Beeven Bietz

Day: 116
High Temp: 50F
Job Status: Unemployed (and not receiving unemployment)

With the advent of Google Alerts, bloggers need to be careful about what they say, and who they say it about. I think this is a good thing. Anonymity is certainly still easy enough to preserve on a blog, but the fact that the person you are trashing might get an email alerting them to the fact that you have written something does hopefully make the blog owner more responsible for what he or she says. It is probably not such an issue if you want to blog about an A-list celebrity. Those people are written about so much that I doubt they/their managers/their agents really care what is being said about them. I mean, can you imagine if Brittney Spears set up a google alert for her name? A constant stream of inanity, to be sure.

So what does that have to do with Austin, or my subject line Beeven Bietz? Well, this posting is supposed to be about a certain American playwright that I have had the pleasure of meeting and socializing with. However, my own inability to give an enthusiastic and heartfelt compliment has made it awkward to write this blog for fear said playwright has a google alert set for his own name, and will therefore be alerted to my blog. Therefore, I have given this incredibly charming and well-respected artist a ridiculous, slightly distorted name: Beeven Bietz.

Many of my blog readers probably already know who I am talking about. For those that don't, here are a few more clues to help you with the google search. Beeven is a professor here at UT Austin, he spends his time between Austin and Seattle, and has been produced by my beloved TimeLine Theatre in Chicago. I have a google alert set up for "TimeLine Theatre" and will now likely get an alert about my own blog...

Anyhow, Beeven wrote a play that I love. It is, in fact, one of my favorite plays EVER. I think it is really freaking cool that he is Tom's mentor and professor. I think it is really freaking cool that I have met him, and I also think it is really freaking cool that last Friday night, I sat in his back yard, drinking wine and chatting with him and other UT theatre people around his fire pit. It's all so cool. But it feels so uncool to say it!

I am a mess!

Beeven and his wife are both playwrights. They live in a gorgeous old house a few blocks north of campus, and have converted the little coach house in back into a stunning writer's cottage. Being incredibly gracious hosts, Beeven and Allison insisted that everyone please feel free to explore the little cottage, and see where he (they) make(s) the magic happen.

When I entered, I immediately noticed the bookcase in the little foyer area. It is topped with photos of family, and friends, and other trinkets that have sentimental value to our hosts. Situated among the photos and trinkets is an old LP version of Eugene Ionesco's "The Chairs". It is an audio recording of the play that in many ways shaped and inspired the Bietz play much beloved by yours truly.

There is something magical about connecting to the things or places that have inspired art that you admire. I am sure many theatre lovers feel it when walking the streets of Stratford, England, or it may be a familiar feeling to sports fans who have had the chance to hold the bat, or touch the glove of a favorite player. That is what I felt standing in that little cottage, a little bit of unexpected theatrical magic. It was so cool. And it definitely could not have happened anywhere but Austin, Texas.