Final Performance Tonight of RTC "Moon...

I saw the Rockaway Theatre Company Production of "Moon Over Buffalo" last night for the 4th time - and I still laughed at every line -- and there were so many. My column with some cool photos finally appeared in The Wave yesterday, a week late, which doesn't do anything for the box office. Not that my columns ever do anything for the box office.

The RTC company is full of current and retired NYC teachers. In "Moon..." Jodi Tampone, Kim Simek, and Steve Ryan (Leon Goldstein HS and MORE member) are current or retired teachers. Last night a large crew of Goldstein students came out to see Steve and they made for a delightful audience - though at times I could see some of the lines from a 1994 play set in 1952 may have gone over their heads. Like you would have to know that the major joke of confusing the plays "Private Lives" and "Cyranno" would have major comic repercussions.

I'm going back for the final performance tonight with my wife and I will tape it one more time before hanging out for the cast party. Monday we strike the set and begin building the set for Gypsy, opening July 18, which begins rehearsals on Tuesday. There's an ugly rumor there may be a tiny part in it for me. Since I had problems learning my  4 lines in "How to Succeed.." tiny works for me.

Here are some photos from last night.

Private Lives meets Cyranno

Jodi and Steve

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Rockaway Theatre Company: “Buffalo” Leaves Them Laughing

Memo from the RTC: “Buffalo” Leaves Them Laughing

By Norm Scott

I attended the final dress rehearsal of the current Rockaway Theatre Company production of Ken Ludwig’s “Moon Over Buffalo” the night before it opened. Aside from the directors, Leslie Ross and Alan Rosenfeld, there were two of us in the audience watching the impeccable timing and perfect delivery of lines that hit right on the money despite there not being an audience present to feed off. Not that we didn’t try to do our bit. But it is strange sitting in an almost empty theater watching a very funny comedy and trying to control yourself a bit so your laughter doesn’t sound too strange.  The next night, opening night, there were crescendos of laughs as every line found their targets. Lesson learned: the very same performance takes on a life of its own when the actors get a responsive audience. And last Friday, there was one hell of a responsive audience.

The cast cannot be more perfect in their execution of the choreography required for multiple entries and exits on cue as one door slams and another opens. (I was praying none of the door knobs would come off since I was responsible for installing them.) Thomas Kane (playing George Hay), an RTC vet, plays the lead with a flawless performance – especially since he is drunk for much of it. Just watch as he wrestles with Steve Ryan (Paul) as he tries to get Tom into his pants in time for a performance. There were howls from the audience as the choreography played out. Kim Simek (Rosalind) plays the balcony scene to such comic  effect in Private Lives when her “husband” doesn’t quite make it out on stage, the laughs practically drowned her out. Oh, the look on her face. Jodee Tampone (Charlotte Hay) is stunning in the role created on stage by Carol Burnett as she has two guys chasing after her and we get why they want her. Susan Corning is perfection itself playing Charlotte’s deaf mother. And the 3 supporting actors – Lauren Susan (Eileen), Kevin Abernathy (Howard) and Jeffrey Gedacht (Richard) deliver excellent performances.

This is not a full review but a call for every Rockaway resident who can get to the Post Theater in Fort Tilden this weekend and next (Fri/Sat night shows at 8PM, Sunday Matinee on May 18 at 2PM.)

Get tickets at: http://www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org 

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Memo from the RTC: Time to Start Mooning Over Buffalo

Published in The Wave, May 2, 2014

Memo from the RTC: Time to Start Mooning Over Buffalo

By Norm Scott

I walked into a rehearsal of the Rockaway Theatre Company’s upcoming production of the very funny “Moon Over Buffalo,” a play that I, a theater ignoramus, had never heard of before even though Carol Burnett got rave reviews when it opened on Broadway 20 years ago. There on the stage were Kim Simek and Steve Ryan doing a love scene – take after take after take. Directors Leslie Ross and Alan Rosenfeld called for a more passionate kiss – maybe a little more groping and  tangling of limbs. “Let’s try it again.” Boy, this acting stuff sure looks like fun – from a distance. Watching the details of choreographing a comic love scene – which lasts at most maybe a minute - is like taking a cold shower.

When I heard the RTC was doing this play by Ken Ludwig, the only non-musical production the RTC is doing this year, I rolled my eyes. A play set backstage at a seedy theater in Buffalo? In 1953? Give me a break. Steve Ryan urged me to read the play. “It is very funny,” he told me. And so I did. And so it is. I laughed out loud a number of times – getting funny looks from my wife.

