Notes - Before The Reading - August 21, 2021

Anticipating an excellent read of my play BIRDS ON WIRES for the Thinking Cap’s Theatre play reading festival- Stranger Than Fiction, I arrived promptly at the beautiful, scenic Bonnet House Museum on a Sunday afternoon. The readings consisted of thirteen short plays developed in workshop on Zoom to be performed at the Island Theatre- a hut structure rectangular fits about 50 folding chairs. An actor, Steve, parked next to me, and we found our way to the theatre with the help of a golf cart and driver. As the actors and playwrights entered, I experienced a feeling of newness and was open to meeting new faces. The actors lined up on the right along the window nook with scripts on their laps, highlighting- before the cue calls. I got to chat a bit with the actors reading my script Rod, Philip, and Ashley. As the audience entered, the nervousness faded, and that feeling of welcoming warmth added to the stir of excitement filling the space. Another 9 minutes to go - It’s 3 PM - Showtime! The actors weaved through the works in repertory, which is the best way. Grateful to Artistic Director- Nicole Stodard and Bree-Anna Obst of Thinking Cap Theatre for putting together a phenomenal playwriting event.

A sketch of the opening scene BIRDS ON WIRES

Putting on a Table Reading During the New Normal

In anticipation of my visit to New York City, I'm preparing a play reading of my new comedy, SOCIAL CLIMBERS AND THE UNDIAGNOSED NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, at La MaMa's rehearsal studios.

Putting on an in-person table reading dares a risk-taker in any environment, but it's a new extreme in a pandemic.  First, finishing the draft, which is a beast in itself, then securing a space. There's casting- finding available actors to read around a table, preparing the draft ready for the printing, and finding compassionate spectators to provide constructive feedback. On top of all of that, there are Covid protocols required to keep everyone safe.  These necessary precautions are the new normal: proof of vaccination, masks, hand sanitizers, and social distancing.  It's not a problem dealing with a problem.  Yet, the natural being of the actors, spectators, and myself, the playwright, will be affected, and the process will look and feel different than readings I've done before the pandemic.  Now it seems best to plow through it. I've completed casting.  I'm back to script editing. 

"Dear Mr. President and Madam Vice President"

 January 2021

Dear Mr. President and Madam Vice President, 

Congratulations on winning the 2020 election and taking the high road during this tumultuous and chaotic transition.  During this saddest period in my living years, I hope and urge that the Arts will come to the forefront, make a difference, and flourish throughout your term commencing with your well-deserved entrance on January 20^th.  Your arrival provides a promise for the best and brightest minds in your new administration to bring about change. The Arts provide a vital role in bolstering the economy and elevating the soul to discern that we are all equal.   Daisaku Ikeda, the Buddhist philosopher, said it succinctly, “The power of art can break the shackles that bind and divide human beings.”   Bringing the country together is your priority.  To do that with unabashed enthusiasm, curiosity, joy, and fun - Why not have the arts as a primary instrument, and establish a Department and Secretary of Arts and Culture as part of the equation? The government must take an optimistic stand to unify, heal, and transform the lies and hate into a new paradigm that truth and empathy matter.  The Arts are the most convincing means of bringing ingenuity, honesty, understanding, and power to the people with mass appeal and massive revenue.

I am inspired to take this opportunity to be an Arts advocate and activist for Be An #ArtsHero via The Dramatists Guild of America, of which I am a proud member. The Guild provides the essentials for playwrights to pursue the art of writing truth to power to transcend audiences with a higher understanding of the human condition.   Democracy has never been tested like now for the truth to be told on the stage.  We take on the challenges of rebuilding the arts in society commencing in the villages, cities, states, and the country nationwide.  

Some examples of the economic impact of Arts & Culture by the Bureau of Economic Analysis are:

•        877 billion in value added to the U.S. Economy
•       5.1 million jobs across the U.S. are Arts & Culture jobs
•      4.5% of U.S. GDP (more than Agriculture and Mining combined, and bigger than        Transportation or Tourism
•   $1.83B: Broadway ticket sales in 2019 (more than top 10 NY/NJ sports teams combined

 As you are aware, the arts have added emotional and economic value to heal a nation during times of crisis.  A Secretary of Arts & Culture can oversee the financial power of revenue and assist workers in the arts from ever facing dire conditions due to an unforeseen calamity such as the Covid pandemic. The biggest nightmare of all to an artist is a dream slashed due to long term unemployment and the rug pulled from under them. Imagine the performers, musicians, stagehands, and the front of house workers, management who all received the big break on a Broadway musical before the shutdown, suffered the loss of work, a home, health insurance, and then had to move elsewhere to find a job to make ends meet.

