above:

with the fabulous Jonathan C. Kaplan

photo by Carol Rosegg

below:

again with the fabulous Jonathan C. Kaplan, and dancing behind us are the incomparable

Neal Mayer and Rita Harvey

photo credit unknown, but I’m glad it was taken

because all four of us are in it

What a glorious summer, that of 2008. Especially when some guy you’ve never met sends you an email asking you if you’d like to do a show. That guy was Skip Kennon. And the show was a darling 20-minute musical that he had written many moons ago with Terrence McNally (whom, sadly, I did not get to meet during this production). And in that show were three kick-ass people named Jonathan and Neal and Rita (who I already knew kicked ass from “Avenue Jew”), and directing that show was a kick-ass lady named Elizabeth, and Skip kicked ass by leading the musical journey and playing piano for us.

Other kick-ass people included, but were not limited to, John McCormack and J.J. Kandel, who put the whole thing together and always said such nice things to us at the bar after the show.

We all genuinely loved the piece and each other as well as the other cast members of the other short plays in our series that were squeezed into that tiny dressing room at 59E59. We only got to do 14 performances, as it was an Equity Showcase, but all 14 shows were just about the loveliest time one could have onstage. It was so bittersweet. A brief, fleeting moment of true love between actors and material.

It was such a happy, happy time.

So, what have we learned, kids?

That a happy job is often much better than a lucrative one.