Today I wrote what may be the three most satisfying words a dramatist writes: END OF PLAY. They went on the bottom of page 103 in Scene 12 of a new full-length comedy. (One only hopes there will eventually be audiences and if they materialize, that they will laugh.) This [...] Continue reading »
Seinfeld, with Friends, Getting Coffee
In a recent post I wrote about Jerry Seinfeld’s devotion to the craft of comedy writing and delivery. As I was researching that post I learned about Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, an innovative, understated Web series that Seinfeld created and produced last year. His framing device is to drive a [...] Continue reading »
How to Live a Cultured Life
How does one lead a good life? What does it mean to be a good person? These are profound questions that any thoughtful person worthy of that adjective regularly explores. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), in the below letter to his older brother Nikolai, reflected on cultured people and identified eight qualities [...] Continue reading »
Wouk Inspires Gray-Haired Artists
If ever he was assigned a use-by date, author Herman Wouk rejected it long ago. At age 97 he has just published a new novel, The Lawgiver. Furthermore, this is no musty Victorian epistolary novel. The Lawgiver features au courant communication channels like cell phones, text messages and Skype, and [...] Continue reading »
Dateline Cairo: America Remains Land of Opportunity
A week ago some kind theatre people in Cairo took pity on a lonely traveler and hosted a small, charming reception for me. I had been traveling solo for three weeks so an evening of involved discussion in fluent English with other artists was most welcome. Egypt right now is [...] Continue reading »
Meet Mike Nordby, Furniture Artist
Mike Nordby is one of my oldest and dearest friends. He is now of retirement age but lacks any retirement inclination. That could be a problem for some, but not for Mike. Mike spent much of his business life overseas in the commercial fishing industry but he’s never forgotten his [...] Continue reading »
Getting Immunized by Dr. Chekhov in St. Petersburg
In February 2005 I made a pilgrimage of sorts to St. Petersburg. (If you want cold, go to Russia in February.) I have always been a fan of Russian literature; Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Anna Karenina are among the greatest novels, and standing atop my personal pantheon of playwrights [...] 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 »
The Creative Habit
“When it all comes together, a creative life has the nourishing power we normally associate with food, love, and faith,” asserts famous choreographer Twyla Tharp on the last page of her inspiring, tough-love book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life. This book came out nine years [...] Continue reading »
A Global Concern
A report in the New York Times last Sunday was as surprising as it was discouraging: the sales of world globes are in decline. Officials for major school systems – including my own in Seattle – report that most classrooms no longer have them. I would have thought globes were a [...] Continue reading »