The basic story is that a famous and aging acting couple on the downside of their careers, Charlotte and George Hay,  are doing reparatory theater in Buffalo. One day they do “Cyrano” and the next Noel Coward’s “Private Lives.” Even I know enough about the theater to get the message that these plays can’t be more different – and if somehow an actor should get confused about which play is being performed – say due to an over abundance of vodka – well, you get the idea – and should be breaking into a smile – if not laughing out loud – at the thought of the comic implications.

But there is so much more. A deaf and daffy mother, a daughter trying to juggle two boyfriends, a pregnant mistress, lots of mistaken identities and comic lines flying around like a swarm of bees. The RTC did another play by Ludwig, “Lend Me a Tenor,” which was also very funny.

The lead role of Charlotte is played by one of our favorite RTC stalwarts, Jodee Timpone, who is well-known to the PS 114 community for the theater work she did with the children. I did a short video interview with Jodee before rehearsal the other day. Watch it and try to stay away from the play. https://vimeo.com/93136473

Ludwig plays call for lots of doors (there are 5) and exquisite timing for them to work. (One of my task in constructing the set was to install all the door knobs – so if a door doesn’t work correctly blame me). The RTC crew always make it happen the way it should, so I am looking forward to the opening on May 9 followed by other 8PM performances on May 10, 16, 17, 23 and 24. Sunday matinees: May 11, 18 at 2PM, with the May 11 Mother’s Day special $10 bargain – a great treat for moms.

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Memo from the RTC: Professionalism, Personality, Talent – and Me

  How to Succeed cast (most of them) photo --
                                      Follow the red line straight|down to a tiny head - me

Published in The Wave, April 4, 2014
www.rockawave.com

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Memo from the RTC: Professionalism, Personality, Talent – and Me

By Norm Scott

After the Sunday matinee closing performance, I had a hangover Monday morning, not from the incredible fun cast party, but withdrawal symptoms from the intensity of total immersion in a theater experience. I can’t tell you how many people connected to the RTC came up to me saying with such glee, “You are hooked. You’ll never escape.” And so it goes. Early Monday morning I joined the de-construction crew taking down the set that had become home to the almost 40 cast  members. By Tuesday, noon, the basic set for Moon Over Buffalo was in place.

And how sad to see the empty backstage dressing room that had pulsed with such life over the past 3 months – people constantly coming and going onstage and off, changing costumes on the fly, moving the not inconsiderable sized sets during the show, often in wet and windy weather. Watching the always amazing Stage Manager, Nora Meyers coral this bunch was a wonder. Until I appeared in these 2 plays I never new that the stage manager is almost as important as the director – she is the person the actors come into contact with constantly once the play opens. Nora’s husband Patrick is not only a very talented performer (Curly in Oklahoma) but does anything asked behind scenes, including one of the most important jobs, operating the curtain when Suzanne Riggs was not available. If you haven’t heard of Suzanne, a local teacher, she is a major behind the scenes player at RTC, doing anything that is needed to keep the theater going.

On to the amazingly diverse cast. Many RTC vets played key roles. I’ve mentioned many of them in my previous columns and want to make sure to note the work of Roger Gonzalez (Twimble) who knocks it out with “Company Way” and keeps everyone laughing back stage. Roger runs a website (localtheatreny.com) - INDEPENDENT, LOCAL, GRASSROOTS NEW YORK THEATRE FROM THE COMMUNITY STAGE TO BROADWAY – where you can find out about auditions, performances, etc. I’ve watched 12-year RTC vet Najat Arkadan (Smitty) belt it out for years. How did she get involved? She was Susan Jaspar’s student at Goldstein HS. Jose Velez (Wally Whomper) was one of my card-playing pals in “The Odd Couple” and has been a powerful voice not only in RTC productions but in the Far Rockaway community. I met Joseph Lopez (known as JoLo) in Frank Ciaiti’s acting class and did my first scene with him. Janet Miserandino and Cathy Murfitt, who have been RTC mainstays, played the scrubwomen – small roles they brought verve and vigor to. And what a delight to meet first time performer Danielle Rose Fisher who was my dance partner (for 15 seconds at each performance) at the World Wide Wickett office party. Danielle, whose enthusiasm and cheer brought a smile to my face every time I saw her, has been involved backstage at the RTC for a decade since she was a 15-year old. In the show she sang and tapped her way into future performances.

