It’s worth mentioning that HB studio was for my parents what the Vatican is for a catholic. 

It was there absolute & complete spiritual center. It was everything that they cared about & loved was in those walls. 

From when I was born until my 30’s, it was a place that I was around, seeing the creative process between my parents & your grandparents collaborating on projects they continuously worked on. 

It was this that gave you the opportunity to unleash your creative process. HB Studio taught me how to conduct myself. 

Spending a lot of time at HB, watching the creative process & projects with your grandparents & my parents. I saw it as a Mecca for the support of creativity. I come into my life being predominately a singer, singer writer, recording artist & producer occasionally working on film. 

That place had a huge impact on what it meant to be a creative person & how to stay a creative person in what seems like hopeless unimaginative world. Uta & Herbert were very inviting to whatever was going on. I was there all the time, though I never took a class. 

I was very young when Tomorrow started, a short story written be William Faulkner adapted by Horton Foote into a full length play directed by Herbert. My mom, & Robert DuVall were cast as the main two characters.  The play did well at the Studio. This lead into discussions about it becoming a film. 

Herbert ended up not moving  into the film direction. He felt that he was much more a theatre director than a film director. This would overtime result in tension between them that would eventually smooth out getting to the other end. 

Herbert’s last peace was a two person play with Paul called December. 

Jerry Stiller & Ann Mira, were besties with my parents. It was a time when Jerry & Ann were focusing on Drama, not comedy. Though this, Ben & I became good friends. 

Herbert wanted to introduce Olga to Paul. Before introducing them, Olga thought Herbert was introducing her to Paul Robeson! Instead it was Paul Roebling! 

Soon after that, they were working together. One of the projects they did was with Westing house theatre were they performed the balcony scene of Romero & Juliet. 

We went back in time to a special moment when Kris played guitar in the theatre at 124 Bank St  for the memorial of his mother Olga. Kris shares the time he got to have Herbert’s adult students watch a horror film he & his father made. Kris heard what he sounded like coughing from Herbert, wondering if he was okay. In actuality, Herbert was bawling. What surprised Kris was how invested Herbert was. How sincere his response was. It was shocking & a revelation. It was life changing. I cannot forgot it to this day. 

For the holidays or birthdays they always gave me things that assumed that I wasn’t a little kid or incapable of addressing mature content. They gave me Faust, saying you’re going to like that. Because they trusted that this was something I could handle, I took it very seriously. 

I could tell right away that seeing how your grandmother & Herbert  worked were insanely brilliant. 

I wasn’t a student but I was. There was a sense of inclusivity, caring about their well being. 

Traveling with three generations, Kris’s kids studied at the studio. It gives me a sense of the consistency if your family has the creative bug to not let it die. 

It’s a love affair with that space.