Or, you know, that's a really sweet question. And I think, yes. So, in 2014, I was named a Lunt-Fontanne fellow. And that's when they picked ten actors from around the country to go to Ten Chimneys, which is the home of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, who were the premier theatre couple of their time, and they toured, which was very unusual at the time, and so, each year they take ten actors. And the year I went, the master teacher was David Hyde Pierce, who people know from Frasier. And, just to say he is as kind and as everything you want him to be. He is. He is just a Mensch. So that was a wonderful, wonderful time. And we trained together, and we studied, and we did this performance for their donors. And it was heaven. And then the next year, actually, while I was rehearsing The Three Sisters, I got a call to come back to Ten Chimneys and do a week-long training with Olympia Dukakis. And, it was to work on Electra. So we were focused on the Greeks, not Chekhov for that. But Olympia was the premier Chekhov actress of her time. I have played every role that she has played, and as I get older, I will continue to play the roles that she played. And it was a very challenging week. It was hard work. She was as passionate about teaching as she was about acting. And she was fearless and, you know, just would say whatever she thought. So she could be hard on you. And she had a moment of being very hard on me, where at one point she said, You're a coward. And I was like, you know, this was in front of everybody, like ten other esteemed actors. And I'm like, I said, okay, okay. I said, well, I said, I don't think I am, but I'm going to have to think about that. And so I went back to where I was staying that night, and I thought about it. And then the next morning, I came in, and she always asked us every day, What are you bringing into the room with you? And so I shared with everybody what I'd been thinking about what she said. And, it's kind of a longer story, but it has to do with me calling my mother and getting hysterical and talking about my bottom line. Fear. Losing my mom and dad. And when Olympia called me a coward, it's because I said, well, there's a moment in a lecture where somebody talks about killing their mother. And she said, so you have to imagine what circumstances you would actually kill your mother. And I said, well, I would never kill my mother. And she said, Yes, yes, you would. Under certain. You've got to think it through. I'm like, no, she's like, you're a coward. Like she called me on not thinking it through. So I called my mom, got completely hysterical, turned into a whole therapy session about, you know, today I'm 59, and I'm still worried about losing my parents. You know, they'd go out to dinner, and I'd stay up until I heard them drive home. It's a thing. Oh, geez. Anyway, so. But that's just me. Anywho, so after that moment, the next day and I had a big breakdown in front of everybody at the end of the whole workshop, and Olympia and I became close, like we'd talk and stuff. She hugged me as we were saying goodbye, and she said to me, You made me believe in myself again. Olympia Dukakis said that to me. And so from that, she and I corresponded, and I would call her because I was working on Ring of Fire, which she had played in The Cherry Orchard, and I'd get her advice. And dear friends of mine had saved their miles, and they flew me to New York to hang out with her, because they wanted me to have more time with her. So I did, and she passed away during COVID, and it was devastating for me. So in terms of how that experience has shaped me or changed me, it's I just call on it. It's like calling on your mentors or calling on your ancestors before a big moment. So I've had a lot of sadness during this time, a lot of indecision, a lot of concern about now. What next? You ask me what's next, and I don't know. I don't know because I don't have anything lined up, and I don't know when I will, and I don't know, and blah, blah, blah. And it's being an actor, but but now it's even more so, so, that experience instilled in me a sense of, um, on one hand, a sense of confidence and great humility, and on the other hand, just I carry her Olympia with me in my heart so deeply, that I feel like she's got my back.
