“We consider classical music to be the epitome and quintessence of our culture, because it is that culture’s clearest, most significant gesture and expression. In this music we possess the heritage of classical antiquity and Christianity, a spirit of serenely cheerful and brave piety, a superbly chivalric morality. For in the final analysis every important cultural gesture comes down to a morality, a model for human behavior concentrated into a gesture.”
Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game (trans. R. Winton)
CLOSING SOON IN MADISON, N.J.:
Two weeks from today, I fly down to West Palm Beach with my bags packed for a six-week stay. I’ll report for duty the next morning at Palm Beach Dramaworks’ rehearsal hall, where Bill Hayes and the cast of Billy and Me, my second play, will be going to work. I spent 
Until I went through the refiner’s fire of rehearsing a new play for the first time, I didn’t know what the phrase “in the moment” really meant. No sooner do you walk into the rehearsal room than all else recedes from your consciousness, and nothing exists but the day’s work. You have no choice but to take time out from the rest of your life and immerse yourself in the imaginary world of the play and its production—and once you let go of everything else, you become strangely happy. If, like me, you lead a complicated life, it feels almost like a vacation to set aside your cares and think about one thing all day, every day.