St. John's University

For many years, my fellow playwright Dr. Laurence Myers has taught at St. John's University. He gave me my first job in New York, stage managing his play Title: Nietzsche at Theatre for the New City (my friend James Robinson was in the cast, and suggested me when they lost their stage manager). And for not a few years, Larry has asked me to come speak to his students. This past Monday I was finally able to rearrange my schedule to make this possible. I had never been to St. John's, nor any Vincentian institution of higher learning, before then. Larry is going to have his students in his Creating Theatre course write contemporary mystery plays, to be performed around the campus, so I spoke about medieval theatre. I'm not an expert on that subject, but I read a lot about it when I was writing my own adaptation of mystery plays, "The New York Play." After I had lectured and answered some questions, some students read my Adam and Eve scene to the rest of the class; they seemed quite engaged by it, and equally importantly, got the jokes. I was particularly impressed with the international students (from the Caribbean, South America and Africa)- a really smart, thoughtful and engaged group of kids.

Update on Dr. Myers

An update on my friend Dr. Larry Myers, who is performing his show about homelessness throughout the US this summer. We were in Southern California at the same time, but didn't run into each other. He played San Diego, Santa Barbara and Hollywood. Larry also interviewed Bill Pullman backstage at the Mark Taper Forum. Rock on!

Dr. Myers' Busy Schedule

My friend James got me my first job when I moved to New York. It was stage managing a play he was in at Theatre for the New City called "Title: Nietzsche," written and directed by Dr. Larry Myers. Larry and I went on to become friends, and I studied playwriting with him after his show closed- it was his way of paying me for the work I'd done.
Many years later, we are still in touch. Larry has two shows coming up. The first is "Car Sleepers & Tent City Folk," based on interviews he conducted with homeless people in Los Angeles (we've seen the people living in the cliffs along the Pacific Coast Highway way- it's really strange to us), San Diego, Venice and St. Petersburg, Florida. It will premiere at Theatre for the New City (First Avenue at Tenth Street) for three days this summer (no dates yet). Larry is playing All the roles. He then (as actor, playwright and director) tours to San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Columbus (Ohio) and Ocean Grove (New Jersey).
As if that isn't enough (it's exhausting for me just to write about it), his long-aborning play about Lily Dale (where the mediums congregate upstate) is being staged in Lily Dale the first week of August. It features an "all-medium cast" playing Mae West, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houndini (aka Erich Weiss of East 90th Street- he lived across the street from the Marx Brothers), Susan B. Anthony and Abraham Lincoln.
Dr. Myers teaches at St. John's University. In his free time, he's writing an authorized book about Edward F. Albee.