Shelley hosted our four attendees around her kitchen table. It was cozy! Ceci had 14 pages of notes (but very few post-its, strangely) and led our discussion of Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow. She found an early (16th century) German reference to a character named Michael Kohlhaas (sp?), who was Doctorow's inspiration for Coalhouse, and an 1810 novella by von Kleist for other ideas. We talked about what parts of the book made it into the musical that she saw in May at Lincoln Center. The musical is slightly more upbeat than the book. It was a real treat that Ceci played some of the numbers from the original musical for us! The revival that Ceci saw included two actors who (soon after she saw it) received Tony Awards for their performances in this run. After the meeting, I told her she should host a webinar on the book and the musical!
Thanks for stepping up, Shelley, even though you had hosted the month before!
