December Blues

I sent these to a few friends as my “holiday letter.”

I’m quickly becoming an unapologetic curmudgeon. I blame worldwide right-wing populism, especially the current White House.

Medical issues are SOOOO boring (and such a cliché about the elderly). Yet, they make up the majority of my 2025 adventures. Though the current administration has, indeed, screwed up medicine (amid a long list of screw ups), my issues are bad luck rather than bad politics. In 2024, after years of horrid acid reflux that remained untouched by standard treatments, I was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia and told that my best chance at recovery would be surgery. I had surgery in March (years after the symptoms began and almost a year after the diagnosis), where they discovered I also had a squashed esophagus – causing an additional surgery while I was under. I woke up with heart problems I’d never had previously. Afterward, Afib sent me to the ER more than once. All of this set off an extended flareup of ulcerative colitis (I was diagnosed 30 years ago). I have lost 70 pounds ish. No compliments, please. First, it wasn’t anything I did. My body chose to eliminate everything I ate for months, and I feel like a concentration camp survivor. Second, I’m still a fat person, but now every part of me is sagging and wrinkly. I’m not out of the woods yet, health-wise, and some days I can barely function. Also, don’t congratulate people for losing weight. It only feeds the evil diet industry.

My work and theater lives, both of which I still enjoy despite medical stuff that keeps me from being 100 percent, is fraught with fear of getting fired.

Since 2021, I’ve worked as a Standardized Patient for the two different colleges. Recently, they’ve both implied that I’m aging out. When I ask why they call me so rarely, they say, “it must be the demographics.” I’ve heard those exact words more than once from more than one person, so I believe it’s code for “you’re too old.” Mind you, men my age get called all the time. I’m not bitter.

This is my third year as a part-time assistant producer and stage manager mentor for the theater arts program of Edgewood University. The school just converted from a college -- I might be working for a department instead of a program now. I’m trying to catch up. Academic theater is a different kettle of fish from my previous experience. I’ll be directing The Mousetrap for Edgewood in Feb 2026. I adore working with students (I directed These Shining Lives last year) and the faculty of the program (or department) is brilliant and inspiring, but I keep making missteps as an employee.

I wrote and directed a play that performed all through October 2025 at Broom Street Theatre. It was the single most ambitious piece I’ve ever created, incorporating experimental dance by the ingenious Heidi Hakseth and original music by my son, Jeremy Thal. My narrative uses today’s political violence, right-wing podcasters, rape, and suicide, plus Salome herself, to depict distortions of women’s history. The title, Head on a Platter: In Defense of Salome sounds like a Bible story (it isn’t) or historical horror (not that, either). If you have a suggestion for a catchier title, let me know.

I love working at Broom Street Theater – the oldest continuously operating experimental company in the U.S. – the people who run that quirky little space are smart, fun, and dedicated to non-traditional theater.

Almost everyone involved in my show was fantastic – actors, dancers, designers, choreographer, stage management, etc. – but things went wrong. Of five incredible dancers, three had injuries (they were hurt elsewhere, not during our rehearsals or performances) and two had to leave the show. An actor who doesn’t like the way I direct waited long into the rehearsal process to walk out. Their replacement had little time to prepare but was remarkable; audiences loved them.

You can still see the show! I hired an excellent videographer and will soon have his video. The venue also shot a livestream. For links to one or both, email me. Several people who saw Salome want to see it re-mounted – fingers crossed. Your friend, the Broadway producer, wants to see the video . . .

I have written not one word of my third novel, but I’m grateful for the one enthusiastic reader who keeps urging me to do so. I do have copies of the first and second books if anyone wants them. I also plan to write a romcom play that incorporates the politics of snow, though right now it’s all in my head. And snow is complicated. I’m changing the words on my tombstone from “Sister of the Guy Who Wrote the Kit-Kat Song,” to “Needs More Time.” (Don’t worry, I won’t really have a tombstone. Green burial.)

On the plus side, I’ve read 1.5 of the six Booker Prize finalists. I’m such a slow reader! I loved Audition by Katie Kitamura. I’m blessed (as an atheist, I use this language way too much) by the fine selection of magical leftist artists and scientists in my life, who live all over the world. I’m jubilant to have participated in creating the lovely miracle known as Jeremy Thal. I was invited to a wedding in Ireland and though I couldn’t go (health), I was thrilled at the prospect. I missed a gathering of a few high school friends for the same reason, but what joy to still be in touch with people who informed my adolescence! I have a chosen family from college and another from my NYC days. And my DNA family is pretty nice, too –Thanksgiving was a blast. Madison, of course, is crowded with artists and activists. Stay in touch with your old people. We appreciate it.

I am terrified of the fascists around the world right. I will do what I can to fight them. Please join me.

Happy celebrations of whatever you find to celebrate!