Attention Must Be Paid

Ordinary lives of ordinary people can be made into high art.




Russell Banks

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Hello Lily

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It all began with Figaro. He was a character invented by the French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais (1732 - 1799). He wrote three plays on the subject of Figaro who was essentially a barber, a simple but clever man with wit and intelligence who eventually worked his way up to a position of power and influence. Beaumarchais' plays were originally produced prior to the French revolution in which he was involved and also in the American. revolution.



It was said that the French aristocracy would come and see the plays and laugh at the preposterous idea that a simple man, a commoner, should attain such power and be so capable of wielding it. Soon however the revolution came and the aristocrats had stopped laughing. Figaro was a prophetic character. Which makes one stop and pay attention..



It took some time before Beaumarchais' idea caught on. French and Italian opera was still being written about kings, queens, nobles and holy men until

Giacomo Puccini whose characters were ordinarily people with real stories. One of his most famous operas is Madama Butterfly about a Japanese girl who marries an American naval officer thinking he will return to her and the love affair will last forever.. When he finally does return, with his American wife, the poor girl kills herself. That opera is very popular in the US even though it doesn't paint a good picture of us. It makes one stop and pay attention.



One of the greatest American plays is "Death of a Salesman" written by Arthur Miller and first produced in 1949 on Broadway It starred Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock. Willy Loman is a traveling salesman, he, his wife and two sons are trying to make a go of it in an uncertain world and it's a desperate struggle. It is a prophetic ploy for sure since it is the recessions this country has suffered that has created many Willy Lomans. Vacillating between useless bravado and depressing failure he eventually kills himself just as the mortgage is paid off and they are"free and clear." Willy says through the play "attention must be paid."



Aristocrats may lead extraordinary lives, but it's the ordinary people who tell the true stories of life.



Dana Bate - The Vagabond

Never give up.

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Ode To Herman

A great man does not lose his child-heart.

Mencius
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Hello Puebla, Mexico. Celebrate.
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Two times in my career I played the same role in a play by Arthur Miller called "The Price." It's a story about two brothers, one a scientist and the other a cop, the cop's wife and an old Jewish man who comes to buy the furniture piled up in their attic. It doesn't sound like much of a plot and it isn't, but during the course of the play each of the characters is brought into a state of self realization that is a blessing for all of them.

I played the cop, the first time in Virginia and the second time in New Jersey. In the New Jersey production the old Jewish man, Solomon, was played by an old Jewish man named Herman Arbeit. Herman was born in 1925 and had a long and vigorous career.

It has never occurred to me that I could ever stop learning things and I certainly learned things while working with Herman. Most of the first act is a long scene between Solomon and Victor, the cop. I was impressed by Herman's intensity and commitment. We had to take a bus from New York to the theatre in New Jersey. Herman was always the first one on the bus. He was thrilled, in his quiet aged way, to go to work. And being with him on the stage was an adventure. He truly went to his role with a child-heart.

Herman once wrote: "In addition to learning and growing in a craft, acting proved to be enormous personal therapy, not only giving me insights to personal problems but challenging me to take the strength garnered onstage and incorporate it into my daily life."

I just read in the trade paper that Herman recently died. I'm sad. For the all too brief run of "The Price" he was a positive force from whom I learned things about acting and life.

DB - The Vagabond
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Never give up.
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

6 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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