beach last February to lend a hand with the first public screening, in return for which Steve promised to strike and sign a print of “Last Bow” for me. He delivered it on Friday, and I brought it back to New York with the utmost care the next day. Now it will occupy a place of honor in the Teachout Museum.
the-view-from-mitchell.jpgSo yes, things could have been a lot worse. That said, I was still greatly relieved when Mrs. T and I met at the Fort Myers airport on Sunday morning and headed straight for Sanibel Island, one of the prettiest and most tranquil places I know. Needless to say, I’m here for professional reasons–I’ve come to see Florida Rep‘s production of God of Carnage–but I also hope to write a chapter or two of Mood Indigo on the island and, if at all possible, get some much-needed rest.
For the record, we’re staying at the same unpretentiously comfortable place where we holed up last January, a stone’s throw away from the Gulf of Mexico, and we plan to spend as much time as we can walking on the beach and watching the sun set.
See you later.
* * *
The trailer for Steven Caras: See Them Dance:

TT: Just because

January 9, 2012 by Terry Teachout

Tuesday in November, a documentary short subject released by the Office of War Information in 1945 for distribution in foreign countries, directed by John Berry and Nicholas Ray, written by Philip Dunne and Howard Koch, scored by Virgil Thomson, and produced by John Houseman:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday and Wednesday.)

TT: Almanac

January 9, 2012 by Terry Teachout

“Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them.”
Václav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless”

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...]

Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

@Terryteachout1

Tweets by TerryTeachout1

Archives

January 2012
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Dec   Feb »

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Stumbling down memory lane
  • Replay: Ginette Neveu plays Chausson’s Poème
  • Almanac: Mary Renault on love and hate
  • Almanac: Flannery O’Connor on mixed feelings
  • Snapshot: Rudyard Kipling speaks about writing and truth

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in