The moon is full, the air frosty, the path through the woods well-marked by yesterday’s snow. It's the second full moon of January—a blue moon—and my birthday. It’s cold, but I’ve got lots of layers on, and I’m comfortable but invigorated as I set off alone down the path. I carry no flashlight, since I have moonlight pouring through empty trees. I take in the quiet and beauty of the night, hearing only my footsteps crunching through the snow and the frozen leaf litter on the path. I’m tracing a circuit around a lake, through terrain that varies from hilly to marshy.

As I was selecting photos to include on this site, I came across this one from the 2011 Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre production of As You Like It, directed by Carmen Khan. I'm seated at center playing Adam, and from left to right around me are Eric Wunsch, John Jarboe, Dan Higbee, Kate Raines, Jason Greenfield, and John Little. The resolution of this image was too poor to enlarge, but I love the composition of the figures, and the rich, earthy tones of the lighting (Jerold Forsyth), set (David Gordon), and costumes (Vickie Esposito). And the extreme horizontal aspect ratio--as well as the action of eating at a table--strongly conjure up for me da Vinci's "Last Supper." There was also something especially tender about the way that John and Kate serenaded me as I ate the vegan prop food graciously supplied by Carmen.