{"id":10443,"date":"2015-02-13T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T16:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=10443"},"modified":"2015-02-13T11:22:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T16:22:00","slug":"call-me-kurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/call-me-kurt\/","title":{"rendered":"Call Me Kurt"},"content":{"rendered":"

February\/March 2015 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

A famous novelist skates into a Power play.<\/h3>\n

By Thomas A. Power<\/p>\n

\"Call-Me-Kurt\"<\/a>In the early 1980s I was directing a production of Happy, Birthday Wanda<\/em> June by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. at USM for a December performance and discovered that Vonnegut\u2019s ending didn\u2019t work very well. I learned that one of the cast members, Mark Rogers, had a family connection with the author and provided me with a mailing address so I wrote to Mr. Vonnegut asking if he would consider making any changes to the ending of his play.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that Happy Birthday, Wanda June<\/em> had already had a run on Broadway and been made into a movie but undaunted, I suggested a small change might help my production if Vonnegut was willing. I included my phone number but truthfully didn\u2019t expect a response.<\/p>\n

This was before computer email or cell phones so it took three days for my letter to arrive at the author\u2019s home in New York but on the fourth day, my telephone rang. My oldest son, Matthew was a high school senior and coincidentally a devotee of Vonnegut\u2019s novels. He answered the phone and turned to me as I finished my morning prep for leaving to teach.<\/p>\n

\u201cDad, it\u2019s Kurt Vonnegut for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure who was more surprised but I will never forget Matt\u2019s voice as he delivered that simple phrase. You would have to imagine your own literary idol calling to chat without warning or preparation to envision that moment before I took the phone and said, \u201cGood morning, Mr. Vonnegut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKurt,\u201d he said. \u201cJust Kurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see you don\u2019t like the ending of my play. I never could get that right. What do you want to do about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Caught in the moment and feeling a bit light-headed, I told \u201cKurt\u201d what I had in mind and we threw some ideas back and forth. We spoke for another minute or two until he said \u201cI\u2019ll work on this and get back to you.\u201d We disconnected and I headed to class.<\/p>\n

Two days later a large manila envelope with my address hand written and Vonnegut\u2019s return address in the proper corner arrived at my door. Overnight Mail, I think they called it then. Inside were ten typewritten pages and a brief note from Vonnegut with his phone number and the request that I call with my reaction to the new scene. I read the new scene once, twice and a third time. I didn\u2019t think it would work or solve the problem with the ending of the play. How does one say that to Kurt Vonnegut? So, I gave it a day. On the second day the phone rang and Kurt asked if I got the draft and I assured him that I did have it and then a brief pause until he said, \u201cYou didn\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I beat around that bush a moment and then admitted that it didn\u2019t address the problem. Vonnegut then surprised me by saying \u201cOkay, you write it and send it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I did. I rewrote the end of the play, sent it by overnight mail to Vonnegut and he called back saying \u201cI like it. Use your ending.\u201d And so we dumped the original ending and rehearsed the new and performed the play at USM and then at a regional festival at Brandeis University. The relationship with Kurt Vonnegut continued for another decade as we met in NYC for lunch and exchanged ideas for plays via snail mail. He sent me his script, Make Up Your Mind<\/em>, and with the help of actors like Tony Shalhoub, we produced a staged reading of the play which was televised in Maine and later almost opened off Broadway but Vonnegut was not happy with the script and mentioned to me at the time that \u201cwriting a novel was much easier and that there was nothing quite as bad as a flawed play ending.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February\/March 2015
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