Nerdy fanmail

from Holly Chou
to [Professor JG Turner]
date Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 8:41 PM
subject an old student in an older play
mailed-by gmail.com

Dear Professor Turner,

You may not remember me (in fact, I'll be mildly surprised if you do remember me as I was not an exceptional student of yours) but I was a student of yours in a Restoration-Augustan age literature course in the Fall 2005 semester. I wrote my final paper on whether babies are tastier roasted or boiled in relation to Congreve's Way of the World, and the year before that had been given the assignment at my work of sewing two silver holographic baldrics for the celestials in your Milton performance.

I write to you now because I have just gotten into a play with the Flea Theater in New York, a limited run of Joseph Addison's Cato. The performance details can be seen at http://www.theflea.org/show_detail.php?page_type=0&show_id=4. Playing Lucia will be my first New York credit (as of yesterday I have been in New York for four weeks) and I am absolutely thrilled not only with the professional opportunity and work experience it affords, but with the wonderful material we are about to study and bring to life. Our director (and artistic director of the company), Jim Simpson, has an enthusiasm and zeal and a love for this play that is infectious and inspiring. I am reminded of taking your class as a junior, as I would have enjoyed the Augustan Age in quite a different, dare I say inferior way, had it not been for your evident relish and delight in the material.

As I said, this show will have only a limited run (16 performances) and an even more limited amount of time between now and then (today was the first read-through and performances begin October 10th), but I believe it promises to be an incredible show. I can't imagine that you will be anywhere near New York between October 10th and November 1st, as you will probably be in Berkeley, cementing yourself into the academic memory of current undergrads, but on the off-off-off-off-chance that you will, for whatever reason, be in the area, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any interest in seeing the play. I imagine, perhaps very presumptuously, that aside from the occasional Restoration comedy, the opportunity to see work from your period of expertise (this particular one of your periods of expertise, anyway) in live performance may be something of a rarity. Also the actor who played the title role in The Wiz is going to be playing Cato. If that isn't an incentive, I don't know what is.

I hope this semester is going well for you so far and that this email finds you well and happy!

All my best,
Holly Chou