What Crosses My Mind

  • She Belonged On Stage

    At least those were her words when Becky returned to an audition after years of being away. I’ve changed her name and productions to protect her anonymity. I was first introduced to Becky in a production of Mary Poppins when she played a significant role. She was someone who came out of nowhere, they usually…

  • Why Do I Need A Monologue?

    Years ago, when I was pursuing the stage, I was told by my mentor to always have a couple of monologues ready to go – preferably one comic and another tragic, perhaps contemporary or classical, even better always carry one of each in your back pocket and have them all memorized. Have a resource of…

  • Playing Illusions

    One of the treasures of putting a script to stage is the opportunity to play reality and leave the audience in wonder. Many playwrights spend a lifetime writing scenes that will depict society in its true and sometimes disturbing form. Arthur Miller did just that with the majority of his scripts, my favorite being The…

  • Five Days, Five Photos – Day Two; On Diversity

    I have this notion, that if we could sometime just put all of our fears aside, and recognize one another for our beauty and grace, there wouldn’t be nearly as much anxiety in our lives. Perhaps I am speaking for myself, but I really do wonder. I know many years ago, a friend of mine…

  • A Ferguson Retrospect

    http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/story/opinion/2014/08/29/wausau-ferguson-column/14814491/

  • We Will Weep

    I cannot get the movie ‘What Dreams May Come’ out of my head tonight. I keep thinking about the beauty of pastels, our next life, world, human reality. A vision of ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ keeps running through my mind, as I see the professor walking his new students along the auspicious predecessors of their educational…

  • Grateful

    Hello everyone, all of you delightful and inspirational bloggers out there. It is high time I thank you for the journey you have set me on with your writing and craft. I began this travel a little over a year and a half ago, I suppose a few months earlier than that, but things began…

  • Slated Departures

    “Why it’s easy”, she told him as he looked to her for guidance. Simply make it a priority and it will happen. In his mind, all he could think about was this didn’t happen in his world. It was far too expensive for one, not to mention that so many other things mattered. She had…

  • On Fathers

    I thought all week about how I might write a poem about Father’s Day, and maybe it will come to me later in the day, but for now, I decided I will just talk about it, and perhaps provide my own insight into the phenomena of fatherhood. I am a father to two lovely children…

  • A Conversation (prose)

    I went to lunch with a friend today and we got onto the subject of coping skills. We’re both teachers and we encounter a lot of teenagers on a regular basis, most of which carry a lot of baggage into the classroom each day. There are times when we truly do not get the full…