I drove Caitlin to work at DK this morning, and am writing from the kitchen in Broadripple, a suburb of Indianapolis. It’s gorgeous outside – enormous trees covering all the streets with fall leaves, and tall houses that look like bricks and gingerbread and Little Midwestern Riding Hood.

I’m working on a personal statement for Middlebury about why I want to learn German this summer. When I was twenty-one, a group of German actors asked me to direct a play in Berlin, and I didn’t know the language. I was scrambling to finish a major I’d switched to late in my career, and decided (stupidly) that I didn’t have room to add the language classes. It’s time to learn it now, and to go back, as soon as I can.

I also just made a “Get Involved” page for the Convergence’s new PBwiki. (It’s under construction, but let me know what you think – indyconvergence.pbwiki.com)

I hate it when theaters, or other arts organizations, don’t have an obvious “Get Involved” link right there on their front page, telling you who to contact if you want to be part of their work. It may be that a lot of organizations in this country don’t actually want a flood of college students emailing them. But how are you supposed to get the next generation to come find you? What’s the continuity of the things you believe in?

Even the ones that do have “Get Involved” often just have a link for volunteers, and nothing about what actors and designers are supposed to do. I suppose they think if you can’t figure it out, can’t get your foot in the door, you don’t deserve to be part of the in-crowd. But speaking as someone who has “figured it out,” or part of it – I don’t think we gain anything by keeping the doors to our theatres more closed than they already are.