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A warm, witty tell-all and history of American regional theater, from one of our best-loved directorsFor Jack O’Brien, there’s nothing like a first encounter with a great performer, nothing like the sound of an audience bursting into applause. In short, there’s nothing like the theater.     Following a fairly normal Midwestern childhood, O’Brien hoped to make his mark by writing lyrics for Broadway but was instead pulled into the growing American regional theater movement by the likes of John Houseman, Helen Hayes, Ellis Rabb, and Eva Le Gallienne. He didn’t intend to become a director, or to direct some of the most brilliant—and sometimes maddening—personalities of the age, but in a charming, hilarious, and unexpected way, that’s what happened.