1. What was a significant place on campus for you?
When I was senior, I became aware of the Princeton Inn Theatre (now the Forbes B&W Lounge at Forbes College) as I had written a musical for my undergraduate thesis and needed a place to produce and direct the show in the spring of 1978. The intimacy of the theatre proved to be perfect for I Can’t Keep Running In Place, the story of a women’s assertiveness training workshop in New York City. A female psychologist and a group of diverse women meet every Wednesday night in the hope of becoming more expressive of their own needs, in order to improve the quality of their lives. The musical’s theme allowed for the show to be both serious and comedic. It was my first time writing a script, as well as a full theatrical score (music, lyrics, orchestrations, vocal arrangements), and it was also my first experience directing a full show. (I had only taken a directing class at Princeton with Michael Kahn, Artistic Director of McCarter at the time.) I cast the musical with two Princeton undergrads as well as six professional Equity actresses from the Princeton community, and I will forever feel a sense of gratitude to these women who first breathed life into the characters and story I had created. In fact, when the show was published, I credited these actresses in the Samuel French script on the same cast page as the performers starring in the Off-Broadway hit.
Thus, the Princeton Inn Theatre was my creative launching pad. I wrote the music in my dorm room at Edward’s Hall, and devotedly revised the script at Firestone night after night, but this theatre was where I directed and finally shared my work of a year and a half to the Princeton community. The result was a great success, and every performance was wonderfully received. Additionally, an offer was made to me to have a new production of the show mounted that fall at the renowned Annenberg Center, as the original producer of Broadway’s Godspell attended a performance at the Inn. Although I Can’t Keep Running In Place later went to Off-Broadway instead, it was a very exciting thing to have happen while I was still an undergraduate student.
Mark Nelson, currently a beloved acting teacher at Princeton, was a year ahead of me at Princeton (class of ’77), and after reading my script, encouraged me to send the show to Off-Broadway theaters. One of these was the Actor’s Playhouse Theatre in Sheridan Square, and a month later I received a call from Jack Ross, one of the two men running the theatre, inviting me to have a reading produced there. When I told Jack and his partner, Charlie Timm, that the show had already opened in Princeton and that I could bring the entire cast and musicians to his stage via bus one night, they were delighted. I recall my mother ordered wonderful food for the audience, and in order to get a crowd, put a sandwich board on the sidewalk outside the theatre with the name of the show (at the time still called “A Woman Suspended”) which advertised the “free show and after show food and wine” which allowed us to sell out! Helen Harvey, a top theatrical literary agent, showed up and offered to be my agent that night. Although I eventually selected a different agent (Sondheim and Kander & Ebb’s rep, Flora Roberts), she also learned about me by hearing a recording of one of the Princeton Inn performances. Thus, although it would take over another two years for the musical to become an Off-Broadway hit at the Westside Arts Theatre, the show’s success was inextricably linked to this black box theatre at The Princeton Inn.
2. What was a defining (or pivotal) moment of your life?
Giving birth to my first son was a defining moment of my life. I went on to have wonderful boy twins as well. However, there is no question that the responsibilities of motherhood and family life affected the time I could devote to my career. I have found the journey, despite its extreme challenges at times, to be profound, meaningful and joy-filled.
3. How did your personal identity shape your Princeton experience?
Ever since I was six-years-old, I knew I wanted to be a writer and performer. I played piano since I was eight, wrote songs at thirteen, performed in school and camp musicals for many years, and when I arrived at Princeton, wrote and performed for Triangle and acted in wonderful roles at Theatre Intime. While still a freshman, Milt Lyon gave me the honor of performing a solo in Triangle’s spring show at McCarter; the song was a sultry, rueful ballad called “Independently Blue,” for which I had written the music and lyrics. Milt Lyon went on to teach me how to best structure a comedy lyric by his using examples from the most successful Broadway lyricists. My comic material still benefits from the advice he gave me late one afternoon at McCarter, more than forty years ago.
I was constantly learning something artistic as an undergraduate, and that sense of forward creative movement fed every other aspect of my life at Princeton. Even my Psych 101 B course taught me about psychodrama, a dynamic technique used in group therapy that I then employed as a theatrical technique in the libretto I wrote for my senior thesis/musical.