The Covid crisis is a comparable shock to the economy as the Great Depression.  The New Deal’s power, the Works Progress Administration, the WPA Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939) saved New York theatre and the arts, which fostered Orson Wells of The Mercury Theatre.  The FTP also provided support for theatrical tours and brought theatre and arts education to communities.  The Works Progress Administration’s monumental effort was the stepping-stone for the Golden Age of theatre, art, music, dance of the 20^th century.  The Arts need a grand undertaking to build the arts back better not only but with more excellence and sustaining marketability.  

According to the Brookings Institution report regarding Lost Art: Measuring Covid-19’s devasting impact on America’s creative economy, “this strategy must be supported across the board and led by local public-private partnerships between municipal governments, arts and cultural organizations, economic development and community groups, philanthropy, and private sector, with support from federal and state levels of government, national philanthropy, and large corporations.” 

Our stages are dark.  The performing arts are hit the hardest, suffering losses of “1.4 million jobs and 42.5 billion in sales. These estimated losses represent 50% of all jobs in those industries and more than a quarter of all sales nationwide.”  - Brookings Institution

While we reimagine arts and education on Zoom, creative thinkers are at work bringing music, dance theatre, opera to the homes during the winter months.  The impact of arts and youth development through education in the communities is 40% are more likely to have friends from different racial groups. Four out of five are more likely to vote, a five percent drop in neighborhood crime, nine out of ten say that arts increase connection.  

There is so much more to advocate for a solid Arts & Culture plan to heal the nation’s soul in the new administration. The Arts & Culture jobs agenda coinciding with affordable healthcare and rebuilding the infrastructure is a think-tank proposal.  Keeping the faith and looking forward to the Biden-Harris creative approach to govern, heal, and unify our great diverse nation through the arts.  

Thank you for your attention! 

Yours sincerely,

Elizabeth West Versalie

Playwright, Dramatists Guild, Member

 

Tags: @BeAnArtsHero @DramatistsGuild @JoeBiden @KamalaHarris @WhiteHouse #ArtsWorkersUnite #First100Days

 

Polonsky's Prophesy - FORCE OF EVIL

One impactful film that is prophetic of the Trump age of unbridled capitalism is FORCE OF EVIL, a 1948 crime thriller film-noir starring John Garfield and directed and written by Abraham Polonsky based on Ira Wolfert’s novel, “Tucker’s People.” Wolfert co-wrote the screenplay with Polonsky.  I watched this film this weekend, and it confirmed my appreciation for John Garfield, a consummate actor whose intensity is not only convincing but also mystifying.   

The story unfolds with Joe Morse (John Garfield), a firecracker and an unethical lawyer, who represents crime boss Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts) for planning a numbers scheme on July 4th to wipe out small racketeering gaming outlets called banks. Morse’s older brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez), overweight, sweaty with a weak heart, owns and runs a small bank, who Tucker wants to merge into a big operation that plays an illegal lottery called Policy.  Joe wants to enlist Leo in the merger.  Leo emphatically says no to the offer and wants to run a small family-like business without gangsters.  He urges Joe to let his young secretary, Doris Lowry (Beatrice Pearson), leave the bank unscathed, but a police raid ensues, and she’s tainted.  Joe and Doris, lonely in the City, fall in love plunging in and out of the gloomy darkness of criminal greed and turmoil. 

Polonsky provided a poetic stream of consciousness dialogue, conflict, and an intense epic of the dilemma, money vs. ethics between two brothers of a different character.  The opening shot of Trinity Church and framing Wall Street provide symbolism encompassed in capitalism, and the ending shot at the George Washington bridge gives unequivocal hope of Joe’s redemption.

The back story regarding the creation of the film by John Garfield’s production company, Enterprise, which he modeled after the collectivism of The Group Theatre, is remarkable.  Garfield, a leftist, not affiliated as a member of the Communist party, hired top talent non-discriminatory towards their communist sympathies like Polonsky, a Marxist.  Polonsky sees capitalist corruption through the lens of gut-wrenching realism that money corrupts the soul and compromises moral values.

 After the film release, Polonsky refused to name names to the U.S. Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee and subsequently blacklisted in Hollywood as well as Robert Rossen, the director of Enterprise film hit, BODY AND SOUL. Garfield was under immense pressure to name names, died of a heart attack in1952 at age 39.  

