Ah, youth!

Here's what I looked like in 1984 for the opening of Christmas at the Juniper Tavern. The play got a ton of press before it opened -- and even more afterwards (including national press), thanks to the comparison to the Rajneesh controversy. In fact, Swami Kree was based on the guru in my earlier one-act The Death of Teng Yin-feng, written long before the Rajneesh took interest in Oregon. But no matter. People believe what they want to believe, and the play was received at the time as a topical play, not the universal play about the languages of spirituality I intended. Later, with revivals, and watching the TV version today, the Rajneesh are finally forgotten and the play works more closely to my conception. Sometimes it takes decades for the work to settle in.