The high school kids were fabulous to work with and I got such a kick out of their enthusiasm, knowledge of the theater, and ease on stage (due to the training of the RTC youth program run by Peggy Page). Midwood HS senior Casey Stabiner, already with an impressive resume as a performer at RTC since she was 9, never seemed to stop moving - when she wasn’t back stage reading Hamlet. I was delighted to listen in as Casey and Leon Goldstein teacher Steve Ryan (Bratt) discussed the plot. Other RTC youth program vets Kayla Ann Healy (15- student at Professional Performing Arts School), Antonio Oliveri (senior at Xaverian), James Dalid(studying music at CCNY) and Dante Rei (19) – the only cast member with facial hair – a perfect mustache - made being backstage so much fun. I couldn’t stop smiling as Casey and Keyla danced up a storm during the overture right before the curtain opened and then went into freeze pose seconds before it did open. Dante is assisting Nora as stage manager for the next production. RTC is more than a production company. It offers the full theater education experience, from sound to lighting, to all age groups.

I’ve run out of words before getting to the great influx of newcomers to this production (I’ll cover this amazing crew in a future column) who trekked out to Fort Tilden from Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan almost daily, often by public transportation. They all say they are coming back, just showing the power and draw of Rockaway’s local theater group.

And the fab cast party where the guys did the gals’ tap and the gals did the  guys’ Brotherhood of Man. And people gathering around the piano to sing just about anything – what a Les Mis they did. I’ll always remember the backstage banter, spontaneous bouts of breaking into song, people practicing lines, dance steps - a once in a lifetime treat 
--> for a non-theater person of a certain age.

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Cliff Kasden Reviews Rockaway Theatre's "How to Succeed....

photos and selfies by Lauren Susan (above right)

Well, I survived the cast party - sort of  - but I'm heading back to bed now. Maybe some video later. Thanks to Fred Smith and friend for coming down Sunday and David Bellel Saturday night. Lots to write about but too tired, especially after just coming home from striking the set -- 2 hours and it was all gone. Tomorrow we start building the set for the next show.

Interesting that the 2 big numbers in the show are pretty much all men. The gals were complaining about it and at the cast party they did an hysterical version of Brotherhood of Man while some of the guys did their tap routine to Cinderella Darling. Then we all did some zumba. I should have stayed away from that Irish cream liquor.

This review appeared in the Queens Courier and the Home Reporter. It was so much fun playing a today yes man, but I had the role nailed just from years of watching the sycophants at Tweed.

A View from the Cliff: “How to Succeed…” in Rockaway

The character of Rosemary Pilkington in Rockaway Theatre Company's production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

Photo courtesy of Cliff Kasden.

Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 7:02 pm | Updated: 7:14 pm, Fri Mar 28, 2014. 

 

BY CLIFF KASDEN | 

There’s trouble at World Wide Wickets! A young upstart is climbing the corporate ladder with alarming speed. His secret? A little known handbook that morphs into the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical comedy: “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.”
            At Friday evening’s performance, director John Gilleece and producer Susan Jasper skillfully utilize “everyman” John Panepinto as anti-hero J. Pierrepont Finch. His great voice and mischievous smile make him the perfect survivor in this comical chronicle of 1960s big business. Equally well cast is Katherine Robinson as very cute, often starry eyed and somewhat conniving Rosemary.  She is excellent as she sings and dances her way into Finch’s heart.
            The skillful satire continues as WWW president J.B.Biggley (Cliff Hesse) shows his multi edged-agenda. He’s part hatchet-man, part knitter but mostly skirt chaser. His favorite skirt is worn by curvaceous Hedy LaRue (Nicole Mangano). Both Hesse and Mangano earn high marks for their outstanding vocal and physical characterizations.
            Meanwhile, office weasel, snitch and boss’ nephew Bud Frump (David Risley) is rejected by office sharks and apple polishers alike until he hatches a plan to topple J.P. Finch. Risley, a familiar face at RTC, is perfect as the sniveling schemer who is ultimately caught in his own trap. It’s back to basics for you, Frump!
            The secretarial pool, along with personal secretaries Miss Jones (Susan Warren Corning) and Smitty (Najat Arkadan/Dana DiAngelo) are perfect pawns on the hilarious corporate chessboard.  They are challenged by the company’s executive “yes men.”  In the end, though, it’s love, laughs and wickets that win the day!

