CITIZENS OF YES

ZAK
Zak, my beloved roommate /best friend from the Year of Yes, now lives in the Bay Area, and has had plays done all over the place. He teaches playwrighting in the summers at The California State Summer School for the Arts. He sounds very dignified, but really, he's charming, bizarre, and still very much the Zak I've known and loved for almost ten years now. He's also very likely the teacher that all the students crush on, and I don't blame them. Zak is funny, caustic, insanely well-read, and has one of the best hearts I've ever had the good fortune to spend time in. Also: He has decided to relinquish his anonymity. Perhaps this is because almost all the girls who've so far read the book have developed crushes on him, and he's seeking to maximize his impact on the women of America (and abroad - those foreign editions can't hurt). And so, drumroll please: Zay Amsbury. Playwright. Thinker. And good in bed too! (He paid me to say that - I don't actually know for sure, but you can read about some of his exploits, both physical and philosophical, in the book) Zay is embarking on a Year of Sell, which means he'd like to make some money on his writing this year. He deserves to. Last year he provided a lot of free entertainment for his friends by writing a play a day for the whole damned year. (Zay is an ambitious person.) If you're in the market for a play, a screenplay, a novel, or a short discourse on Brecht, drop the boy a line.

THE PLAYWRIGHT
Yeah, okay, whatever. I'm biased. But Robert Schenkkan, my man, my beloved, Chapter 12 of The Year of Yes, is, in my humble opinion, one of the best writers in the entire universe. He's got balls. He's got courage (a good thing, too, considering who he's married to). He's got a truly kick ass sense of humor (obviously, or he and I would never get along), as well as a spectacular ability to take a situation and write it into something not only profound, but hilarious, heart-rending, and ultimately capable of making you think. Hard. I suspect that this is why the good people of the Pulitzer Prize committee awarded him the Pulitzer for Drama in 1992, for The Kentucky Cycle. I read it then, tried immediately to write my own version (not so successful) and when I met him a few years later, I fell hard. The rest is history.

His newest play, LEWIS AND CLARK REACH THE EUPHRATES, (Huck Finn meets Heart of Darkness, baby, how could you possibly skip it?) is playing at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles from December 13, 2005 to January 22, 2006. If you're in LA, get yourself there. It's worth it. It's even worth a plane ticket if you're not in LA. It's about US foreign policy, but not in any kind of dull way. If you're the kind of person who looks at the words "Lewis and Clark," and groans, it doesn't matter. The play is anything but boring. The explorers get lost, and end up time-travelling. You're gonna laugh a lot. And you're going to cry too. See it now, the brave new work from a guy who a)happens to be my husband and b) happens to be a genius. Don't mean to brag, but damn, I'm a lucky girl.

SHELFIE
My sister, Molly Cathline Headley, was very, very, generous and let me use her Shelfie story in The Year of Yes. Not to mention a couple of other stories that may or may not be embarrassing. The main thing about my sister, though, is that she's a truly amazing dancer and choreographer, based in Los Angeles. As well, if you've any desire for Pilates instruction, she's your girl. This is Molly's Website.