Tag: Beth Dimon

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Acting

Interesting Reading

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

1984 by George Orwell

The Space Merchants by Frederic Pohl and C M Kornbluth

Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke

Shikasta by Doris Lessing

Quantum Physics for Dummies by Andrew Zimmerman Jones

The Constitution of The United States of America

Each of these titles has something to offer in terms of what is happening on the world stage. To me, the first three seem especially prophetic.

Then we enter the wonderful world of sci-fi. The late Dame Doris Lessing says that sci-fi writers are to literature as illegitimate children are to families.

And I put Quantum physics for Dummies in there because I tried to read it when we did Copenhagen ⎯ Chris Oden, Beth Dimon and I ⎯ I struggled through about 4 pages ⎯ but I did get the incredible insight that a particle can also be a wave, and that has been a comfort ever since.

The Constitution is something I’ve dipped into, and am now resolved to read it properly before it’s too late.

And to these literary offerings I now add my own long form blog at Substack

As posted elsewhere, I’ve been following Richard Hester’s excellent “Posts from the Upper West Side” for quite some time ⎯ this actor blog doesn’t seem quite the right venue for actor/astrologer narrative, but I think Substack could be. Rather than re-post my first entry here ⎯ well, just click the link if you are interested!

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Acting

… And Then You Open

In 3000 years of theatre no one has yet come up with a better way. There’s a fortune to be made when they do.

You rehearse. You rehearse some more, then you technically rehearse and you drink too much coffee. Then you have a production week complete with long days, previews, coffee, tweaks, adjustments, new ideas, things you should have thought of before, oh, and coffee.

And then in an unholy melange of caffeine, nerves, uncertainty, mid hysteria, anticipation and fatigue … you open.

We opened last night. Come and see us if you’re nearby!

 

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Acting

The ‘Ould Country

We can’t all be Irish.

The next best thing is to go to Ireland and drink, in this order, some Guinness, some whiskey, some po’teen; preferably while attempting conversations on the greats of Irish literature – in no particular order; George Bernard Shaw, W. B. Yeats, C. S. Lewis, Miles Na Gopaleen (aka Flann O’ Brien), Sean O’ Faolain, Edna O’ Brien, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Hugh Leonard, Brendan Behan, J P Donleavey, and James Joyce – to name but a few, and we haven’t got all day, but you’ll find literary discussion widely available. There is something in the water, the Guinness, the Whiskey, the Po’teen.

You can also watch films like, The Guard, The Field, and if you really want to slow things down, The Man of Aran.

My own antecedents John and Mary McPhillamy of Irish extraction were transported from Scotland to Australia in 1816 for making whiskey without a license – surely a crime in name only. But I digress.

If you can’t get yourself to Ireland, the next best thing is to get yourself into an Irish play. I’m in one now. It’s called The Cripple of Inishmaan and it’s by Martin McDonagh. And we’re doing it in Florida. An Irish play written by one of London, England’s best dramatists of Irish descent, in West Palm Beach, FL, USA. It seems so obvious doesn’t it? Surely just a question of who gets there first.

Mind you, this from Palm Beach Dramaworks, the theatre with the stones to have lately staged Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, you know, the one, along with much of Stoppard’s work that requires audience members to be educated to doctorate level.

You don’t need a degree to enjoy this one; and if you don’t do booze, and can’t take on a pre-show po’teen, never mind, the play itself is sure to nudge open the doors of perception in the way that theatre can from time to time.

Oh, and the cast is brilliant.

My love affair with Florida continues.