WHAT is a space for musings. By me...eventually by others as well. I’ve chosen to call it "CONVERSATION AT MIDNIGHT." The title has history.
Here’s How It Goes...
"Conversation At Midnight" is a play in blank verse by the renowned American poet Edna St.Vincent Millay. She wrote (at seventeen) an eloquent long poem, "Renascence", a portion of which a famous NBC-TV Host always quoted at the end of every broadcast: "The world stands out on either side, no wider than the heart is wide, above the earth is stretched the sky, no higher than the soul is high." But East and West will pinch the heart that can not keep them pushed apart; and he whose soul is flat - the sky will cave in on him by and by." She also wrote: "My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night, but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends, it gives a lovely light." She had been one of the free-spirited feminist voices of the 30’s. Oddly, however, nobody seemed to know, let alone had read, "Conversation, despite the fact she’d written a rather famous play for children. I, however, was a fan and as such had read everything of hers. I would (did) perform "Renascence" at the drop of the proverbial hat. Or even without it! I would begin: "All I could see from where I stood were three long mountains and a wood. Over these things I could not see. These were the things that bounded me." (I still can’t resist.)
Well, as a quite young and busy actress I started writing and directing
at the Actors’ Studio. I was fortunate to have my work gain the attention
and support of Cheryl Crawford, the B’way producer, who began her career
with the Group Theater and who was the Studio’s prime fund-raiser.
To adapt "Conversation" and develop it as a project became a consuming
passion and an adventure with consequences I could never have imagined.
Revising it from an all male cast of nine down to seven without loss, adding
a piano and song, exploring with the actors and director every facet of
the characters, the beauty and purpose of the language, the intricate, layered
relationships, was a journey for all of us. Here was ensemble work at its
finest with a brilliant cast, a fine director and the priceless freedom
to create - to do and undo and redo "for over six months without
interference. The result was an exceptional piece of theater, unforgettable
by anyone who saw it.