Early on, when I was still in college, I was fortunately to have one of my plays produced. There was a talkback afterwards and someone in the audience asked me what the play meant.

I’d been prepared for this and, because I was exactly that kind of writer, responded by asking what they thought it meant?

They said “I think you were just trying to be as weird as possible.”

After a long moment I said, “Well, right now I’m just trying to be as polite as possible.”

I’ve always had a kind of love-hate relationship with talkbacks. There’s always one person out there intent on asking questions just to show how smart they are. There’s usually someone who has an axe to grind about something. But there are also plenty of people who like what they saw and were interested enough in it to want to talk about it.

The talkback for ‘The Odyssey’ is the best I’ve even been involved with, either as a performer, writer, or audience member. The whole thing is moderated by the exceptionally capable Jeff Barker who has come well-prepared with very good questions.

As usual, I talk too much. Hopefully I avoid putting my foot in it, but there was that one question…

“Tell me, T.M. — I’m interested to hear more about how the world of the play bumps up against your own world view. Particularly in relation to the role of women.”

Pause. Look at the audience. Stand up. Remove coat and hang it on the back of the chair. Roll up sleeves. Loosen tie. And say: “Well, how much time do we have?”

All in all, a good evening for everyone. One of those nights where you wish your mom and dad were there, because you know they’d just love it so much to see you doing what you do.

Argh. I realize afterwards that I forgot to record it.

Teetering on the cusp of collapse, I head over to the Director’s house for the cast party. I say hello to people, eat some snacky treats, and say thank you to a lot of people . . . but not nearly so much as they deserve.

The long slow drift of fatigue and too much coping-with-my-natural-introversion-by-being-an-extrovert-and-talking-to-lots-of-people-too-much has taken it’s toll on me. We make our good nights and head back to our hotel rooms to collapse.

I fall asleep, very happy — mostly because I get to see the play one more time.