Where were you born / where did you grow up?
EL: I was born in New York City at the The Woman’s Hospital, which no longer exists. Although the hospital was ten blocks from our apartment, I was almost born in the taxi. At the age of two I moved with my family to Washington DC.
BH: I was born in Burlington, Vermont and attended the Putney School in Putney, Vermont before traveling on to New York and Cambridge for school. I later moved to Los Angeles, where I live now.
RW: I was born in Memphis, TN. In 1986, I finally made it to Woodberry Forest School in Virginia before moving to NYC for college in 1989, where I remained until 2015.
How did you first get involved with ERS?
EL: I got involved twenty years ago, when ERS approached the trustees of the Fitzgerald Estate for dramatic rights. My favorite thing about Gatz is that it includes every hallowed word of The Great Gatsby, and does it beautifully.
BH: I was fortunate to attend the final performance of Gatz at the Public Theater this winter and absolutely loved it. Any fears I had about sitting still for an eight-hour production evaporated as soon as the company hit the stage. But I understand there’s much more to ERS than Gatz, and I so look forward to enjoying future ERS productions, such as Ulysses here in LA in April!
RW: The first production I saw was Room Tone at P.S. 122 in 2002. I love how the work is created and evolves and gets richer with time.
Go-to karaoke song?
EL: I have never been to a karaoke event.
BH: I respectfully doubt my mother’s answer about having never karaoke’d! My most recent karaoke experience involved the Hailey Whitters song, “Everything She Ain’t” (although I spent a decent amount of time making political asides, as this was immediately following the last election).
RW: “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads. It’s fun and does not require a pop star set of pipes.
Most recent TV binge watch?
EL: Zero Day.
BH: I wish I could binge watch White Lotus, but I’m waiting patiently for our next weekly dose. My most recent proper binge was Nobody Wants This, and before that, Heartstopper and Borgen.
RW: Severance. It flew under my radar (see what I did there!) when it first came out. Before season two was released, I took the plunge and have now watched season one twice. Even better the second time around!
All-time favorite album?
EL: Oklahoma?
BH: I’m seriously questioning my mother’s answers now! She loves music. It really is difficult to whittle it down to just one album, though. Anything with Astrud Gilberto, Blue and Court and Spark by Joni Mitchell, True Democracy by Steel Pulse, and The Magician by Andy Shauf remain all-time faves.
RW: It’s a tie for first place: Fugazi’s 13 Songs. Hearing “Waiting Room” for the first time knocked me to the ground. The album I return to time and time again, however, is The Replacements’ Tim. It was my primary soundtrack in a time before cell phones and selfies. The initial scream at the top of “Bastards of Young” says it all.
What are you currently reading?
EL: Just finished the annotated The Great Gatsby published by Library of America and edited by James West. The book includes rare illustrations, documents, history and correspondence between the author and Maxwell Perkins, Scott’s editor. Love the book design and pink and gold cover. Before that I read the Centennial Edition of Gatsby published by Simon & Schuster, painstakingly edited for the ages by James West and free, at last, of all accumulated errors.
BH: I’m reading The God of the Woods by Liz Moore and listening to The Fraud by Zadie Smith, who reads the audiobook version beautifully.
RW: John Green’s Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection.
