Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook428 pages7 hours
Ghost Light: A Memoir
By Frank Rich
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
There is a superstition that if an emptied theater is ever left completely dark, a ghost will take up residence. To prevent this, a single "ghost light" is left burning at center stage after the audience and all of the actors and musicians have gone home. Frank Rich's eloquent and moving boyhood memoir reveals how theater itself became a ghost light and a beacon of security for a child finding his way in a tumultuous world.
Rich grew up in the small-townish Washington, D.C., of the 1950s and early '60s, a place where conformity seemed the key to happiness for a young boy who always felt different. When Rich was seven years old, his parents separated--at a time when divorce was still tantamount to scandal--and thereafter he and his younger sister were labeled "children from a broken home." Bouncing from school to school and increasingly lonely, Rich became terrified of the dark and the uncertainty of his future. But there was one thing in his life that made him sublimely happy: the Broadway theater.
Rich's parents were avid theatergoers, and in happier times they would listen to the brand-new recordings of South Pacific, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game over and over in their living room. When his mother's remarriage brought about turbulent changes, Rich took refuge in these same records, re-creating the shows in his imagination, scene by scene. He started collecting Playbills, studied fanatically the theater listings in The New York Times and Variety, and cut out ads to create his own miniature marquees. He never imagined that one day he would be the Times's chief theater critic.
Eventually Rich found a second home at Wash-ington's National Theatre, where as a teenager he was a ticket-taker and was introduced not only to the backstage magic he had dreamed of for so long but to a real-life cast of charismatic and eccentric players who would become his mentors and friends. With humor and eloquence, Rich tells the triumphant story of how the aspirations of a stagestruck young boy became a lifeline, propelling him toward the itinerant family of theater, whose romantic denizens welcomed him into the colorful fringes of Broadway during its last glamorous era.
Every once in a while, a grand spectacle comes along that introduces its audiences to characters and scenes that will resound in their memories long after the curtain has gone down. Ghost Light, Frank Rich's beautifully crafted childhood memoir, is just such an event.
Rich grew up in the small-townish Washington, D.C., of the 1950s and early '60s, a place where conformity seemed the key to happiness for a young boy who always felt different. When Rich was seven years old, his parents separated--at a time when divorce was still tantamount to scandal--and thereafter he and his younger sister were labeled "children from a broken home." Bouncing from school to school and increasingly lonely, Rich became terrified of the dark and the uncertainty of his future. But there was one thing in his life that made him sublimely happy: the Broadway theater.
Rich's parents were avid theatergoers, and in happier times they would listen to the brand-new recordings of South Pacific, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game over and over in their living room. When his mother's remarriage brought about turbulent changes, Rich took refuge in these same records, re-creating the shows in his imagination, scene by scene. He started collecting Playbills, studied fanatically the theater listings in The New York Times and Variety, and cut out ads to create his own miniature marquees. He never imagined that one day he would be the Times's chief theater critic.
Eventually Rich found a second home at Wash-ington's National Theatre, where as a teenager he was a ticket-taker and was introduced not only to the backstage magic he had dreamed of for so long but to a real-life cast of charismatic and eccentric players who would become his mentors and friends. With humor and eloquence, Rich tells the triumphant story of how the aspirations of a stagestruck young boy became a lifeline, propelling him toward the itinerant family of theater, whose romantic denizens welcomed him into the colorful fringes of Broadway during its last glamorous era.
Every once in a while, a grand spectacle comes along that introduces its audiences to characters and scenes that will resound in their memories long after the curtain has gone down. Ghost Light, Frank Rich's beautifully crafted childhood memoir, is just such an event.
Unavailable
Related to Ghost Light
Related ebooks
The Art Fair: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlim Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crackwalker Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5There Is Nothing Like a Dane!: The Lighter Side of Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paris Blue: A Memoir of First Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Citizen of the Country: Reisden & Perdita Mysteries, #3 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Little Masterpieces of Autobiography: Actors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScreen Shots Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Return of the Phantom: Le Couer Loyal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5House Fire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Last Resume: New & Collected Poems (1971–1980 | 1999–2023) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWithout a Net: Stories of Our Risky Flights Towards Love, Loss, and Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJudgment Day and Other Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dream in a Suitcase: The Story of an Immigrant Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Darker Face of the Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCollected Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLetters from Backstage: The Adventures of a Touring Stage Actor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Life in Pieces: An Alternative Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Colour of Black & White: Poems 1984–2003 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sound Inside Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Season in Lights: A Novel in Three Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ordinary Seaman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Travelers Five Along Life's Highway : Jimmy, Gideon Wiggan, the Clown, Wexley Snathers, Bap. Sloan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStarcrossed: A Biography of Madame Butterfly Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOutlaws Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Entertainers and the Rich & Famous For You
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Magnolia Story (with Bonus Content) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elvis and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Me: Elton John Official Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: An Oprah's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman in Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capital Gaines: Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Open Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in Parts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Black Unicorn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Ghost Light
Rating: 3.8076923 out of 5 stars
4/5
26 ratings0 reviews