The Brooklyn Record
This article will be more literature than culture. We had known for some time that Steppenwolf Theater Company was going to do my son Daniel’s play, The Viewing Room. If truth be told, he has been married some three years and we hadn’t visited once. Daniel and his wife Karen bought a home in Evanston, where she grew up, and we hadn’t seen the house, either. Now, in our defense, Daniel has been to New York so many times since the marriage, that I saw no reason to commit to the stark terror of an airplane. Believe me, I go on them when I have to get somewhere, but I stay off them when there’s an option. The Viewing Room and viewing his house admitted of no option. We prefer to fly from JFK, and TWA is the only major from JFK to Chicago. TWA raised stark terror in my beloved Annette’s heart, but, except for a slight delay on the flight out, both flights were flawless. I even watched the return flight land.
Now, before we left, I had one fight with Daniel, and, from my point of view, I was right. He wanted me to rent a car so he wouldn’t have to be my chauffeur. We wanted to get around on the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) trains. This especially when you remember that the characters in ER ride those trains. By pure luck, the station where ER was filmed is on the Red Line. Evanston is on the Purple Line, but you transfer at Howard to the Red Line. So, we got two thrills for a buck and half: The station where ER was filmed, and the ‘fact that we could make it to the Degas show at the Art Institute, without Daniel’s help. Truth to tell, we didn’t quite do it perfectly, because we didn’t pay for an express ticket getting on; so we got stuck for an extra 50 cents. Oh, well! I’m sure Chicago can use the money, just like New York.
Daniel picked us up at the airport (O’Hare), and now he was late. The plane was an hour and half late, and he had to get us to the Holiday Inn Evanston, and then get back downtown Chicago for a radio interview.
Let us say, the ride to the hotel was rapid, but we did arrive without mishap! I should tell you that Dan then had to drive from the interview back to the airport to get Tom and Erica. Tom is a boyhood friend, and Erica is his fiancé, about to be his wife. How nice of them to come; but what are friends for! Daniel told me to put on 91.5 FM to hear the interview. I must tell you he made it on time, and what a pleasure it was to hear my son interviewed by Aaron Freeman (I believe that’s his name) on the radio.
Now, let me tell you a little about the play. The premise is that at a time when prisons are so overcrowded cells are put in middle class homes and the middle class be comes jailers. Blacks make up 15% of the population and 44% of the prisoners. So: the jailers are white and the prisoner is black. The Chicago Tribune, which is equivalent to The New York Times, in Chicago gave it a good write up and liked the premise. The Sun-Times did not think much of the metaphor. Anyhow, Aaron Freeman, who; I am told, is a black convert to Judaism, liked the premise. He began the interview by telling Daniel to speak softly because if certain people hear about the play, we’ll all have prison cells in our living rooms. The guy won my respect immediately.
Now, let me tell you about Jim and Sandy. We met them on a trip to the Soviet Union in 1988. We had been to Chicago for Daniel’s other play, Selling Water, and we stayed at their house. Jim is a Harvard educated lumber trader on the Chicago Mercantile. Sandy is trained sociologist. As a matter of fact, Jim is also a trained psychologist. He did not find that the pits,·but he did prefer the mercantile pit. As an aside, he is class of 1969. Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were in his class. That’s impressive, but to me, more impressive is the fact that John Adams, the composer of “Nixon in China” was in his class as well. We invited Jim and Sandy to Daniel and Karen’s wedding, and we had a ball that weekend as well. Jim’s brother Gerry and Gerry’s wife Tanya were in town. (Nine characters in search of an author.)
Then Jim took us all to the Adagio, a marvelous restaurant near Steppenwolf. So, now that’s Jim and Sandy, Annette and me, Daniel and Karen, Tom and Erica, and Gerry and Tanya, and one great meal. Then we all went to the play. Jim and Sandy are Steppenwolf subscribers, so they had already seen a staged reading. I enjoyed it very much. If it comes to New York, go see it. I did feel the black actor overpowered the white actors. The negative reviews began to get to Daniel, and he felt that that night the actors were off. Instead of con concentrating on the positives, he began to concentrate on the negatives.
We all “Went back to Jim and Sandy’s and held a post mortem. Jim and Sandy offered excellent and constructive criticism. Here we will dwell on what Tanya said. She said _how many times can you have a night out, be entertained, and be called upon to provocatively use your brain. Tanya was correct! Daniel did not cheer up till the next day, and even more so when Steppenwolf named him Playwright in Residence and committed to his next play.
The next day we spent at my son’s house, and a very good house it is. I should tell you that my son might qualify as a starving artist, but his wife is about to become president of the company that took the picture of the hands that Spielberg used in Schindler’s List. Before that, she flew all over Latin America selling software. She’s trilingual and Phi Beta Kappa. Someday, Daniel will support her. To her credit, she has complete faith in that proposition. We sent out for Chicago deep dish pizza. Because of my cholesterol, I only had a slice and half. Um-um good. Then Daniel and Tommy went to play hockey (no checking). Annette and I were dropped off at (get this) the “Verdi and Puccini Cafe. ” I had some kind of chicken sandwich and a “Monkey Wrench,” which is 6% English beer that tastes like Guinness.
The next day, Annette and I appropriated Daniel and Karen’s tickets to the Degas show . I’ve already told you of our train adventure. Now Chicago is cold in November. however, it decided to honor us by being 20 degrees colder than normal. Let us just say I froze my anatomy off waiting to get in. Annette, who left our warm clothing home, insisted that she wasn’t at all cold. Anyhow, the homeless sell a newspaper, Streetwise, on the coners. I’ve never bought one in my life, but the guy by the Art Institute had a really good rap. I gave him my dollar and took a paper.
The Degas show was like a ball game. Maybe because it was Veteran’s Day, but there were people and kids off the walls. There was more chance to catch a foul ball than to see a painting. After about half an hour of pushing we opted for the cafeteria. I
opened my paper and there was a review of Daniel’s play! “Original, thoughtful. provocative – a must see” Talk about bread cast on waters – I felt like a million bucks!
That night we had a wonderful dinner at the Davis Street Seafood Restaurant in Evanston. Unfortunate1y. Jim and Sandy, Gerry and Tanya couldn’t make it. but we’ve had a wonderful farewell. The next day Annette and I toured Northwestern University in the morning. Daniel drove us around Evanston in the afternoon. Then Daniel drove us to the airport. Annette said we’d have to do this more often, but will next time be such a picture perfect weekend? Stay tuned.