Category Archive

I’m on the phone with a friend. “How are you?” I ask. “I’m so anxious that I can’t sleep. I am so afraid for our country. I can’t stop watching the news.” “Do some yoga, take a bath, and go to bed earlier.” I’m walking my dog, Trigger, and a …

Well, I guess I have to write another blog. If you’re like me, and I hope you’re not in many ways, but also hope you are in many other different ways, you think, “How many blogs will I have to write before I’ve wrung every last drop of wisdom out …

January 19th, nine o’clock in the morning. The weather report predicts six to eight inches of snow. I receive a text from F.A.B.’s Producing Director. (F.A.B. is a branch of The Barrow Group dedicated to writing For, About, and By Women.) “Should we cancel our F.A.B. sharing tonight?” I reply, …

This year, my twice-exceptional child became an adult – one who is happy about his prospects, doing well in his first year of college, has a few very good friends, and experiences love in his life. This future was not an expected outcome just a few years ago. It was …

I’m sitting at my dining room table reflecting back on this year, looking through my 2024 planner.  In the margins I have written down the scenes that actors do in class – an extraordinary amount of work.  Each class an inspiration. Each class a piece of art. Every class different. …

In this business, you may hear a hundred “No’s” for every “Yes.” Why add more? I don’t know about you, but I’m occasionally surprised by how casting people see me. I most often play the doctor or the dad, and over the years I’ve become the grandad. Nice guys. I’ve …

The Barrow Group’s production of John Yearley’s Triptych closed this week. For sixteen performances I greeted people as they entered the theater and hugged them as they left. Several times after the show’s curtain call I watched people so moved by the experience that they couldn’t get out of their …

Acting is the most intimate, the most personal, of the arts. We literally use ourselves — our bodies, our faces, our voices — and also our impulses, which is like exposing our psychology, warts and all. This brings unique challenges, not only in the work itself but in how we …

Years ago in class, something was going awry in a scene I was in and Seth said, “Don’t make it wrong.” It was a revelation to me. Instead of covering up this “mistake” or hurrying on to the next bit so I could distance myself from the flub of a …