It's Been The Summer of Reading Memoirs
Anyone else discover themselves when they dive into the world of others?
2022 has been the year of the memoir for me. I can’t get enough of reading about other people’s lives: James Burrows, Katie Couric, Jason Kander, Josh Peck, Selma Blair, Chasten Buttigieg, Katy Tur, Evan Handler. This past week, I finished the talented and out-spoken Mary Rodgers’ Shy. Mary was a composer for the Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress and many other children’s shows and books such as Freaky Friday which she penned the screenplay for as well. I often find myself somewhere between the pages when I read about creative people’s journeys. I too have spent many years deep in children’s theater (as well as books) and yet have also written adult novels and musicals.
One of the things that really jumped out to me reading this book (other than the great way in which Jesse Green wrote it) was how the universe crazily works…hitting me over the head from different places all at the same time. Rodgers relays a story about the 1960 Tony awards and I had only recently attended a reading in New York of a new play set in 1964 where a story from that same awards show is used. That new show also discusses Funny Girl being on Broadway, which now has finally returned to New York (and inspired me to post my first Substack article).
I also finished Prepare for Departure by Mark Chestnut, a travel writer who penned a memoir about his wonderful relationship with his dying mother. His story shares how he came to find his love of travel through his mom as he weaves in the daily happenings of preparing for her last days on earth. Naturally, I related to the son in that story, but found myself turning my attention to the older life planning her last trip. Being in my 50s now and reading all these memoirs about other people’s lives really makes me think hard about mine…especially since so many of them write about decades of their own. I look at someone like Mary Rodgers, who in my mind was always this older woman of a certain era of theatre royalty and completely forget all of them were young, hungry artists in their days. Sondheim, Prince, Harnick, Marshall…all colleagues that she hung around with…all young 20s and 30s making art.
Going back to that reading I attended in NYC, the room was full of old NY theatre types. I won’t name names, but so many names that I knew…yet faces I couldn’t recognize. Many, so prominent during their younger days (and many still making art in one way or another). One can’t help but think of their own life and what you have or haven’t accomplished. I feel there is so much I’ve done with theater, film, writing and so much more I long to do. Yet I already feel the march of time as I watch younger people in the field making huge splashes.
I’m also unable to escape younger generations' attitudes towards theatre (Broadway and other) - how they sound off on social media - and I feel the hair on my neck start to stand at times. Then I remember, we thought we knew it all in our 20s and 30s and didn’t want to hear from other generations. The group of people in the memoir Shy are all that age and changing the theatre landscape. She even calls out the older generation including her composer father Richard Rodgers (of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Rodgers and Hart) who was in his late 50s when she was coming into her own as well as director George Abbott who directed Once Upon a Mattress) as being like a grandpa in his 70s to her youthful generation.
So what I call “attitude” above has actually always been there in every generation. I served on a theatre board once in my early 30s and the older board members hated the changes that I proposed. The battle between younger and older, fresh ideas and experience…it’s a battle that’s been waged for centuries. I’m just now seeing it from a different perspective as I pass that midlife marker. Today’s younger generation is changing the landscape in their own way…social media is just one of the platforms where they can be heard. Since I’ve passed that point in my life, it’s smart to acknowledge this is all a rite of passage in life and encourage and support wherever I can.
That’s not to say as we get older we still don’t have much to contribute. I’m not done yet. My creative endeavors may shift and change, but in my brain I’m still that 20 year old writing a musical to a property that I’ve yet to obtain the rights. Or that 40 year old who decides to write his first novel loosely based on his early days in New York City. Who knows what comes next. I do think I’m learning there is plenty of room in the sandbox as long as you create your own space. I really appreciate all these memoirs for teaching me from all generations and making me see how much more I have to give…before I write my own. <smile>
I enjoy your writing, Greg. Finding Substack was a new trick for this old dog to learn!
Thank you for that. Having spent many many years in theatre & finding, for me, when I hit my 50s, I was ready to let that go, I no longer had the energy and drive required - it's lovely to hear the perspective and experience of someone who chose a different path. And, by the way, loved Mary Rodgers' book and Jesse Green's editing and footnotes.