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AT A GLANCE: On Cable TV: On December 1st, I'll begin the first of four shooting days for a pilot of a marvelous new series called "The Harmony", produced by Barataria Productions (the folks who brought you "Homeland"), written and directed by Michael Eldridge, for the HERE! cable TV network. I play a seriously down and out old barfly who turns out to have one final inspiring and hilarious Last Hurrah left in him. For reasons that will be obvious if you catch the show, mine is not a recurring character, but he should be an awful lot of fun to work on. On Stage: On Saturday, November 22nd, I completed the fourth and last performance of two short plays in this year's Ten Minute Play Festival from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Creative Writing Department. The first play was "The Bridge" by Daniel Krauze, directed by Victor Moag, in which I played a man coming to terms with his estrangement from his brother, and the second was "Anniversary" by Sarah Gancher, directed by Francesca Mantani Arkus, a very different take on love and loss, this time from the perspective of a Hungarian man walking through the spots in Budapest which are interwined with his love and his life. Both plays are beautifully written. I hope you can got to see them. I think we'll be hearing more from these two young playwrights in the future.
On November 11th, I appeared in a reading of "Black Othello" by Cecilia Sidenbladh, the story of the first great African-American tragedian (and to history's knowledge, the first black man to play Othello) at Columbia University's Deutsches Haus. The role of Police Commission Lilja was great fun, a rare opportunity to play an (almost) unambiguous villian. Robert Greer directed a fine company of actors led by Brandon Dirden, recently seen in the Signature's wonderful revival of Leslie Lee's "First Breeze of Summer".
On October 4th, I completed an appearance as The Judge in Paula Caplan's one-act play "What Mommy Told Me" in week one of the Estrogenius Festival at Manhattan Theatre Source. It is the story of a harrowing miscarriage of justice which would be a cautionary tale of historical interest if the real-life court case from which it was drawn was from a quarter century ago. But it is an ongoing case whose most recent interaction was this past July. The playwright, whose "day job" is on the Psychology faculty at Harvard, was called as an expert witness. It is a painful reminder that for most of the women in this country and in the world at large the ceiling they must break through to enjoy full rights and freedoms is made of something much harder, ruder and cruder than glass. At the Movies: On October 22nd, I appeared in a short video "America, Amerique" playing several characters in this trailer promoting a projected 2010 national tour of a theatre piece with the same name. It is a retelling of the story of the immigrant experience in America from the days of the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s down to the current conversation on Mexican migrant workers. The trailer script and the larger play are both written by John Adams, artistic director of the Jena Company. The trailer was directed by Alex Levy.
On September 23rd, I finished shooting my third leading role in a feature film, General Entertainment Company's "SubterraNYa" created and directed by Phillip Farha. I played the role of "Opera", the leader of a movement that has been fighting a fading rear-guard action from deep underground for a quarter century in contemporary New York City against the forces of evil.
The other two features are still making the rounds of the film festivals. "Homeland" won the Best Feature Film award at the Jacksonville, Fl., where it will receive a theatrical release this fall as a result, and my daughter in the film, the wonderful Yifat Sharabi, won Best Actress at the Del Ray, Fl. Festival. It has been seen in West Hollywood, Ca., Santa Fe, NM, and Redbank, NJ, among other festivals. This fall it will play at the festival in Cairo, Egypt.
On You Tube: I was recently informed that a short film in which I appeared early in 2007 is available on You Tube. The film is "Tesla and the Bellboy" and is directed by a very talented recent NYU graduate named Timothy Ziegler in which I play a farcical riff on a real life mad scientist. You can see this extremely low budget but still quite stylish movie at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdD3MRvBvc4
OTHER RECENT EVENTS: On February 18th and 19th of this year, I played the role of Sigmund Freud in a staged reading of Ken Wydro's provocative new play "The Secrets of Freud and Jung" at the Roy Arias Theatre. The play is largely based on historic writings and speeches by the five characters, drawing on material from the 1,000 letters Freud and Jung exchanged during their turbulent relationship over 6 years. I found this role harrowing and fascinating. The invited audience included several industry luminaries who were very kind in their praise of my performance and our work. The consensus was that this is an awfully good play. With luck (and more hard work by Ken and all) its next iteration will be a full commercial production. I'd love to have another go at the old gent. On May 1st and 2nd, I appeared as Harold Jennings in "The One-Eighth Rule", written by S. Brian Jones and directed by Nichole Donje. This one-act play was presented in the Paff Auditorium of the University of Rhode Island's Feinstein Campus in Providence, RI, as part of an evening of short plays called Voices: In Search of Truth which were all related to the themes of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and was part of the Rhode Island Big Read project.
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CURRENT PRODUCTIONS: More details about the NYU/Tisch Ten Minute Play Festival will be forthcoming. AND... I continue auditioning judiciously, studying with both of my legendary teachers, Terry Schreiber and Austin Pendleton, and the wonderful actors at the T. Schreiber and H.B. Studios; and, as Al Jolson put it, "You ain't seen nuthin' yet"!
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