As I continue browsing my daily journals from my first year as a freelancer, this three-day retrospective entry stands out mostly because it gives me the chance to share a positive review that is 44 years overdue:

In the final analysis, this vacation and particularly this weekend went well. At the cabin I enjoyed getting along with these people … In fact, it was truly a vacation, for aside from a few character and situation ideas, my brain was not “writing” at all during all this time. Very, very nice.

On Sunday I … was called by Robert Huminski to cover a town meeting for the Journal-Opinion … Then that night I went to see Mrs. Warren’s Profession (G.B. Shaw) as directed by Sam. I had never seen Sam direct before, so I have no basis for comparison, but the show was very good indeed for a college performance, in the Bentley, where the female lead is suffering from a lost voice. (She was able to keep it in character!) I enjoyed it very much. The direction had two things going for it: Sam is a very, very bright fellow, particularly in theatre, and Sam is a self-confessed Shavian. He’ll go a long way. I hope that our paths will meet again in the future … he’d be fun to work with.

Journal, Volume II
March 2-4, 1979

The critic and editor in me admits that the journal entry was “very, very” weak writing (redundancies, awkward sentence structure, lack of specifics and objectivity, etc.). Serves me right for trying to get it down at the end of an exhausting weekend. I must have been very, very tired.

Sam, a brother at our co-ed fraternity, did indeed go far in both the academic and theatrical worlds. He was an assistant professor of theater at both Dartmouth College and DePauw University. Last I heard, he was executive director (of a different kind) for a nonprofit.

Sam and I did take different paths, but still are Friends on Facebook. This belated review isn’t the sort to put in a scrapbook, but I hope it brightens his day.