Leary

I haven't been posting much (well, at all) because I'm finishing up the program for a production of King Lear. I have very little experience with Lear. I saw a Mafia version on PBS once. So when an email says somebody is playing "Gluster", I don't immediately realize he's playing "Gloucester."

This is how I do programs: Hungover actors hand me their bios, written on bar napkins in somebody's lipstick or eyeliner, I type them out and arrange them alphabetically and hustle to the printers' at the last bloody second because the actors who didn't give me bar-napkin bios are still scribbling their entire resumes on the backs of overdue electric bills. Edit, paste, edit, paste. Then I deliver a two-ton box of programs to the theatre on preview night and wait for everybody to freak out because the name "Scungeon" should have an accent on the e.

The trend among actors and crew members these days is to add cute little phrases or symbols to their bios. This time I got a "Futbal Mundial", some "xoxox", and a smiley face. I deleted the smiley face. This is theatre, people, not freakin' ICQ.