The Dallas Theater Center was selected to present my adaptation of a Faulkner novel at the Theater of Nations competition in Paris. The year was 1964, a year after the Kennedy assassination, and the novel was As I Lay Dying. A troubled Charles “Chip” Bohlen, US ambassador to France, called to say that the French loved President Kennedy and posters highlighting Dallas and “As I Lay Dying” would horrify them. The title of the play had to be changed.
On a transatlantic call I changed the title of the play to “Journey to Jefferson,” and the Dallas Theater Center production of the play received a Special Jury Award.
One night when we were dark, the cast decided to see Marcell Marceau who was appearing at...
Thursday evening PEN World Voices spread out. As I sat in the front section of the Morgan Library auditorium, I knew there were whirlwinds of words circling over Manhattan and at least one other borough.