Thus, my personal identity and my experience at Princeton were one and the same. My love for writing and performing was very much satisfied by Princeton. In fact, when I interviewed at Princeton in the fall of my senior year of high school, I had only one question for the interviewer: Will I be permitted to write a musical for my senior thesis? The interviewer lit up. The University appreciated my passion for the arts and did everything it could to encourage me to succeed.
I have always viewed the world through a creative lens. I majored in English at Princeton, mainly taking courses in Shakespeare, Modern Drama and anything theatre-based. I also took classes in playwriting, directing, acting, and dance, earning a certificate in Theatre. I went on tour for Triangle, and at Theatre Intime played Miranda in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, opposite Broadway actor and English Department Chair Daniel Selzter as Prospero, and Myrrhine in Lysistrata, one of my funniest roles. Excellent student directors Mitchell Ivers and Kathy Mendeloff directed these shows, respectively. These are two college stage experiences that I will never forget.
I spent my junior spring semester abroad in Paris, and most of the time I attended acting classes at the “Ecole Francois Florent” where I was also cast in Les Femmes Savantes, by Moliere, directed by Francis Huster of the Comedie Francaise! Additionally, I had the opportunity to perform at the beautiful Theatre Pierre Cardin. I spent almost every other hour in Parisian cafes, writing the script and lyrics of my musical, as I was allowed to start writing the libretto and lyrics for my senior thesis as my spring JP. (It was wonderful, even essential, to get a jump start on this huge endeavor, as I would need the fall of senior year to compose the score.) Quite by accident, while looking for a place to live, I saw an announcement on a Parisian bulletin board about an assertiveness training workshop for English speaking women that was just about to start that very week! The whole thing felt like something out of a B movie—too coincidental to be true. But every Monday night for ten weeks I attended the class while continuing to map out the story and characters. In fact, one of my best songs in the show would be inspired by the bittersweet comment of a woman who attended one week, never to return. So even my Parisian semester was completely creative, focused on performance and writing. For six months I put in long hours writing in those cafes, but I also enjoyed the patisserie!
I returned to Princeton my senior fall, and began to write the music for my show. Luckily, I had forced myself in my freshman, sophomore and junior years to take three intimidating music theory courses in preparation for composing my musical senior year. I disliked music theory at the time, but I loved composing, so early on I had decided I had no choice. Because I had elected to write a musical, I was offered an advisor in the English Department as well as the Music Department. Both would grade my thesis—the script, lyrics, music, orchestrations and the production itself. Professor Daniel Seltzer and later on, Professor Gail Gibson, were my advisors in the English department, but they allowed me complete freedom in writing my script.
Contemporary composer Professor Paul Lansky was my music advisor. I only met the Professor twice, but his advice regarding orchestration was invaluable. I was confident in writing song melodies, but I was completely inexperienced in arranging parts for instruments. It was daunting enough to have to write down the entire piano score. However, Paul Lansky rescued me: “Write the orchestral parts so that the actual musicians playing in your combo will enjoy playing their parts…because their phases, or “lines” need to be as interesting to them in your score as your characters’ lines in the script are to the actresses. Eureka! In one sentence, Professor Lansky had given me the key. I love concepts that perfectly convey an idea—a single central thought that allows the listener to then accomplish something easily. Paul Lansky didn’t have to teach me any orchestrating techniques after that. I had my “How to Orchestrate” book by Ken Kennan which allowed me to look up the range of the alto flute or piccolo or cello as I experimented with this new musical challenge. However, Lansky’s one concept—comparing the musicians’ desire to have “clever lines” to play in the pit just as the actresses hoped to have “clever lines” to deliver on stage allowed me to proceed without getting intimidated by a boatload of orchestration rules. By trying to please my players, I wrote melodic lines, interesting harmonies and rhythmic accents! Thanks to Paul Lansky, when the show played Off-Broadway, the songs and also the orchestrations were highly praised by the press.
My Princeton thesis continues to be produced throughout the country and the world. My senior thesis really put me on the map, so whenever and wherever I can, I continue to credit Princeton for helping launch my career at an early age. I can still recall opening the New York Times’ Notes on People one day, and on a full page, there I was: a piece about my Princeton thesis opening successfully Off-Broadway; I was placed between articles about the great Pele and the legendary Diana Ross. What a moment that was! A beautiful gift from my beloved college.
