SCOOTER THOMAS MAKES IT TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD
The toughest part of dealing with this person was that even while he embarrassed the hell out of us every time we appeared with him in public, we still sort of admired him. Subconsciously, we recognized him as a direct descendant of the quintessential American hero–Huckleberry Finn, or Tom Joad, or the mythical cowboy. An anachronism. So we wrote to his mother asking after him, maybe even gave him a call once in a while, just to let him know that someone would be there to show him the territory on the day he finally got tired of screwing up and bowed to the demands of 20th-century civilization.
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Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World is now touring high schools in New York State; it is intended to be helpful to adolescents trying to understand themselves and one another. Parnell has been quoted as saying that he hopes adult viewers of his play will be moved to phone some old school chum and ask how he or she is doing. I probably won’t–too many of the Scooters I knew have already jumped off their mountains. But I do look forward to what the mature playwright will have to offer at the Goodman later this year.