            The Rockaway Theatre Company continues their year of the musical with four more big productions through November.  Call (718) 374-6400 or surf to www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org.
            As always, save me a seat on the aisle.

Full review here.

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The End of My Brief Acting Career: How to Succeed... Heads for Final Weekend

So I am a few days away from ending my preoccupation with this once in a lifetime theater experience, so bear with me. Even though in the play, I've managed to do a bunch of video. Here is one I shot Sunday when I had to miss the performance due to a party but got there in time to shoot part of Act II. Here is the big number - missing me of course.

https://vimeo.com/90084496


RTCBRotherMar 23 2014 from Rockaway Theatre Company.

And here is my column in this week's Wave - where I get to push the show to try to fill the place up -- still tiks for Friday and maybe a few left for Sat and Sun. http://www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org -


Memo From The RTC: “How To Succeed…” Roars Into Final Weekend
By Norm Scott - The Wave, March 28, 2014

With rousing performances in front of full houses last Saturday and Sunday, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Post Theater in Fort Tilden, now heads

into the stretch with 3 performances remaining – Friday, Saturday at 8PM and Sunday at 3PM. By 6:30PM on Sunday I hope to be at the cast party in the theater munching on my favorite food of all time, pigs in the blanket. Maybe the yutes in the cast will have a post-party cast party – I might have to disguise myself as a 25 year old.

The performances get better with each show as people not only work out kinks but come up with creative ways of presenting tiny slivers of their individual performances. The other night Steve Ryan (Bratt) told David Risley (Bud Frump) as he was collecting on a bet, “Don’t you know there’s no gambling on company time,” and grabbed some of the money: not in the script but a funny rif. Steve has been such a help with little tips.

The Executive washroom - He believes in himself while we want to Get That Man

David is a remarkable comic actor and mainstay of the RTC for over a decade playing major roles in Boeing Boeing, a brilliant Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened… and countless other roles. As a cast member, I had the honor of watching David up close as Felix in The Odd Couple, my only other acting experience. No one does the classic sad sack like David. The Bud Frump role was a much coveted one by other actors and David pulls it off with perfection.

Brotherhood

Pirate girls

Katherine Robinson - Rosemary

The reputation of the RTC as a superb operation has attracted talent from the entire metropolitan area - from Brooklyn, Queens and even Harlem. To accommodate people, roles often have to be shared. Thus the female lead (Rosemary), is shared by two amazing talents. The breathtaking Katherine Robinson is in 6 performances. She has been in a number of RTC productions. (I first noticed her as the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.) As we were greeting the departing audience after the show Friday night, a guy walking out said to her, “I wanted to be the one to marry you.” “Who wouldn’t,” I said? My young cousin who came to the show the next night said the same thing. I sadly informed him Katherine was already married - to the very talented Bill Hartery, currently appearing in The Producers in New Hampshire. They did the great Beatles song Getting Better in Rockaway Café: The Comeback. RTC newcomer, Devra Seidel, takes on the Rosemary role in the other performances and is a perfect ingénue with loads of musical talent . Not only can she act and sing, she is also a professional pianist. When she is not Rosemary she goes back to the secretarial pool, which does a rip-roaring tap dance to open Act II. (Video: https://vimeo.com/89258541).

I only made it to the evening performances last weekend, as I had a 70th birthday to attend on Sunday afternoon, where I was on the younger end of the crowd and suffering sticker shock after having spent so much time working with a cast where I was 2 and 3 times older than almost everyone else.

L to R: John Panepento, Cliff Hesse, Joe Hagopian (playing me), Steve Ryan

I was replaced for the Sunday matinee with fellow cast member and Brooklynite Joseph Hagopian who spent weeks studying how to deliver my 4 lines while trying to look and sound 45 years older. Luckily Joe doesn’t need makeup to accomplish that feat. At the end of the big “Brotherhood of Man” number, Joe and I have to clasp arms and raise a fist. In my absence, the dexterous Joe managed the remarkable feat of shaking hands with himself while raising both fists.

Needless to say, the almost 40-member cast is a fun group – becoming a family over the months of rehearsals but really solidifying once the play opened. There will be the joy of a job well done on the afternoon of the final performance as most go on to future projects. But this particular group will never be together again and that is a sad fact of the theater. As a first experience for me, the process if disengagement will not be easy. Hopefully, joining chief set builder, designer and carpenter Tony Homsey and his crew Monday morning in taking apart the set will provide closure. Soon after we will begin building the set for the May opening of Moon Over Buffalo, already in rehearsals with a number of our cast members playing roles.

