Letters From Alex

If you’ve ever been involved in live theatre—in any capacity—you know there’s nothing more exhilarating. Or terrifying. Or humbling. Or ego-building. Or addicting.

When that opening arrives, come hell or high water, people are in that space, and the lights rise and…

I like the lyrics to the song “Welcome to the Theatre,” from the musical Applause (adaptation of the movie All About Eve, lyrics by Betty Comden/Adolph Green). Which begins:

Welcome to the theatre
To the magic
To the fun
Where painted trees and flowers grow
And laughter rings fortissimo
And treachery’s sweetly done.

I myself was hooked on theatre for a long while—acting, directing, writing—and though I moved on to other exciting vices, I still hear that siren song. When I see a show, I like to sit as close as possible so I feel like I’m in it.

I don’t see nearly as much theatre as I used to, but recently I had the good fortune to attend three shows in 11 days.

Alice By Heart 
In a quirky theatre in Chicago, in a black-box basement space. Low tech, low budget, but dynamite theatricality and performances. A teenage girl in London during WW2 re-enacts Alice in Wonderland to cope with the impending death of her best friend. Saw it with a childhood friend, with whom I used to see lots of shows, so felt like time traveling.

Once Upon a Mattress
A daffy musical version of The Princess and the Pea, on Broadway, starring Sutton Foster. High jinks of the highest order. Theatre gets even more thrilling when I see it through the eyes of my seven-year-old daughter who accompanied my wife and me. We were on the front row, and during the curtain call Sutton looked right at my kid and waved.

Stereophonic
All the rage on Broadway now, but I managed to snag a single ticket. Set in a recording studio in the 1970’s where a band is making an album. Like insects on the wall, we watch the collision of their talent and tension. Years back, I hired the playwright, David Adjmi, to teach for Gotham, which was prevented by his acceptance into a Julliard program. Glad he’s caught fire. 

By now I’m guessing you want to dive into some theatre yourself. Well, Gotham offers Playwriting classes. And we offer two other ways to get that crazy performance high: Stand-Up Comedy Writing and Songwriting.

Or just go see something.

Also, I am appearing in something like a show soon. At the upcoming Gotham Writers Children’s Book Conference (mostly on Zoom, September 28 & 29), I will be interviewing our featured guest Maureen Johnson.

Not too late to get tickets!

Alex Steele

Gotham President

Sure, lots of places shutter the shop in August and go off for a spell of leisure. And we hope you can slow your pace a bit, perhaps relish a slice of watermelon. (And, of course, we have many readers in the Southern hemisphere who might prefer a hot cocoa on a winter’s day.)

If you wish to weave some writing into your August, Gotham is here for you. We’ve got classes starting in August, free Friday Write-Ins, our monthly edition of The Razor, and these two special things…

The Writer’s Mind

The Writer’s Mind is a fascinating new course, or rather a reinvention of a course we offered a while back.

Unlike most writing courses, it’s not about the craft of writing. It’s about something deeper and more mysterious. It’s about techniques for thinking as part of your writing process. Such as …

Letting your mind aimlessly roam, which often leads to great ideas and solutions.

Slipping back in time to engage in child’s play, where the imagination runs wild.

Accessing your dreams and semi-awake state, as a path to your subconscious.

The Writer’s Mind debuts August 6, in an asynchronous Online class. Sorry, that one is sold out, but it also be offered Online starting September 10 and October 8. And you can put it on your Gotham Wish List to be notified about future dates and formats.

I don’t know of a course like this offered anywhere else. Are you up for an odyssey of the mind?

Gotham in Bryant Park

Every summer, Gotham takes up residency in NYC’s Bryant Park for free Thursday night classes. We just did three of them in July. Now, we’ve got three of them in August:

August 1 – Fiction Writing
August 8 – TV Writing

August 15 – Memoir Writing

These outings are maybe my very favorite Gotham event. The park is a luscious green rectangle surrounded by soaring buildings and right next to the magnificent NY Library building (the one with the lions). Not only do we get great crowds at our classes, but it’s a collection of interesting folks, a real mix of what the city and its visitors can provide.

As the summer day turns to night, the magical light brings a kind of magic to the writing people do in these classes, and those who want to can share their words into a microphone.

These events are worth the trip.

Have a great rest of summer…with us.

Alex Steele,

Gotham President

Hey, this is part of a series on writers who kicked down a metaphorical door with their writing. Like Marie Curie with science and Little Richard with music.

Alice Munro passed away in May at the age of 92, after a long career publishing fiction. The first unusual thing about her is that she only wrote short stories, never a novel. The even more unusual thing is what she did with her short stories. 

Reading Munro takes patience. The writing style and characters aren’t flashy, most of the stories about folks living in small Canadian towns, facing the kinds of things you face in life.

The stories seldom start with a hook. For example, here’s the opening line of “The Bear Came Over the Mountain”:

Fiona lived in her parents’ house, in the town where she and Grant went to university.

Gosh, nothing terribly exciting there. Indeed, after reading the first few paragraphs of a Munro story, you might be tempted to set it aside. If you stick with it, however, you’ll soon find yourself inside a tunnel that keeps leading you deeper into something fascinating.

As in “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” Fiona and Grant are a married couple in their golden years. When Fiona discovers she has dementia, she consents to enter a “home” when it gets bad enough, which it does. One day Grant comes to visit and finds that Fiona has taken a beau at the home, something that happens when spouses forget that they’re married. But did Fiona really forget, or is she slyly chiding Grant for all those casual affairs he used to have? Either way, Fiona is genuinely upset when her beau’s wife removes him from the home. And then Grant begs the beau’s wife to bring her husband back, hoping to make his wife happy. And that tunnel keeps on deepening.

Did I mention that her short stories are long? A good deal longer than they’re supposed to be. When you’re inside them, though, they don’t feel long because they’re delivering the depth and complexity of a novel, leaping through time and evolutions so seamlessly you barely feel it until you’re done, dazed by what you’ve been through.

Though considered one of the best—if not the best—writer of contemporary short stories, Munro was a modest person. She led a quiet life and had no real interest in publicity or accolades (she won all the big awards). As she said, “I always got lunch for my children.”

If you forced me to pick my all-time favorite short story, I would tap Munro’s “Carried Away.” Don’t get me started on how wondrous I find it.

Alex Steele,

Gotham President