–30– (look it up)
By James Knudsen
Whose idea was it to put the fourth Saturday on the 22nd?
Whose idea was it to fill this week with all manner of things to run around attempting to accomplish in July San Joaquin Valley heat?
Whose idea was it to have a scatter-brained, unemployed actor contribute one column a month? It happened so long ago that I’m not sure who should receive the credit... or blame.
It’s Happening
By James Knudsen
I’m not sure we can claim to be “early adopters,” but the Knudsen household has joined the ranks of electric vehicle (EV) owners. Andra’s Subaru Forester began developing issues, and Andra favors new cars. New Subarus to be precise. All of which found us in the local dealership on the Memorial Day weekend selecting a Subaru Solterra to be Andra’s daily driver.
By James Knudsen
WHAT?!?!
HOW MANY?!?!
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!
I am insulted. I am aggrieved. I am HURT.
For seven years I have been taking shots at Donald J. Trump. Some of my best work has been devoted to mocking the Putrid Platinum Pompadour. I have dropped one-liners that served no purpose in advancing the column’s message. The only reason they were there was to take a well-earned jab at the Orange Menace. And several articles exist SOLELY to make fun of the twice impeached, one-term, former head of the executive branch. All this is not enough to warrant a place on Russia’s list of sanctioned individuals. Sad.
By James Knudsen
Equality, or the lack of equality, or the prevalence of inequality, is a common topic lately. Eventually, as in before my Apple watch has marked the passage of another 24 hours, I’ll get around to considering this issue. Acting provides a good vantage point from which to consider inequality. Inequality is everywhere. Pay equity exists for union actors – acting for scale. But there are scores of actors who perform for free, and only a rarefied few who command seven-figure salaries for one film. Choice roles are distributed unequally, as is effective representation…and talent.
By James Knudsen
Now that “The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong” has concluded, I would probably benefit from some assessment of what went right … and wrong.
Topping the list of what went right was selecting this play. As a department we are still finding our feet following a pandemic-induced hiatus. My production was the first on the mainstage since March 2020, when “The Humans,” directed by Chuck Erven, and featuring yours truly, ran for two weeks just as the pandemic enveloped the world.
When Acting Citizen
Was Loneliest Liberal
By James Knudsen
[Acting Citizen’s Fourth Saturday column appeared here originally 10 years ago today, as “Fourth Saturday’s Loneliest Liberal: Our need for centripetal force.” It was great then, and it may be even better today. Plus, 15 thoughtful comments ensued over the course of the following few days – comments thoughtful then, and still relevant.]
It’s late and I’m facing a deadline. I can’t blame writer’s block, I don’t lack for ideas. If anything, I feel like John Travolta in Phenomenon where his character has so many ideas that picking one is the problem. For instance, I think I know the cause of many of our problems with guns. Or how ’bout this one—a compare and contrast of the artistic model versus the capitalistic model? As a last resort I could just go on an extended rant, like the one I posted on Facebook last night, regarding the mendacity of conservative opinion makers of the lower biological orders. Or motomynd’s taste in cars...too easy.
By James Knudsen
I am directing a play that’s a trainwreck, on purpose.
If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to the “Goes Wrong Show” franchise, available on YouTube. Created by Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Lewis, it follows the acting triumphs, but mostly tragedies, of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society as its players present their interpretations of various theatrical genres.
By James Knudsen
I don’t post to Facebook frequently. On January 11 this year I posted the following brief message:
So 40 years ago today I stepped off a bus, stood on some yellow footprints, and got a free haircut.
By James Knudsen
I ended last month’s column with mention of a very rare, very beautiful, and very expensive automobile, the Ferrari GT 250 Lusso. Rare (only 351 were built) beautiful (subjective, yes, but trust me it’s beautiful), and expensive (it cost $13,375 in 1964; the same amount would buy you two Cadillacs off the showroom floor). This was a car for the few.
