Long time readers and friends know that Stuart calls me by my surname, a habit that has been picked up at work by others. Sometimes I even sign e-mails ‘thomas’ as my bosses, boss is named Nicole and it makes things easier and it is a little quirky.
I don’t mind going by my surname- however I like my first name and professionally –as in my writing (that thing I don’t do anymore so much other than this dribble) I like the look of my name. Equal number of characters. It looks balanced on the page.
Written by Nicole Thomas
Looks good, yes?
Why am I telling you this? It will come clear.
I’m in New York City next week for a training conference and I am trying to arrange seeing all of my friends that live there now.. .One is Jesse, a mate from Uni. We e-mail maybe once a year and have managed to meet up twice in the last 16 years. He’s a director and directs and teaches all over. He always encouraged my writing and in 1996 when he did the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, he chose my feminist Alice in Wonderlandish on Serious Hardcore Drugs existential one act. He’s living the dream. He’s working in theatre. The man has more guts than me.
Our alma mater is Southern Utah University, which is also home to The Utah Shakespearean Festival where many of us worked in House Management, concessions or as wenches during the Elizabethan Feast.
In our e-mails arranging meeting next week, Jesse mentioned that this year, he will be directing Two Gentleman of Verona at USF. I’m well chuffed for him. I hope it goes well because a steady gig like that each year would be fantastic.
I did a search for the Web site because to be honest, I haven’t thought about the festival for years. The last time I was there was when they did a reading of my thesis play back a million and one years ago when I was a wee wide-eyed bitchy lass of 24.
So I log on to the Website. I see they have a link to all the past plays from The New American Playwrights Project. I decide to be vain and see my little name up in Website lights. There under 1994 there it is.
The Color of Bruise
By Thomas Nicole
It’s a plot.