Trump seemingly compromised by the Russians, and the GOP enablers of the President’s criminal wrongdoing are a force of evil that is undermining democracy every day.  Villains in films get their comeuppance.  Trump’s impeachment is coming.   

Revisiting The Disney Magic of The Lion King

The theatre is a beautiful thing to uplift the heart, mind, and soul.  The play in dramatic or musical form takes on engaging dimensions of the expression that elevates and cultivates one’s consciousness to a higher realm of thinking.  This phenomenon occurs especially if the theatrical experience taps into one’s center of wonder, creativity, and intuitive thinking. This episode of curiosity occurred while at a job on the merchandise team of The Lion King at the Dreyfoos Concert Hall at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.  The Dreyfoos Concert Hall is just shy of a twenty-two hundred seats.  When the theatregoers enter the hall there’s a mandatory security check-in at the metal detectors walk through that is a reminder of the current sad affairs of today’s threat of guns and bombs at entertainment venues.  It does not take away from the magnificent spiraling three open tiers in the front of house for concessions with tables and chairs and a marketing kiosk on the first floor and the store enclave on the second floor.  When the theater house is ready to open, the red rope barriers move away, and the anticipation on the audience smiling faces beam that theatre is alive and well.

 I saw The Lion King twenty-two years ago in 1997 on Broadway in previews when the Disney opened The New Amsterdam Theatre after major renovations to restore the original splendor for this production. Julie Taymor’s vision that occurred on stage was inventive, imaginative, artistic, and mind-boggling creative.  I marveled at the animal costumes, the puppetry, the dancing, and Elton John and Tim Rice’s magnificent score.  

I took on the assignment to work at the merchandise kiosks because I wanted to revisit the musical, work for Disney, and have a job for eight performances.  I could not see the production at the Kravis Center since the run was practically sold out except for the limited, costly seats in the orchestra.  

It occasionally happens that actors enter from the lobby down the aisles onto the stage for the opening after the audience is seated.  The opening number, “The Circle of Life,” the actors imitating animals used the lobby for entrances, and it was so cool to see great actors work the puppet characters deftly.

What makes The Lion King the #1 grossing musical is the show taps into the inner child in all of the audiences; parents, children, and humans who love the marvel of theatre.   Disney Theatrical marketing magic is ever enticing from the tour merchandise manager and company.  The audience leaving the theatre with the theatrical experience and filled totes certainly puts the thoughts of unlawful violence at bay.  

Review: The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait

The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Frida Kahlo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“What would I do without the absurd and the ephemeral?” – The rhetorical question posed by Frida Kahlo intrigued me throughout this soulful journey revealing Kahlo’s subconscious mind through her winsome spirit, transcending words, and undisguised paintings. Recommended to Frida fans who loved her zest for life and art.

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Review: The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The American Masters/PBS documentary, of the legendary playwright and civil rights activist, Lorraine Hansberry, provided a longing to read THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW. Miss Hansberry, an intellect, a precocious talent for writing ahead of her years, captures, in a non-linear time capsule, Greenwich Village bohemia of artists and activists driven by ideals.

I don’t recall watching a production of this play, but I couldn’t help thinking that I saw the opening scene in an acting class in the distant past or that it was a related memory of living on Bleecker Street during my youth, evocative of the longing of a commitment to ideals that are ethereal.

The plot centers on the protagonist, Sidney Brustein, an intellectual, who is searching for his livelihood and winds up a publisher of a local newspaper that his left-wing buddies, Wally and Alton, push a political opinion for an election. Consequently, Sidney hangs a sign of reform on his window. Meanwhile, his wife, Iris, is a struggling actress, socially unconventional, befriends David, a gay playwright. However, she wants Sidney to be practical. Mavis, Iris’s sister, is a matchmaker type and shoves her traditional beliefs onto them. Their personalities clash in the dialogue, which is funny and meaty. The entrance of the prostitute Gloria, who is Iris and Mavis’s other sister pivots into an over-the-top turn of events that is left unresolved. Satisfyingly gripping that the climax is left up to the imagination.

When the play opened in 1964 on Broadway Lorraine Hansberry at age 34 was suffering from pancreatic cancer and facing her mortality, while there were political turbulence and social unrest from the civil rights, women rights and gay rights movements. Her work conveyed through the characters is infused with conflict and meaning born from a personal pain that initiates a yearning to transform, and to care about your life when indifference shows up. The message revealed is to care, and a committed life is worth fighting for.

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