On May 30, I had one of those surreal, dreamlike experiences in which I returned to a place I had worked 20 years ago and still dream about. I returned to New Dramatists, the venerable service organization for playwrights. I started there as an ART/NY intern in 1983 and stayed until 1986, when I left for journalism school at the University of Missouri.
The staff members of New Dramatists treated me like a carrier of living history. We talked a long time about what I did there (I held a series of administrative positions, ending as acting artist services director) and the people I knew -- August Wilson, Romulus Linney, John Patrick Shanley, David Ives, Eric Overmyer, Sherry Kramer, etc. They also told me about some stuff that happened after I left. I admitted I wasn't the greatest employee the organization has had, but it was fun to share my memories with them. Perhaps a short memoir is in order. Anyway, I found it exhilarating to reconnect with a chunk of my past. I got to talk to one of the interns, who's producing a New York Fringe Festival show (and isn't everyone, really?) as well as see the forbidding black door to my old basement office. I guess you can go home again, if home was in Hell's Kitchen. Anyway, if you're in New York, check out New Dramatists and the programs it sponsors.
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