"We are born astride a grave - WaynesWorldStage.com

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couldn’t help but to wonder and hope. Perhaps,in truth, she was a genius?Michele also liked to swing. I anchored aswing to the ceiling of her room. She would swingfor hours.She enjoyed tearing paper. She wouldtake newspaper and tear it in long strips. Shewould then fold each strip in a fan fold. TheSunday Times, when torn and folded in thismanner, could reach the depth of about eighteeninches in my living room.She also folded paper from magazines ina strange manner. It was like origami. Whencompleted, she would pull on two ends of thepaper and the center would flap up and down.She would then stick out her tongue and thecenter of the paper would flap on and off of hertongue. She would do this for hours on end. Sheseemed to know that newsprint would get soggyand only did this with coated magazine stock.Because Michele did not speak, manydoctors referred to her as autistic. One evening,watching TV, I saw my old friend Ed Flanders,the actor whose wife gave birth on the same dayMichele was born. He was the lead in a popularhospital drama, “Saint Elsewhere.” He played asingle parent of an autistic child. I had often176
wanted to contact him and tell him aboutMichele, but I never did. He has since passedaway.One of the psychiatrists who saw Micheletold me that he would give me any diagnosis Iwanted. I should find a "school" that had anopening. If the facility took autistic children, hewould give a diagnosis of autism. If they tookbrain-injured children then he would diagnosebrain injury, etc. He said there was no knowntreatment for these children, so it didn't reallymatter what the diagnosis was.One of Michele's sitters believed that shewas the new Annie Sullivan. She worked withMichele endlessly. She was not hired for thispurpose but she was getting such good results Iwas not about to interfere. Within a few months,Michele was doing puzzles and building withblocks. She could even tie her shoelaces.When Michele stopped responding in apositive way, the sitter started getting physicallyabusive, spanking and hitting her. I tried to getthe sitter to stop, but she seemed to resent myinterference. I had to let her go. She had becomeso obsessed with Michele that I began to fear shewas having a homosexual relationship with her.177
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The Cover PhotographThis is a pictu
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When a working New York City actorb
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in 1968 at the Pocket Theatre on Se
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had the idea of little league sport
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the wheel to make sure that our min
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What could I do? My father was goin
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would personally guarantee that it
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Like most of us at the time, I was
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good.” I was working around the c
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We all tried to communicate with al
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my better eye in an effort to stren
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uckled another laced…” It just
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"He and his girlfriend went upstate
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Chapter 2Wayne University would hav
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pictures of naked people were doing
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Let me throw in a bit of trivia. Th
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this is never mentioned in the anti
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old newspapers. No one else knew of
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pay, I had to purchase a bunch of i
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Presbyterian Church. It was intende
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Francisco, are all remembered as ma
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apologized, took a bow, and went ou
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still considered myself a devout Ch
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single beds, but I apparently slept
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I disagreed with much of what he wa
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Fred Barnett worked for his father,
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to stay and for the next five weeks
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very nervous. I only had a few doll
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of the producers of Lorraine Hansbe
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surprise, when I offered him a job,
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open The Vanguard Playhouse and the
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A new, unknown Detroit actor hadaud
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I would have to wait until I got to
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Chapter 4So here it is, the fall of
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an into Chuck. He asked if we could
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Canyon. As a former ministerial stu
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into San Francisco several times so
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I then returned to the papers and t
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quiet. Her roommate, apparently ana
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I then moved into the space we were
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extensive search, I settled on a yo
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collected deposit bottles and bough
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open the top half of the door. One
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and spray-paint them. A very inexpe
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day and night for several months re
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After a few days in Detroit, I was
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able to find out if I was going to
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kasha?" I inquired. "The germ of ba
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meet me. After arriving in the moun
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ight. I apologize. Thank you." I ha
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When the season was over, Joan and
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lab. I don't remember what Joan's j
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that I could comprehend the extent
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When I told Modernage that I wasqui
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an agent. I didn't. I'd never been
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After that night in the dressing ro
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114
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of punching the guy out. This was n
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actors are signed to contracts. Nor
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The Festival finished the season bu
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something drastic to get his attent
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Not wanting the audience to miss an
Page 132 and 133: young couple spend the night in the
Page 134 and 135: When Joan returned, she and I went
Page 136 and 137: I got a call from a director with w
Page 138 and 139: would not do my bit. Sure enough, w
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Page 142 and 143: from Ulysses. The implication was t
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Page 146 and 147: The next morning she left me in the
Page 148 and 149: ealized that we were the most theat
Page 150 and 151: ules specified that producers had t
Page 152 and 153: asked if she could speak with me pr
Page 154 and 155: through a farmers’ market with a
Page 156 and 157: office would be open at 10pm. This
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Page 160 and 161: "Hey, what about me?" I shouted. I
Page 162 and 163: "rape" was meant in a classic sense
