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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: Declaration of independence

July 19, 2012 by Terry Teachout

59836974pe9.jpgI finished writing and editing the twelfth chapter of Mood Indigo: A Life of Duke Ellington (out of a projected seventeen) last night. As of today I’ve written 40,000 words of the first draft of Mood Indigo in my four-and-a-half weeks at the MacDowell Colony. On Wednesday I finished working on the final pre-rehearsal draft of Satchmo at the Waldorf, the one that John Douglas Thompson will start to memorize tomorrow, and I’ve also done a fair amount of work on the revised version of The Letter that will be premiered in February at Dicapo Opera Theatre in New York.
I reported these achievements to my best friend at MacDowell after I trudged back to Colony Hall from my studio last night, feeling both elated and exhausted. Then, without warning, I said something that took me by surprise: “You know what? I’m glad I’ve done all that work–that’s what I thought I came here to do–but I just realized that I haven’t really been present here. I know I’ve had a wonderful time and made some wonderful friends, but I feel like I’ve missed something…and I’m leaving on Monday.”
She looked at me and said, very seriously, “So what are you going to do about it?”
NH_Peterborough.jpgI paused. Then I blurted, “I’m not going to do any more work while I’m here–that’s what I’m going to do! I’m going to walk all around the colony and look at all the studios, and I’m going to walk all over Peterborough, and I’m going to let go of the book and the play! Completely! Let’s shake on it.”
We shook hands and started giggling like a couple of schoolchildren.
This morning at breakfast I said farewell to my friend, who is going back to the world this afternoon. Then I went into the kitchen and signed out for lunch. Nobody will be delivering a picnic basket to my studio today. I won’t be there. My work can wait–it’ll be there when I, too, return to the outside world. It always is. Instead I plan to spend the next three days reveling in the beauties of this miraculous place. It’s about time.
Thanks, friend.

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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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