At the moment, I’m teaching four courses and enjoying them all, but wishing I had more time and energy for them all, too. I’m missing my nightly ventures into THE VERTICAL HOUR at the Human Race Theatre; once those lines were learned, it was such a delight to step into Welsh border country with Todd Lawson and Cathy McCafferty every night, into a philosophical discussion, into a father-son problem, into Freud and the Great Idiot Bush and the senseless Iraq war, etc., etc., etc. I am quickly tiring of low-browed entertainment, be they Shakespearean romantic comedies (which aren’t funny) or musical comedies (which aren’t really that musically interesting or comical) or dramedies like THE LION IN WINTER. Is this a sign of maturity or aging? Some projects no longer seem worth my time.

Younger folks who care about ANYTHING GOES or THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE or AS YOU LIKE IT or TWELFTH NIGHT — they should do them without me on stage or in the audience. I’d rather be at home with my family, or doing LEAR or VERTICAL HOUR… Something of substance.

I’ve done well over one-hundred professional productions now, in almost forty years of acting. I guess I have a right to slow down and be more choosey.

Speaking of which, now onto a faux period play set in 1184 A.D.: LION IN WINTER at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Henry II and his plotting wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their duplicitous sons, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. Unfortunately, though he had auditioned for John, my real son Charlie is doing a show at the Human Race Theatre, instead; he’ll make more money and be performing a physical comedy show in schools during the fall, so all’s for the best, I guess. Sigh.