By James Knudsen
As one known for being a clutch performer when the spoken word is needed, it is unsettling when the words are nowhere to be found. Such is the quandary I find myself in days removed from news that was not surprising, yet still difficult to process, compartmentalize, and...
By James Knudsen
I imagine it is the experience of most that there are people we get to know when we are children and they are nearing the end of their lives. Our memories of them are formed in a child’s mind and the span of time we get to know them is shorter than most of our other relationships. And when they die, what we are able to learn about them after they’re gone is usually limited. And sometimes, we get a second or third chance to learn more about them.
By James Knudsen
Former President Donald J. Trump is known for communicating using unconventional methods. Conventional for a mob boss, but unconventional for the Leader of the Free World. Unknown to many is that he frequently used a journal to record daily thoughts and observations. It is difficult to decipher in that it is composed entirely in crayon and Sharpie, but we present here the 45th President at his most introspective on that most consequential day of his presidency, January 6, 2021.
By James Knudsen
Andra and I returned from a three-day trip to Disneyland on Thursday. When we married in 2019, I was not completely aware of the importance the Magic Kingdom played in her life, and the lives of her extended family. I understand now. My feet understand even better. In deference to my late father, I must first go through the litany of faults and issues one may find and have with The Happiest Place on Earth.
By James Knudsen
June. Summertime. Vacation. Committee Hearings. It’s reminiscent of the summer of 1973, except summer school programs are a thing of the past thanks to the efforts of Howard Jarvis and Grover Norquist. Millions of Americans are watching the hearings, millions are not. One particular American is watching the hearings and making notes in crayon and these notes may well have the greatest impact on our nation in the years to come. That particular American is the particularly loathsome former President Donald J. Trump.
By James Knudsen
A casualty of the ongoing pan/endemic is college enrollment. Students are fewer, and – for a part-time, sorry, adjunct faculty member – the dwindling numbers mean that the usual load of two or three classes becomes one. This fall one becomes none.
By James Knudsen
Following the death of George Floyd in May of 2020, some Americans have sought to improve issues surrounding racial inequity. Attending protest marches, running for public office, and changing the racially incentivized packaging of your product, are three ways attempts have been, and are still being, made to address our nation’s oldest and most vexing issue. And yet, with all the progress realized, the work remaining seems to increase with each passing year.
By James Knudsen
March milestones are piling up. March 10, I turned 57; March 13, the run of “Guys and Dolls” ended; March 17, St. Patrick’s Day; and, March 20, Spring arrived. Is it possible to connect all of these events? Let’s find out.
March 10, 2022. Myself and the cast of “Guys and Dolls” begin our final week of performance. It is not the first time I have found myself performing on my birthday. I hope it won’t be the last. Fifty-seven is, from this vantage point, a terribly blasé birthday. It’s well past 50, but still far enough away from 60 to not feel like...well, 60. It no doubt helped to be in a dressing room with four older actors, as in older than me. One, upon hearing my age, remarked, “A mere slip of a lad.” And at this point I should add, the idea of mortality has not sunk in completely.
By James Knudsen
Last month’s column ended with a cliff-hanger of sorts – would the show go on? To recap, a production of “Guys and Dolls,” which I am working on, was originally scheduled to open on January 13, 2022, but due to the ongoing pandemic, and positive cases among the cast, opening was postponed until January 22. Have things gone on without incident?
By James Knudsen
The other day, a student, sighing, said, “Two years. This pandemic’s been goin’ for two years.” Many people still cling to the idea – some actually promote or create ideas, meme, tropes, fairy-tales, op-eds, “news” – that the pandemic isn’t real. I’ve never suffered from any delusion, illusion, malocclusion (actually I might have that one): I have known it was real ever since March of 2020, when Andra and I stocked up on liquor hours before California went on lockdown. And recently I observed irrefutable proof that COVID-19 is real. Like so many things, this came to me via the theatre.
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