RTC videographer Jim Peithman, who runs VIDEOINVISION, a video and editing firm based in Belle Harbor, posted a 3-minute highlight of the show on you tube: http://youtu.be/4Br4y3Mlv0g.

While RTC brings out the best of Norm’s nature, he is not so kind to the ed deformers on his blog, ednotesonline.org.

The great tap number opens Act II

Greeting the audience as they depart

Morris Woodruff and Emily Stonebridge - Channel 5 news at 10pm

Cast members Dante Rei and Paivi Kankaro take on fantasy roles in the parking lot.

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Rockaway Theatre Update: Good News for the Theater, I'm Not a Musical Comedy Star -Yet

Well, since my last report (How to Make a Fool Out of Yourself: I Do It the Company Way at Rockaway Theatre Production of “How to Succeed…) last weekend we made it through the first 3 performances of the Rockaway Theatre Company production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" in pretty good shape. I managed to deliver my 4 lines through the play and show up in the spots I was supposed to show up in and did not fall down while trying to dance in the numbers Coffee Break, A Secretary is Not a Toy and Brotherhood of Man.

Tickets still available. But no wickets.

In the days before the opening, things began to shape up  during the 2 the dress rehearsals last Weds and Thurs. The show is long with a first act that needed tightening. The key was the number of set changes needed - the actors do the changes so there is a lot of curtain closing as we move sets in and out of the 2 side doors of the theater. Backstage is wild with the very large cast doing costume changes, the gals doing hair and makeup, as people run in and out for their time onstage and for the set changes. Getting the timing down on all this takes a long time and people who are new to the RTC had some doubts at one point but were pleasantly surprised.

I shot video of both Saturday performances but due to the rules I cannot make them public. However, a section of the show can be made available. Here are the 2 tap dance performances the gals do from both shows to the tune of "Cinderella Darling".

https://vimeo.com/89258541



RTC H2 tap from Rockaway Theatre Company.

And here is an interview I did with John Panepento, the great young actor/singer/dancer who plays the lead.
(https://vimeo.com/89264613)




And some stills -

The Amazing Paris Originals

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How to Make a Fool Out of Yourself: I Do It the Company Way at Rockaway Theatre Production of “How to Succeed…”

Opening night is Friday, March 14, 8PM - YIKES -

OK, it's put up or shut up time. After weeks of rehearsals we have hit dress-rehearsals - until midnight.

I have a total of 4 lines and am in a bunch of production numbers where I try to hide behind the other guys. I love working with this mainly very young cast - even with some high school kids who already know a hell of a lot about the theater. I'll get into details about some of the wonderful guys and gals I've been meeting, as well as the RTC usual suspects. Lots of teachers involved too.

There are 2 performances this Saturday - a 2PM matinee and 8PM evening performance. I had a big conflict as March 15 (The Ides) is the NYCORE conference and Bree Picower recruited me a year ago to tape the keynote in the morning. I really love this conference and usually stay right through the after party lasting 'till 8PM. But the roar of the greasepaint calls and I must leave for the matinee, thus missing the Change the Stakes workshop which I had hoped to tape. But I think that professional film maker Michael Elliot who is working on some opt-out stuff for CTS will be there.

Here is the poster and if you want to venture out to Rockaway here is the web site to get tickets. (If you are coming to see me make a fool out of myself, I won't be in the March 23 Sunday matinee due to a previous commitment.) http://www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org

Here is my column for Friday's Wave, followed by some cute rehearsals pics.

For The Wave (www.rockawave.com), March 14, 2014

I Do It the Company Way at Rockaway Theatre Production of “How to Succeed…”

By Norm Scott

Is it 2 steps to the right and a turn? Or 2 steps forward? And what is that lyric we need to do it on, again? What’s the cue for us to go onstage? Thus I go pleading for answers from my fellow actors  as I try to get things straight in my head for my musical comedy debut in the Rockaway Theatre Company production of the venerable corporate sendup, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

I am usually behind the video camera at RTC shows, other than my acting debut 3 years ago in “The Odd Couple,” an 8-character play. “How to Succeed…” is an entirely different experience – a vey funny musical comedy with a large cast of around 40. Most members are in their teens, twenties or early thirties, with a sprinkling of forty-somethings. Having just turned 69 I sort of stand out. The only person anywhere within a decade of me is the RTC jack of all trades, the always amazing Cliff Hesse, who plays J.B. Biggley, the boss of “World Wide Widget” (WWW) whose fling with a young floozy almost brings down the entire corporation.

