What Inspires Me? The Third Act
This has been a wrenching few weeks. My dearest, long-time adult friend, John, passed away suddenly mid-December. (“Adult” as in we were of-age when we met, not that we were grown-ups.) We returned from his memorial Monday and then attended another memorial Tuesday for Bob Lupone, co-founder of the MCC Theatre, as well as an actor, primarily a dancer—the first Chorus Line Zach, in fact. (And yes, he was Patti Lupone’s brother.)
Robert Lupone, “Zach” with ”Cassie” in Chorus Line
I’m not going to talk about John here, but this is for him and about him, too, so bear with me.
Bob Lupone wasn’t a “friend,” but through MCC he was a part of our lives. MCC, the Manhattan Class Company, is an Off-Broadway Theatre Company he founded along with his maybe first adult friend, Bernie Tesley in the mid-80s—, the same time John and I began cooking together in the New Harvest kitchen. When they founded the MCC with a mission: “To create new work for the American stage.”
Almost 40 years later, the MCC is renowned for staging new plays—many that have gone on to bigger and more. And most importantly, MCC it is committed to and renowned for workshopping, developing, nurturing new playwrights.
In the MCC to tribute to Bob Lupone and at his memorial, many who spoke or shared written testaments talked about how much he loved discussing the work during creation of a play and performances. How they would “walk out of the theater anxious to go to the bar or restaurant and spend the rest of the night hashing over what [they] had seen?” And how, when developing plays he always asked the tough questions.
Lupone called that, the part that sticks with us afterwards, the things that keep us returning, remembering, making us think, keep us savoring the meal long after the dishes have been done, The Third Act.
“Whenever we considered a play Bob always made us ask ourselves if it had a ‘third act’? ”
Jubilee by Ellen Yeomans is A Third Act
A Third Act! Life beyond the stage, the page—afterlife.
When working with picture book creators—either workshopping our own work or discussing/dissecting published picture books—books we wish we’d written and those we are glad we didn’t—much of the conversation is about that after. The Third Act!
For lack of a better term, I call it the “about-about” as in sure we know what happens in the story but what is it really about? What is a reader left with afterwards? What’s the take-away? And what keeps us returning to the same story over and over again? Now I have a better name for it “The Third Act.”
Since John passed, we all—John’s family and friends—have been sharing photos and memories. Below are a few from our big-belly-laugh moments:
Give Me Somebody to Dance With
Tourists in Turks: John and me at L&R’s wedding
Play Me the Music!
“Baby you can drive my car!”
Give Me a Reason to Dance
John at M&M’s wedding. That’s not me dancing with him—wish it were!
