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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for February 11, 2013

TT: Getting there

February 11, 2013 by Terry Teachout

i-075_sb_exit_100_02.jpgOn Monday afternoon I’ll be returning to New York after a month and a half on the road. During that time I drove all over Florida and saw seven shows there, flew up to New York and back twice to see four more shows and give a ten-minute speech, finished writing and editing Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington and sent the manuscript off to Gotham Books, and saw the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico a dozen times. It was warm–mostly–but it wasn’t a vacation, not even slightly. I can’t remember the last time I took one of those.
My traveling days are now officially over until the end of April. Except for occasional weekend jaunts to Connecticut and a fast trip to Rhode Island to see a rare American revival of a play by Eugène Ionesco, I’ll be totally preoccupied with theater in New York. That’s all right with me: I’m going to miss Florida, which I’ve grown to love in recent years, but I’m tired of living out of a pair of suitcases, and I like the idea of sleeping in my own bed again.
Home, however, is where Mrs. T is, so I’m not really coming home today. She’ll be spending an additional week in Florida with family, then flying to Los Angeles to visit friends and stay warm. I won’t be seeing her again until March.
NM170200_a_382452c.jpgI’m glad I missed the blizzard. I seem to have lost my taste for snow, and to some extent for New York City as well. Fortunately, I still love a great many people who live there, and I wouldn’t want to be without the theater district, not to mention the other cultural institutions that are for me the whole point of living in Manhattan. That said, I’m definitely feeling a bit disoriented these days, not wholly satisfied with the present and unsure of the future.
It could be that I’m suffering from a mild case of the postpartum depression that has been known to assault writers who’ve just finished a long and demanding book. It could also be that returning to my New York apartment will restore the sense of stability that has lately deserted me. I’ve always have a way of feeling at home wherever I am–which is, I suppose, another way of saying that I don’t feel entirely at home anywhere.
So…what now? As soon as I empty my bags, I’ll let you know.

TT: Just because

February 11, 2013 by Terry Teachout

A rare 1973 interview with Katherine Anne Porter:

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

TT: Almanac

February 11, 2013 by Terry Teachout

“As I slowly grow wise I briskly grow cautious.”
Mark Twain, “English as She Is Taught”

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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