Page 164 and 165: NO, NO, NO, OH GOD, NO! PLEASE!THIS
Page 166 and 167: leave the show. I did not want Mich
Page 168 and 169: lists at all of the state homes thr
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Page 172 and 173: Michele's pleated skirts, and I pra
Page 174 and 175: een so moved by the time she spent
Page 176 and 177: question him. That policeman then c
Page 178 and 179: One of them returned and handed me
Page 180 and 181: phone, she was frightened and didn'
Page 184 and 185: I took Michele to another psychiatr
Page 186 and 187: kind of private school for children
Page 188 and 189: Solomon and Ashemedai. I played Ash
Page 190 and 191: and watch me perform. Lyn would smi
Page 192 and 193: the first floor, and the blinds wer
Page 194 and 195: Twenty-eight years later, her mothe
Page 196 and 197: summer. The new sitter was from a g
Page 198 and 199: Zero Mostel, who was a very large m
Page 200 and 201: Lyn moved in with me. Life was good
Page 202 and 203: He said, "Please don't be angry wit
Page 204 and 205: estaurants. I made safe lights out
Page 206 and 207: We arrived at the falls and got a m
Page 208 and 209: agreed to meet at a bar in Manhatta
Page 210 and 211: Matthew seemed to know from the sta
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Page 214 and 215: her uncle. He had a very large plac
Page 216 and 217: My watermelon heart broke. I ran an
Page 218 and 219: I answered a used car ad in the pap
Page 220 and 221: passed away shortly after surgery.
Page 222 and 223: emained close friends, but Jim beca
Page 224 and 225: difficult to keep people when you c
Page 226 and 227: together. We then voted on the vari
Page 228 and 229: dictator, Sukarno, was about to be
Page 230 and 231: inhaled. I was hooked within a week
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little extra income. He would care
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carrying Christopher in her arms. L
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me what happened." Before we finish
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232
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the night on the eastern end of Pen
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twenties, Matthew ran the Long Isla
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One of my new employees was fromCal
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made themselves at home. They were
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I had saved a supply cabinet that h
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This is not just a credit union; th
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246
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kids happy in the process. Within a
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any money, only about three hundred
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was done on time and delivered to a
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was a bit stunned, but from that ti
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Baldev Duggal, the founder and owne
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lawyers and accountants advise new
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was to be C.O.D. The first order wa
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Lyn's father's health was beginning
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Michele had been at the new school
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We all knew that the Walshs would n
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My business was doing well, but our
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the nursing home and have no rent t
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272
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friend had divorced his wife, quit
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that I needed. The computers did no
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There was an article in The New Yor
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one so many times. He asked for my
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Lynne was not overjoyed at the pros
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After each fight, we would then arg
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Business was good. Lynne and I deci
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dropped dead that night. I would ha
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Alex Vadell was also a master. Soon
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ignored each other, but the dogs ne
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294
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end. I always had Michele as an exc
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ecome more aware of the extent of d
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had no difficulty in figuring out t
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From what I could gather, at thebeg
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garbage dumps that still had used c
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Theatre Row tenants. As of July 198
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Lynne and I had a wonderful time in
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By the end of the first week of Jud
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eturn, they got the use of the thea
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disorder was out of remission. She
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During the rehearsal, most of theau
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esponse, and we walked up Eighth Av
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space. Do they understand the fact
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six months. How could I turn down a
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went to get something to eat. When
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Lynne and I didn’t fully apprecia
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"My department at Lehman Brotherssp
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Make sure our film recorder can dow
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other times when I thought that I w
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there was no slide work, he could d
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the marriage was over? Kaput? I hop
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As large as this new apartment was,
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We, of course, would then go to the
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seem to me to show a lack of faith.
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later in hope that I would be aslee
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I couldn’t help but think how sad
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from the rental of the co-op, and I
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my arm down so fast that I had no t
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Shannon and Jeff told me about a sh
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mentioned that I did not have room
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floors, cleaned the bathrooms and t
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interested because there was not mu
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from old Theatre Magazines from the
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362
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laid off twenty-five percent of the
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But as much as I love Lyn, my child
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More MemoriesWhen I told Barry LaVi
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Alice Davies. Cliff Ammon telling m
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High School RomanceI hope I didn't
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to evaluate the speed and angle of
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I told my friend that it was a part
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Paris with The Paper Bag Players. H
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happy about their streets being fil
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HeresyForty-five years after my cal
show all

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