play
Directing ‘West Side Story”s George Chakiris
Of course, everyone discovered George Chakiris in “West Side Story” in which he received the academy award for Best Supporting Actor. Rita Moreno says of George, “There are only two elegant dancers I can think of, Fred Astair and George.” I had not thought of him to play the part of a Puerto Rican loan [...]
Directing Frank Sinatra Jr. Narrating My Novel
In 2007, I hired Frank Sinatra Jr. to do the narration of my novel McKnight’s Memory into audio-book form. It’s a full cast production with famous actors of the ’60s performing the characters. Mr. Sinatra came in last to do the narration. It was a dream working with him.
I had heard his audio commentary on [...]
I’m always asked what my inspiration is for a given play.
At every talkback, reading or performance I’ve ever been to I get asked what my inspiration for a given play is. It’s always a challenge because who can describe what the genesis of a thought is… or dream for that matter. And in my case I often wonder if the two are interchangeable.
Unlike some dramatists, [...]
Why I tell the stories I tell…
There a lot of people in my world who keep expecting my next piece to be an edgy – hip play that pushes the boundaries and has lots of cool swear words and images. That isn’t going to happen. I just ain’t edgy.
People figure since I’m a blue collar dude from Chicago, I should be [...]
Something old, Something new
I thought, for my first post, I’d put for comment a scene from my newest, yet oldest play. It’s called NIGHT AND FOG and I first wrote it almost twenty years ago. Recently, mostly because of the encouragement of a dear friend, I’ve returned to it and reworked it considerably. It concerns a journalist named [...]
Sneak peek of “Italian Lights; Not Stars”
Act One Scene Eight
TOMMY enters. HE looks around to see that there is no one in the yard and no [...]
an excerpt from a play-in-development, FOR SOME REASON COMMA SHE LAUGHED
Four sisters come to the Jersey shore for a girls weekend; they mean to celebrate the 30th birthday of the youngest among them, Ruth. Ruth is recently divorced and feeling bad about herself and her sisters decide that suprising her with a beautfiul young man might be just the thing to lift her spirits. [...]
