Fifteen years ago I got fed up with hearing myself blabber about how I planned to write a play and actually sat my butt down and wrote my first script. An important impetus for my shift from fantasy to reality, from wannabe to doing it, was the 1959 memoir Act [...] Continue reading »
Kafka Meets Seattle History
Kafka’s famous 1914 novel The Trial has been adapted into a disturbing play by Oregon Shakespeare Festival stalwart Kenneth Albers, and the small and intrepid New Century Theatre Company (NCTC) is currently giving it a memorable world premiere. It’s rare for the venue of a play to loom as large as the [...] Continue reading »
Can ‘Never Again’ Make ‘Again’ More Likely?
Last fall in Jerusalem an Israeli parent told me about a facet of Israel’s secondary school system that made me wonder if it’s not ultimately self-defeating. A main reason for my trip to Israel was to better understand the seemingly intractable conflict between Israel and neighboring populations. I wanted to [...] Continue reading »
Obama on Stage, with Seattle Connection
Abraham Lincoln is not the only American president to be featured on screen and stage this past year. Our current president, who as it happens is being inaugurated today for his second term, has also been the object of dramatic attention. A new play featuring Obama, The President and the [...] Continue reading »
Punching Holes toward Peace
During my recent stay in Old Jerusalem I found myself in need of a paper-hole punch to help organize manuscript pages for the play I was working on. (I work on my writing every day, whether on the road or in my Seattle apartment.) It wasn’t critical that I obtain [...] Continue reading »
An Israeli Father’s Lament
Beginning writers are advised not to view their scribbles as therapy, not to think that assembling words can somehow disassemble one’s demons. Good general advice. To which there are exceptions. For certain writers, or for just one work among a writer’s output. I recall reports of Eugene O’Neill emerging from [...] Continue reading »
Road Reveal #4 (The Western Wall)
On my recent trip to Jerusalem I twice visited the famous “Western Wall,” a remnant of the wall that surrounded the ancient Jewish Temple’s courtyard. (Wailing Wall, Kotel [Hebrew] and Buraq Wall [Arabic] are other names for it.) It is one of the most sacred sites for Jews. Most images of [...] Continue reading »
A Novel Shows Roots of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Hell has once again erupted in Israel. War is being waged between Hamas, the governing authority in Gaza, and Israel. Prior to last week’s outbreak, Hamas, or militant factions in Gaza which Hamas does not control, had fired around 750 rockets into southern Israel this year. Deciding enough was enough, [...] Continue reading »
Our Urge to Explore
Receiving my elementary school education in Florida spashed my early exposure to history with salt water. Explorers such as Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco de Gama and Ponce de Leon captured my young imagination. Key West in the 1950s was an ideal setting to steer a boy’s imagination in the nautical direction. [...] Continue reading »
Zola Examines Poverty
I wrote a recent post about skill vs. luck in an entrepreneur’s success. At a somewhat larger scale this debate encompasses class mobility and poverty vs. wealth. Aside from genetics, is any dice throw more influential than the parents and socio-economic strata that greet us at birth? This debate also [...] Continue reading »