Tracy Letts

In Shel Silverstein's great song A boy named Sue a father gives his son a girl's name to harden him against mockery and aggression. I don't know what Mr. Letts' parents intended by calling their boy Tracy, but I do know that the name of one the greatest living male dramatists is Tracy Letts. He is the author of August: Osage County, a play that won both a Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. A film version, written by Letts himself, was just released. This amazing playwright has produced just five plays in 18 years, and although I only know the one mentioned, I am positive that he belongs to the same league as Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee. The 48-old actor and writer is a recovering alcoholic and former chain smoker who dropped out of college to go to Chicago where he became a member of the Steppenwolf ensemble and started to write for the company. We all will hear a lot of him in the upcoming years.

Another Great First Sentence

Franz Kafka opens his novel The Trial like this: "Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested." What a great first sentence!

Write A Great First Sentence!

Whatever you write, give the opening sentence a lot of consideration. The first sentence must attract and hold the reader's attention. It decides if he or she is willing to read on. By now there are lists of great opening sentences from famous novels on the internet, such as All-Time Favourite Opening Sentences. The undisputed number one on my personal list is the opening of One Hundred Years of Solitude from Gabriel Garcia Márquez that goes like this: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice". That's as good as it gets.

A Short Description Of Life By William Shakespeare

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
to the last syllable of recorded time;
and all our yesterdays have lighted fools
the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more. It is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
signifying nothing.

"Macbeth"

Bruno On Truth

It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.

Giordano Bruno

Houdini, The Musical

The Hungarian entertainer Erik Weisz who became Harry Houdini, the world's most famous magician, is on the project list of many musical makers. Although Houdini was hardly the best illusionist of all, his unique talent for gimmickry and self-marketing made him so famous that almost 90 years after his death his name is still a brand. So it comes as no surprise that a new Houdini musical is in the making and already on its way to Broadway. The original creative team included Tony Award nominee and three-time  and my favorite scriptwriter, Aaron Sorkin, who was supposed to write the book. The producers announced that Hugh Jackman would play the title role. Sorkin departed the project in early 2013. He'll be replaced by David Ives who "rewrote" my Dance of the Vampires for Broadway 12 years ago. Hugh Jackman left the project last Monday. The musical that has shifted the timeline for its Broadway arrival several times has now been scheduled for a 2015-16 opening. The historic Houdini freed himself from chains, shackles and ropes, dangling from skyscrapers and submerged in water. I wish my friend Stephen that his project will be as triumphant in the end as its protagonist who always managed to escape.

Writer's Block? Huh?

Too many writers talk and act as if writing were a slow torture, a form of procreation without arousal and romance - all dilation and contraction, grunting and pushing. The writer's struggle is overrated, a con game, a cognitive distortion, a self-fulfillung prophecy, the best excuse for not writing.

Roy Peter Clark

Kindred Pen Mate

I’ve never written anything that I don’t wish I could get another chance at. “A Few Good Men” has been my white whale for 25 years. Just a few years ago, I did a new draft for a West End production. I’m older and more experienced now, and I could write it better.

Aaron Sorkin

Leonardo Anuedo

A Night To Remember

Yesterday evening we went to the Blue Note in New York City's Village to see and hear Chris Botti perform. As everyone knows Botti is an incredibly versatile trumpet player whose melancholic sound keeps reminding me of the unforgettable Chet Baker. Chris fully justified his reputation. And what a fine group of musicians has he gathered - each of them a world class soloist. Among them pianist Andy Ezrin, arguably the best jazz keyboarder since Oscar Peterson, and guitarist Leonardo Anuedo whose prowess is simply awesome. You would think musicians of such a caliber must be arrogant. But no! Not puristic at all, they mix elements of pop, traditional and free jazz with classical and rock music. Good music is limitless. We left the Blue Note amazed, overjoyed and grateful.