Selected Essays

A life in the theatre

“Twenty years later I found myself at brunch with Miss Minnelli and lyricist Fred Ebb. I mentioned seeing ‘The Act’ and how much I loved the song ‘It’s the Strangest Thing.’ Fred rasped out, ‘I don’t even remember that one.’ ‘Sure you do, Freddy,’ Miss Minnelli said. And she sang a few bars.” - THe Smart Set

What a saint and a sultan teach us about peace

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“we might find mentors and role models in a poor monk who preaches peace, and a military commander who treasures the wisdom of Sufi poets – in leaders who allow themselves to be transformed by each other.” - Sojourners

Peter Pan’s Labyrinth: A Lost Boy Found

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“Memories from the Llewellyn Davies’ lives seem as vivid as my own: suffocating silences in dark rooms, sunlit days by the sea, crowded theatres, stalwart farewells as railcars head for the Channel filled with young men in fresh uniforms.” - The Smart Set

The Road to Ors

“I wondered what secrets mother and son had shared that a surviving brother would want to hide, and how closely their friendship reflected my mother’s and mine. My curiosity was piqued as I read about the arrival of poet Siegfried Sassoon in Owen’s life.” - Tin House

Undocumented and Transgender

"Every client receives a guarantee. 'I don’t promise that I’ll get them housing, and I don’t promise they’ll get a green card,' Corado says. 'What I do promise is that they won’t struggle alone. They will have love.'” - Yes! Magazine

My Five-Day Visit to An Abbey Let me Embrace Stillness and Silence

"There was a time when our days were shaped by the sun. We rose with its rising, stopped to eat at its zenith, and were asleep when its light was gone . . . I traveled back to such a time for five early-autumn days in rolling Kentucky farmland." - Yes! Magazine

My Half-Century with The Sound of Music

"It gives us the experience of a young woman who struggles to discover her true calling, a man surprised by life just when he thought his future was proscribed, and children who, made aware of love, wake up to the beauty and joy that surround them." - Cultural Weekly

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"At the heart of this story lies the relationship between a student and her teacher, a man who challenges and annoys and demands the impossible." - On Being

Just above the buttocks

"Forster and Carpenter can sit by the fire and talk about Socialism and Cambridge and Lytton Strachey’s beard. George and I will be out among the fireflies, then sneak down the road to the Royal Oak for a pint." - Tin House

Remembrance that Pales in comparison

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"IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT BEAUTY AND GRACE DIED ON THE BATTLEFIELDS OF THE WESTERN FRONT BETWEEN 1914 AND 1918. BUT THE WAR ALSO SUCCEEDED IN BREAKING THROUGH THE CORSETED SNOBBERY OF VICTORIAN GRANDE DAMES AND THE SELF-INDULGENCE OF EDWARDIAN AESTHETES." - THE WASHINGTON POST

Found In Translation

"The first red flag went up within moments of arriving at the theater, when artistic director Ursula Cetinski mentioned casually, 'Of course, we cut a bit of your text.'" - HowlRound

"I SAY SHAKESPEARE’S ONE OF US. LIKE MY STUDENTS, LIKE THE THOUSANDS WHO GROW UP READING AND ATTENDING HIS PLAYS, LIKE THE ACTORS WHO CONTINUE TO BRING HIS WORK TO LIFE, SHAKESPEARE IS THE 99 PERCENT." - WAMU-FM

"Homosexual men in the literary canon seldom take center stage, but there’s no doubting their presence . . .  One wonders about Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities but has no doubts about Moby Dick’s Queequeg, who smothers Ishmael in his 'bridegroom clasp.'" - Tin House