The need to see something beautiful, right now.

Get a copy of the May issue of Cleveland Magazine, or log onto their site (registration req.) to read this article Sarah M. wrote about Night Bloomers.

Last Sunday the PD featured an article by one of their play reviewers in which he interviewed Sarah about what the play means and then just typed out what she said, pretty much verbatim. My father told me he found it very confusing to read, and I agree with him.

In fact, I think asking a writer to describe their work is a pretty useless endeavor. If they are any good at what they do, the playwright said what they meant as best they could in the play, and having to then sum it up themselves can be awkward and difficult. Besides, I thought that's what critics were for.

Arthur Miller wrote books explaining what he meant in his plays, and I wish he hadn't. Shaw's own introductions to his one-acts are often ten times longer than the plays themselves.

But that's not what Sarah is doing in her piece for Cleve Mag. It is a brief "diary" of how she came to write this piece, and it is powerful in its brevity.

Time and again (and for the rest of my life) I will be hit in the face with how Calvin's death and Sept. 11 are inextricably entwined in my memory. In spite of my ongoing mission, performing I HATE THIS whenever and wherever I can, there are aspects of NB which surprise and cut me ... well, you will have to see the show, it's a little obvious. Loss is loss.

I had made plans to see the show Sarah describes in New York in October, 2001. While I was disappointed when she cancelled her show, I was thinking more of myself than her. Another distraction! Another trip! And I wanted to see New York again, like visiting a friend in the hospital. Or at a funeral.

"I know why Lilia needs to find the persinnium," Sarah writes, "why she needs to see something beautiful, right now." That's what Toni said in the hospital, she wanted to leave right away, to go to the zoo or the botanical garden or the art museum, to see something beautiful right away.

We have a preview performance tonight. Show opens tomorrow night, 8pm. Please come and see.