HELLO, HELLO to you all, as we approach various holidays and the end of the year!
So sorry I’ve not posted a new Blog for over a month, but such is the situation, when it gets to be a certain time of year and of any semester! The teachers and professors out there can empathise with me, I’m sure!
First, let’s welcome two NEW, Founding Members to the Project! These new folks are: Professor Charles Shafer of the University of Baltimore Law School and Mr. Ron Kipling Williams, an actor/performer and graduate student at the University of Baltimore! Professor Shafer is interested in the areas of Social Justice and Human Rights. Ron is coming off a successful production of his one-person show, Dreadlocks, Rock-&-Roll, and Human Rights. Over the past three+ years, he had lead roles in productions of two of my plays, one of which is listed on our play list: Schenck v. United States, The Play! It was performed last Spring in Baltimore!
Second, as things shape up, we’ll pursue four distinct directions/sections for the Project. In general and program terms, I described a few in Blog #3. I want to elaborate a bit more, here. We invite any and all of you, who’re interested in working with and helping us in these, in coming days, months, and years, to contact us!
Third, the four formal sections are: (1) Education [College/University, High School, and Law School], (2) Performance [Production/Sponsorship and Co-Sponsorship of Plays], (3) Entertainment [dovetails with the previous one, but also includes marketing/showing of prior productions and similar types of licensing of plays], and (4) Workshops and Clearinghouse/Crossroads [a place where interested folks, including writers, students, teachers, theater people, lawyers, and other very welcome parties, can join and connect with like-minded people and can work on writing, producing, etc., their own plays and productions].
What follows, concerns the Performance and Entertainment directions we’re hoping to pursue with the Project. When I think about actual productions and co-sponsorships, Regional, Educational, and Local Theatres are what come to my mind. Of course, were Commercial Theatre to come along, too, we’d welcome it with WIDE OPEN arms, but we are realistic: if a legitimate, commercial producer wants to produce one or more of our plays, we WOULD pursue it, NO QUESTION, and proceeds from such productions would be used to build and further the Project! But in this world, we have to temper our initial expectations to a certain degree, while nurturing hope for “bigger” and wider things. . .Anyway, on with the story. . .
Fourth, I’m sharing an experience I had at the end of October, about two weeks after Blog #4 was posted. . . In my never-ending efforts to publicise the Project, etc., I traveled to The Big Apple, for a special program at my University Club in Mid-town Manhattan. . . It is the Penn Club of New York, a great haven. . .
The presenter was someone, who is VERY BIG, as a Broadway Producer. She and her husband/spouse (of many years) have won seven (7) Tony Awards for Broadway productions. Their first was a revival of Othello, in the Early-1950s, with James Earl Jones as Othello and Christopher Plummer as Iago. They also produced Chicago! Her name is Fran Weissler, and, at 88 years old, she is STILL going VERY STRONG and is a very nice lady! She told the audience that their next gig will be a play, called Waitress. . .Watch for it!
Her stories about experiences in working on Broadway for more than sixty (60) years were GREAT Fun! How she and her spouse got started was by putting on plays in Roman Catholic schools for sixteen (16) years, since in those, unlike the public schools in New Jersey, a nominal ticket fee could be charged, to defray the costs of production and to let the Weisslers make a living. Eventually, to make a much longer story shorter, the opportunity for Othello came along.
Those were different times, of course, with Motion Pictures, Radio, live performance, and private pursuits (such as reading, cards, and socialising) as the primary forms of entertainment. Television was starting, after the Second World War, and then, for a time, overwhelmedthe Film Industry. When the Weisslers began, phonograph records dominated privately-purchased music. You all know where WE are today, with so many outlets and forms of entertainment . . . Which brings me to my primary point. . . .
As the electronic “toys,” with which we all play, distance and isolate us from each other, we remain social beings, who seek out GOOD, HEALTHY, HUMAN contact! As well it should be!
While the electronics separate us, our natural instincts seek to connect and join us with our fellows!. . . Live, local, regional, and school theatres are places, where we find refuge from isolation and separation. Thus, in the tradition of Greek Drama, which both entertained and instructed audiences in ethics and public morality, our Project has those intentions, as well. . .
There are those, who, pointing to the Project’s use of electronic “toys,” as illustrated by what I am writing and you are reading, can question my statements in the previous paragraph. They will mention how “social media” do connect us, more than before; to deny that observation would fly in the face (No Pun intended) of a candid, empirical analysis of where we are today. Yes, we at the Project use the Internet/WWW.
However, when you are sitting in a theatre or at a concert, you can see the people with whom you are connecting and enjoying the Performer(s)-Audience relationship and Audience Members-to-Members relationships. And make no mistake: these are relationships, even if they might be brief and not-lasting. There are special dynamics in live performances, “momentary” though they might be. Sometimes they are longer, in terms of contacts among audience members or even between audience member(s) and performer(s). I’m sure many of you have had the experience of meeting new friends at such events. Here’s a personal story of mine. . .
A few years back, I, myself, cultivated a nice, relationship with the star of A Night with Janis Joplin. Though we haven’t seen each other since 2013, we connected, in very friendly terms. Mary Bridget Davies is a very gifted, and hard-working performer, who among her many gifts, can duplicate Janis’ voice and performance style so convincingly that, for her first time on Broadway, she was nominated for a Tony Award! She is also a lovely person, very down to earth and outgoing. So, there’s an example of a theater contact, which grew into a friendship, though we’re not in regular contact, at this time. I’ve no doubt the next time I see her, we’ll reconnect, as before. And I plan to get her autograph on the Original Broadway Cast Recording!
Conversely and regrettably, when we sit at a computer keyboard, we can’t be sure who is at the other end, unless we know the person, beforehand. Numerous instances have been documented, where one party to an “on-line” relationship is totally unaware of who is at the other end. We need not visit that any further, than to reflect that Live Theatre is much more genuine and authentic, than mere “social media” today.
So, we of the Law Theater Project view the electronic “toys” with which the Project is involved, as means to our ends. Those ends are developing, producing, and fostering creativity for live performance and electronic recording of live performance, especially, but not only among local and regional artists. Our target venues are schools, both high school, colleges/universities, and law schools, local and regional theaters, and co-productions with organisations, groups, and individuals, who share our goals, at the very least with regard to particular plays/performance projects, and more, if we have ongoing, common interests. . .
For students, reading our Blogs, please be in touch with us and start chapters at your schools! We’ll help you in every way we can! For local or regional theater folks, we offer the same welcome and help! . . .
And on that note, I wish you all Happy Holidays of whatever form or cultural traditions you honor! And, yes, Virginia, we hope to add to this Blog before the end of the year!. . .Salut!