Re: Sunday

I spent a large chunk of Sunday morning luxiuriating over the Washington Post and the New York Times while at my lovely mother-in-law’s house. Nothing fills me with greater pangs of remorse over the death of print than thinking that those kinds of mornings may soon be a thing of the past. A lazy Sunday morning spent with Kindle in hand just doesn’t have the same allure. Call me a Luddite.

There was a great article in the Times about the development of Tony Kushner’s new play. (UPDATE: There's an article on CNN.com today as well.)

What peaked my interest – beyond just the curious variations on how a play comes into existence – was that the article is all about a festival in Minnesota. It made me refer to my list of metro areas in the country, which shows Minneapolis-St. Paul at around 16th. Richmond is down around 43, with a bit less than 40% of the population in comparison.

This gives me renewed pride in the recent Sarah Ruhl mini-fest that Richmond was able to pull off thanks to the Firehouse and the Barksdale pulling together. But it also makes me wonder if there is another playwright that a local company (or companies) could organize a festival around with an actual new play in development as part of it and the artist in residence here in town. Wouldn’t that be cool?

In the T-D somewhere over the past few days, I saw a little editorial comment that said that many people in the area would prefer that Richmond promote itself as a bastion of history, art and performing arts rather than working so hard to land a minor league baseball franchise. I was a bit taken aback and forced to consider that the T-D’s editorial board may actually have some clearheaded thinkers in its midst.

Last, but certainly not least, the T-D’s Ms. Haubenstock weighed in on “Henry V” at Agecroft. If there weren’t like 40 other shows opening this weekend (ok, 3), I’d rush right out and see it this week. Unfortunately, I may have to wait until the Richmond heat has drained a couple of dozen pounds from the Richmond Shakespeare company before I can make it out. Here’s hoping for continued cool breezes for them and a spectacular run!