I’m in the thick of my “book release tour” where I perform a concert, read excerpts from my new memoir and then meet folks afterward to sign books and talk about music and life.
This past weekend I played Joe’s Pub, the adorable yet hip club inside The Public Theater in Manhattan. I had played this venue before so I knew the drill for the sound check. I was in and out in a half hour. After the soundcheck I bumped into Wally Shawn. Literally. He was entering the backstage area as I was exiting. He looked at me with that look. You know the one. That searching-for-a-name-look. That “how-do-I-know-you” look that I am sure is on my face a whole lot when people bump into me on the street.
“Wally?” I asked. “Is that you?”
“Yes,” the actor/playwright answered. I re-introduced myself, and reminded him we had met in Vermont one summer when I was acting in one of his plays (The Hotel Play) with The Atlantic Theater Company. We reminisced a bit about that remarkable summer.
“I have a show tonight,” I said. “Want to come?”
“I’d love to,” he responded, “But I have a show too!”
We both laughed.
“Well, aren’t we the lucky ones,” I said.
“Yes. Yes we are.”
I love that I ran into Wallace Shawn at the Public Theater before my show, and I love even more, almost 30 years after first meeting him, we are both still working in theaters we love.
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