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“Parting Words from Moristotle” (07/31/2023)
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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.
By James Knudsen
Last month I auditioned for a local theatre and provided some insights into the woes of the actor hoping for a callback. In the process, I revisited a song in my book of sheet music, Why Can’t I Walk Away, and learned more about the musical for which the song was written. To refresh your memory, the musical is Maggie Flynn. Its creators, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss, based the story on the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863 and an orphanage that was burned to the ground during the unrest. The show’s development occurred in the thick of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.
By James Knudsen
“Once more into the breach.”
The famous words that propelled Henry’s forces against the walled town of Harfleur. This time it’s a far less heroic task, auditioning.
In recent years, auditioning has become something I’m rarely asked to do. This has nothing to do with my fame, I have none. Nor my talent, I have only a little more of that. It is the result of the people casting shows knowing my work. The people involved with the group I auditioned for this past weekend may have seen my work, but their policy is, “everyone auditions.”
By James Knudsen
I am blocked. Obstructed, hindered, barricaded. From any useful thoughts on the subject of Moristotle, Morisco, Acting Citizen, Fourth Saturday, Fifth Dimension, Marilyn McCoo, Age of Aquarius…. what is the proper tone for the final musical number in Hair?
Let us consider the plight of the artist for a moment. Tasked with bringing order to chaos, evoking thought, wrenching emotion, and creating works that will stand for eternity. Heart on sleeve, the artist plunges into the task and gives the viewer everything. If you encounter this person, run.
By James Knudsen
It’s not well known that theatre can be a hazardous profession. I use the word “profession” in the broadest sense, as it rarely results in monetary compensation. but I will refer to the time I spend on stage as a profession in order to stand in solidarity with my fellow actors who trod the boards and collect a paycheck. Hazards come in all forms. Physical, such as the disc in my lower back that was pushed out of position from catching a dancer incorrectly or the bump on the head from a piece of falling scenery I was helping to strike. The heart is also at risk. Show-mances are an everpresent danger and, given the volatile nature of actors, of either gender, are rarely advised. And the less said about my personal experience on that the better. There is a third hazard, one I never saw coming: discovering an unpleasant truth about the character you’ve grown to know and love.
By James Knudsen
I can’t be the only one. There must be others struggling to cope. A nation of this size, there must be dozens of people like me looking for a way to deal with the fact that Donald J. Trump is our President. And unlike previous Chief Executives, who start to blend in with the hand-rubbed paneling, this one is just as front and center, just as exhausting, just as infuriating as the day he strutted down that escalator. Well, I’d rather shine a light than curse the darkness, so here are some coping strategies for those in a similar predicament.
By James Knudsen
Ask about me of those who knew me as a child and I imagine you will get a variety of responses. Ask me and I will tell you that I was a crier, a cry baby, an easily bruised tomato, a flower that wilted under extremely mild heat. I cried over just about anything. Some of the tears came from the usual childhood traumas – bee stings, crashing a bicycle, crashing a skateboard – and these may be viewed as reasonable, normal, perhaps even healthy responses.
By James Knudsen
Recent events found me spending more time than usual at a local hospital. The experience has me reconsidering the importance of patient advocacy, insurance limits driving the decisions about patient care, communication among doctors, patients, and family, and of course, theatre. I am not a doctor, nor a patient and in this situation; I am family only by good fortune. Further, I have no insurance, save for the benefits afforded me at the local Veterans Administration by virtue of my military service decades ago, so the only subject I can comment on is theatre and how it relates to healthcare. Turns out it’s important.
Winning the Battle on Black Mountain
By James Knudsen
Well, here it is March, and I still have things to write about that happened in February. That’s not just a different month, as of a few days ago, that’s a different season. February, despite being the shortest month, was a busy month.
By Jonathan Price
Edward Albee died last month. It wasn’t exactly a surprise; he was 88 [March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016]. But like many recent prominent deaths, it made me think. Edward Albee always made you think and feel. He was one of the great American playwrights of the twentieth century, and certainly by far the greatest of my contemporaries. Of course, no one can say such a thing for sure, since it is a matter of opinion – of many opinions over time. Nevertheless, in any week Broadway sports perhaps 30 plays or dramas, and then there is off-Broadway, which Albee helped to invent. Over the years, that’s a lot of plays, and the competition is intense. No one, I guess, sees all the plays, or reads all the plays. But Albee seems to me like a great pro golfer – Tiger Woods, or Jack Nicklaus. In a very competitive field, where audiences and critics are always demanding, he stands out.
Waiting for Lefty
By James Knudsen
This week marked the sixth week of instruction for this Fall 2016 semester. I have a typical load of classes, one beginning-acting and one theatre-appreciation course. But I’m also assisting in the production of this season’s first play, Waiting for Lefty, by Clifford Odets. My colleague Janine Christl is directing, and, since the start of rehearsals five weeks ago, I’ve been working with the ensemble and the featured actors to help them better understand the time period, 1935.
It’s Hawaii!
By James Knudsen
For people of my generation, knowledge of our 50th state is based largely on Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, P.I. and the three-part episode of The Brady Bunch with a cursed tiki idol at the center of the storyline. None of these was much help during my recent five-day stay on Oahu as part of Fresno City College’s trip to the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival for Region Eight. (I previously covered this topic in February 2013: “A piece of theatre’s pie.”)
A problem
By Rolf Dumke
In “Shakespeare in Modern English?” [New York Times, October 7], James Shapiro rightly discusses a main problem in both British and American Shakespeare productions, “that even the best directors and actors...too frequently offer up Shakespeare’s plays without themselves having firm enough grasp of what his words mean.”
Wishing to be her
By James Knudsen
Lost in the media frenzy following the loss of Malaysian Airlines, Flight 17, was the news that the world of theatre had lost one of its true greats. Elaine Stritch died July 17, 2014 at her home in Birmingham, Michigan. She was 89.
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