Dear Tim,
I’m relieved to hear. You’re a better man that I am, Gunga Din. I pray your nightmare is over. Have you written about it? I find it helps. You’d know best.
“The Aspern Papers” was an unpleasant experience, though my own fault. Bill Kenwright often hires people giving them two weeks of rehearsal. I was a fool to accept. He is a jerk to show such contempt for the material, actors and audience. But the cast was sweet. I had my own nightmare, returned from 1973, when I collapsed on stage to discover seven months later that I am an alcoholic. This time my distress over not being good, I thought, and the pressures of hanging on desperately to barely-learned lines shut me down early in the first scene one night in Liverpool. It happened twice more in London! After my darling Shepherd Tarot had to be put away. Ed took him in; I fell apart. Enough. But you’ll be interested to hear that an Indian doctor diagnosed grief as the culprit. He was astute, gentle, apparently wise and very soothing. Management was not pleased. I am still grieving for my loss of Tarot and the big girl, Blaze. Both were with me for just under twelve years; a time of need when they filled big holes in me.
Today I have Daisy and Angel, both rescued from the streets of San Fernando Valley, by two women in my life. Angel is a devil and a worrier. She’s adopted Ed. Daisy is an angel and regards me as “food.” And a petting device. She’s enchanting. I know your child is. I hope and expect that she is always a comfort.
On January 10, we closed “A Touch of the Poet” in Denver. Two cities only, I am grateful to tell. I had played Con Melody in 1994 at the Fine American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We were a loud hit. We were appreciated in D.C., but audiences were sparse. I’d play the Madman again, but only in New York, “The Big Spotlight.” The experience exhausted me, in a way that never happened with any other role. O’Neill? Age? Vulnerability—increased, that is. My accountant assures me I am set until age ninety. Do I believe it? I am Italian. I shall at least do my best to accept only roles worth the hard work and in the big arenas. I pray.
Please stay in tough. Be well and peaceful and warm.
Love,
Daniel J. Travanti