The holidays ended for us just a few days ago. After wistfully lamenting all of the missed parties this season, we more than made up for it in the days leading up to New Year's and the days that followed rushing back and forth across town to either attend or host events attended, largely, by my extended family.Henrik, Brenda and Lydia had joined us from London. Lydia, eternally 6 in my show, celebrated her 11th birthday in late November. We hadn't seen her in two years, and Zelda was very excited about seeing her only cousin again. Lydia did not disappoint, as she was also thrilled to see Zelda and her new boy cousin, Orson.
My brother had let me know before they arrived that Lydia had heard the radio drama online in Britain. In fact, she'd listened to it at least three times by his last count. She said that, "through the play I think I am able to envision what they went through." This is actually the way my niece talks.
(Zelda, too, has begun to speak in interesting ways, deferring her mother's offer of, say, a piece of cheese by stating, "I would actually like an apple," though she does have a bit of difficulty wrapping her teeth around the word "actually.")
In fact, when the Hansens UK first arrived and we met up with them at my folks' house in Lakewood, Lydia made a point of coming right up to me and telling me how moved she was by the radio play. I think I embarrassed her by telling her how she is everyone's favorite character in the show.
Two bits of big news: While, yes, there was a rebroadcast of IHT on WCPN the day after New Year's, the big question of its success was always whether or not the powers-that-be would grant it a prime-time spot. Rumor has it that not only is this going to happen, but that it will be at 8 PM on Monday, March 20th - Calvin's 5th birthday. You don't get more poignant than that. It hasn't truly sunk in yet, but if they go through with it, it will make for a very special birthday feast, indeed.Also, immediately following Calvin's Day, we are leaving for London, and I am attempting to put together a single live performance somewhere in the city. Wish me luck on that. It's what I call "touching the bases" - if I can pull that off and then mount a production in Athens I will have revisited all of the places we convalesced during 2001 and that are represented in the production.
2 comments:
my favorite articulation from zelda was at our house on new year's day: "oh, it's exactly what i WISHED for!"
i haven't told you that we finally got to really sit down and listen to the radio version when it was on a couple of weeks ago. i cried in a way that i wasn't ready to, all those months ago when we saw you at metro. it opened up some wounds that maybe hadn't healed properly the first time, and gave them a chance to breathe.
i'm so excited that "i hate this" will get a prime time broadcast, and on calvin's birthday, no less - how perfect. "it's exactly what i WISHED for!"
That's fantastic news, David. So sorry we couldn't coordinate our schedules over the holidays. We still have gifts for Z and O. I suppose we'll do as we did last year and bring them to Zelda's birthday party if we don't see you before then.
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