October 25, 2007

Meet my new friends II - Tina Howe



Tina Howe

Tina Howe is the honaree at Baylor's Bi-Annual Horton Foote Festival. I was largely unfamiliar with her works before coming here. I had read "Pride's Crossing" and lived near the town by the same name within which the play is set, but I didn't know much more than that. Howe's an accomplished, pulitzer and tony nominee who's plays dance lightly between realism and absurdism. I got to direct a ten minute piece of hers entitled Teeth. I liked the play.

Ysterday we got to meet with her (the entire department-175 people) and she's just what I'd hoped she'd be. Gracious, self-effacing and inspiring. She's been doing this thing for many years now.

We all got to ask questions and I squeaked out a graduate-sounding question. But what I really wanted to know was, "How many plays must you write in order to stop wondering if you are really a playwright?" But of course, that has a lot more to do with my shit than hers.

I get to have lunch with her in half an hour. I'll report anything Earth-shatteringly meaningful in the conversation or the food itself.

She's a very cool lady and I recommend you check out her plays.

The Nest
Birth and After Birth
Museum
The Art of Dining
Painting Churches
Coastal Disturbances
Approaching Zanzibar
One Shoe Off
Pride's Crossing
Skin Deep

1 comment:

Meatball said...

Call youself a playwright. Just do it.