There was one other spectacular creative experience which I feel I must include, but to do so, I need to back track to the summer before my junior year. I was one of about ten students who created a summer theatre in Brighton Beach Brooklyn in 1976, performing a variety of original works on a Jewish theme for members of a synagogue and the greater Jewish community. I recall being the one drafted by the group to get President Bill Bowen to fund the venture, and when I met with President Bowen at Prospect, he agreed to contribute $500. on behalf of Princeton. While I was with him he called Gerson Cohen, Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and asked him to be Princeton’s partner in our venture. Thus, Princeton became my first investor, or “angel” in my theatre career, as we now had $1000. to rent two houses in Brooklyn. That incredible summer, I was able to use every aspect of my creative self on behalf of the theatre. We all stretched ourselves in ways most of us had not before. I was asked to be the playwright for the show Bontsche Schweig, based on the famous folk tale by I.L Peretz, performed by the entire company; I sang musical theatre songs on the boardwalk for donations; Mark Nelson and I and performed in The Silver Spoon (a two-person musical); I taught voice and piano by placing an ad in a local paper, raising additional money for our productions (and also, so that we could eat); I directed the musical cabaret at the Brighton Beach Baths, which also paid us for the performances. It was all an unforgettable experience for everyone in the company. Bill Clarke, Alice Eve Cohen, Mark Nelson, Kathy Mendeloff, Ricki Rosen, Steven Reisner and other talented Princeton creatives all collaborated to create innovative work for the theatre at the synagogue. Another totally novel creative experience and entrepreneurial endeavor from which I was able to learn, which I owe to the vision of some of my gifted Princeton friends. They had the original idea to start the theatre, and President Bowen gave us the seed money which made it a viable idea.
4. If you could relive your time at Princeton, what would you do differently?
If I could relive my time at Princeton, I would have gone to basketball games and found myself a handsome player on the court to court me, as I like tall men! Otherwise, there is almost nothing I would have done differently. Perhaps I would have carved out more time to hear the important political and artistic speakers when they visited the campus. As I was both academically and artistically ambitious, I often felt I couldn’t spare the time.
5. If you could relive your time at Princeton, what would you keep the same?
I would absolutely write a musical for my thesis, and I would spend a semester abroad in France, as I did. I recall telling my father that I loved my time at Princeton so much that I wasn’t sure if I should give up a whole semester to go to Paris, junior spring. My father knew I loved the French language and France, and convinced me to go. I so appreciate that he did! In my mind’s eye, my wonderful three and a half years on campus and my one fantastic semester abroad in Paris actually feel equal in weight, equal in importance.
6. What part of your life are you most proud of?
It is impossible for me to select only one aspect of my life, or even one aspect of my creative or personal life in answering this question. However, I would say that I have always derived tremendous and immediate gratification from writing my lyrics, as I love ideas and the words that express them, especially in rhyme. I have often been favorably compared with Sondheim for this aspect of my work, which instills me with pride. And when composers Henry Mancini, Jule Styne, Burton Lane and Steve Allen each invited me to collaborate, that was uplifting as well. Even more so, writing the script, lyrics, and music for a number of shows which then enjoy a life on various stages has been especially exciting and fulfilling.
I would say I am most proud of anything I accomplished after first finding it daunting, where I found a solution to a problem I hadn’t even wanted to address in the first place. Finding courage by compelling myself to move forward despite fears—rational or irrational— has often led to success in both artistic and personal matters. It has been very satisfying to wrestle with difficult creative, career, or life scenarios and somehow find solutions. Oddly enough, I am most proud of succeeding at tasks that were not initially necessarily in my skill set. Writing my first musical (I Can’t Keep Running in Place) was a huge risk, but as it turned out, the show was very successful at Princeton and Off-Broadway, which encouraged me to always try new things; with no background in medicine, I fiercely advocated for my father when he was very ill at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and as a result, he went on to live a good life for many more years; I wrote and performed a one woman show at Lincoln Center and Feinstein’s and other top venues when I had never done so, yet despite my fears, the show and performance were highly praised; although I was often the creative producing force behind my musicals, I once also took on the additional challenge of raising the capitalization, and somehow managed to do so after two arduous years; I gave birth to three little boys in less than three years, from age 41 to 44, and although I initially knew little about babies and parenting, I managed to bring up three wonderful children. I am now in my sixties and yet my children are quite young—one son studies at Vanderbilt and two are at Princeton, the latter boys not yet twenty years old! Some goals we create and others are thrust upon us, but either way, throughout my life I have found it deeply satisfying to embrace challenges in order to find promising solutions.