“How to…” is the Abe Burrows 1961 Broadway production and 1967 film send-up of corporate culture which made a house-hold name of Bobby Morse, playing the young window cleaner who uses a How-to book to guide him to through the corporate maze, and Rudy Vallee playing J.B. Biggley. Much of the choreography was done by Bob Fosse. Both “Madmen” and “How To…” have large ensemble casts of corporate executives and secretaries, with the expected hints of the shenanigans and rampant sexism that goes on in those pre-feminist times.

Fans of the AMC show “Madmen” will instantly recognize the similarities to “How to…” clearly an inspiration. Brilliant casting of that show has an older (and much heavier) Bobby Morse playing the big boss of the advertising agency. I had never appreciated just how funny the play is, satirizing the corporate culture with brilliant songs like “The Company Way” and “A Secretary is Not a Toy,” where WWW 2^nd-in command Bratt, played by excellent actor and Leon Goldstein HS teacher Steve Ryan, admonishes the men that a secretary is not “to fondle and dandle and playfully handle in search of some puerile joy.” The secretaries, played by an amazing collection of beautiful women that will take every guy who sees the show’s breath away, reply with “A secretary is not a thing wound by key, pulled by string. Her pad is to write in and not spend the night in…”

As one of the ensemble cast of executives I have 4 lines which, thank goodness I only have to remember one at a time. I also have to dance and sing, neither of which I can do very well, in some big numbers, including the famous “Brotherhood of Man.” Doing two things at the same time is pretty much beyond me at this point so I don’t add a third by chewing gum.

I can’t say enough about the professional level of theater the crew at the RTC puts together. They do everything that Broadway productions do. Being involved in a big production lets me see how the sausage is made. There are so many aspects of the theater that go beyond what you see on the stage. Set design and construction  – I have the honor of being part of the crew assembled by the great Tony Homsey, watching Susan Corning – one of the best actresses I’ve seen at RTC – handle the wonderful costuming – just wait ‘till you see these gals dressed in office-60s garb, musical director Richard Louis Pierre who also makes sure the hi-tech sound board is working, the lighting by Andrew Woodbridge and of course the direction of John Gilleece and Producer Susan Jaspar who gave a guy like me this unique opportunity. (There are many more people to mention by far).

How else would I find myself at a post-rehearsal late Friday night cast party doing the Zumba on state ‘till 1 AM with people young enough to be my grandchildren? Excuse me – I gotta go ice my knees.

Opening night is Friday March 14 and it runs for 3 weekends (Friday nights – Mar. 14, 21, 28, Sat nights – Mar. 15, 22, 29 – all at 8PM and 2PM matinee on Sat. Mar 15, and 3PM on Sun Mar 23 and Mar. 30.)

If (editor) Kevin (Boyle) lets me, I’ll do a follow-up next week about how I survived both a matinee and evening performance on March 15. If you come to the evening performance, bring me some Advil.

Norm still takes time from his budding acting career to write his daily blog at ednotesonline.org.

These secretaries are not toys.

The Paris originals

Note that guy center right with the big belly

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Face to Face With Finland's Education System

So I've been going to rehearsals almost every night for the Rockaway Theatre Company Production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". One of the young ladies who sings along with the men's chorus in the number "Brotherhood of Man" does a solo that will knock your socks off.

Recently I had an opportunity to chat with her. I overhead someone mention Finland and I asked her if she was of Finnish descent. "I'm from Finland," she said. Seeing she spoke perfect English - much better than me - I figured she came here as a little girl. "I'm only here 2 years she said. And she is probably in her mid twenties. I mentioned their education system is legendary and her ability to English so well is evidence.

What an eclectic and interesting cast. One of my fellow ensemble guys is from Pakistan. Many travel to get to this most out of the way theater imaginable for rehearsal night after night.

I've been part of the crew assisting the carpenter in building the set. Thursday we built the mailboxes. Friday we built the elevator and put up the windows over looking the Manhattan skyline which will be pained on the back wall. Every aspect of this who is on a professional level, mostly done by volunteers who put their lives into this theater. And is shows in the quality of the productions. A lot of people vie to get into these shows from all around the city. I'm waiting for a tap on my shoulder the next time I turn left instead of right but everyone is very encouraging.

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Okay, I'm using today to post many of the drafts I began but haven't posted. So watch out for the onslaught.

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