Mother is 95! Play Read! Wolfowitz Resigns!

Well, it's been a full week, hasn't it? Paul Wolfowitz, seen here, finally resigned, not officially in disgrace,

after cutting a wide swath at the World Bank. The quickness with which his staff turned on him suggests that he's perhaps not the best manager around. Still waiting for Gonzalez to go, as the news about the fired attorneys-general gets more and more damning. With the latest being the entire business of Adminstration lawyers--including then Presidential lawyer Gonzalez trying to get then-Attorney General Ashcroft in hospital to approve wire taps that Ashcroft had already said would be illegal. And this is John Ashcroft trying to stop the Bush Adminstration from committing illegal acts!

But enough of that ongoing scandal. This was also the week of mother's 95th birthday. All sons in town (albeit somewhat serially) for the event. Here's kid brother Brian, Ginger, and Alan earlier in the week. Brian, recently retired from his career as a nuclear engineer with the electric industry in southern California, visited early in the week, departing on the 14th. Eldest brother Gary arrived on the 16th, leaving on the 18th.

at Whestone Gardens

Mother's holding orchids sent by granddaughter Kat from Japan.

On the 19th, Twentieth Night, my short sequel to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, was given a reading at Stonewall Columbus, thanks to the executive director, Karla Rothan, who read Viola, while her real life partner, Linda Schuler, read Olivia.
Linda and Karla read
The reading was in Stonewall Columbus' new space, The Center on High--a long room on the second floor of the headquarters in the Short North neighborhood. About 25 people came to hear the reading.


Here are Adam Peal (bowing) as Danish courtier Osric, Alex Coccia as Young Sebastian, Linda/Olivia, Karla/Viola, and Rhea Kavari as Young Olivia. Osric has come seeking Prince Hamlet, who had been visiting Illyria. And below, a happy playwright follows along as Olivia teaches Young Olivia some fencing techniques.

Twentieth Night exists because of an error on my part. Saw a notice last summer that a new classical theatre company, Pointed Remarques, was looking for Shakespearean prequels or sequels that included large amounts of sword fighting. So I wrote Twentieth Night and sent it off to Colorado, where the company exists to reinvigorate swashbuckling drama--all company members are swordfolks. It then occurred to me to check the company out. So I found their website, http://www.pointedremarques.org/ -- and found this photo

I'd managed to write a play requiring three swordswomen and one swordsman for a company of three swordsmen and one swordswoman! So I wrote a new play, a prequel to Hamlet I called Downstairs at Elsinore. In the meantime, I'd asked Karla if she and Linda would read the first play aloud so I could hear it--and Karla, now executive director of Stonewall Columbus, in turn suggested that it be read to inaugurate their new community space, The Center on High. So that culminated this Saturday in the reading that took place, to my great satisfaction. Lots of ways to improve the play.

And in the meantime, Downstairs at Elsinore was accepted by the Pointed Remarques company, and is scheduled for performance in their Festival of Honor in June--so two Shakespearean sequels/prequels in two months! More about Pointed Remarques at www.pointedremarques.org/POINTEDREMARQUESNews.htm