Some reflections on doing the play and being in Washington during President Obama’s inauguration . . .
The stars seemed to line up. Getting to play Lincoln in a thoughtful and moving play by James Still about conscience and heartache and the issue of slavery was a privilege. This year has been a celebration of Lincoln’s birth, and also of the reopening of Ford’s Theatre, which had been closed for nearly two years for a long overdue redoing. The result is wonderful, and the new seats are comfortable. Rehearsals were held in a church that had been used as a hospital during the Civil War. The only problem was that Christmas music blared for two hours every day during our first four weeks of rehearsals. It made you concentrate, but drove our director to early lunches.
