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- “I know why the caged bird sings, ah me…” — poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
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- “People are always asking me if I thought Elvis was a handsome man and my answer is ‘I am not blind you know’!” — Millie Kirkham
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- “And the role of the fatal chorus / I agree to take on” — Anna Akhmatova
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Category Archives: On This Day
“Every choice I’ve ever made has been dictated by a formless hunch rather than by strict logic.” — Peter Brook
“I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space, whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.” … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged Ellen Terry, Glass Menagerie, Laurette Taylor, Orson Welles, William Shakespeare
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The night we performed for William Hurt
It’s William Hurt’s birthday today. Back in the day, when Twitter was still a thing, I would often write long stories which occasionally went viral. My story of meeting William Hurt was one of them. When I deactivated my account, … Continue reading
“Reality is always extraordinary.” — Mary Ellen Mark
It’s her birthday today. My first job was as a page at a local library. I would go there after school, shelve books for a couple of hours, and then head home. I ended up working there all through high … Continue reading
“I think my cinema is minimalist because so is my gaze: I’m very interested in people.” — Joanna Hogg
It’s the birthday of director Joanna Hogg, who hasn’t directed that many films (comparatively) and yet what she has done really matters, so much so that when there are gaps between films, people who always have her on their radar … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged England, Joanna Hogg, Martin Scorsese, Tilda Swinton, women directors
2 Comments
“I got my first guitar at age of 7 and never laid it down. Momma taught me G, C, and D. I was off to the races son!” — Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed was everywhere in the ’70s. He was on every variety show. He was in movies. He did duets. He popped up. He was a major star, and – better than a star – a CHARACTER. I miss CHARACTERS. … Continue reading
“Can’t no man play like me.” — Sister Rosetta Tharpe
It’s her birthday today. In 2018, Rosetta Tharpe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an “Early Influence”. I mean, that’s nice, but it’s decades too late. She should have been in the first “class” of … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
2 Comments
“The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority.” — Henrik Ibsen
It’s his birthday today. Some posts from my archive: This is a doozy, an excerpt from an amazing book made up of transcribed lectures on Ibsen, Chekhov and Strindberg, by legendary actress and acting teacher Stella Adler. It’s a great … Continue reading
Posted in James Joyce, On This Day, Theatre, writers
Tagged Clifford Odets, Henrik Ibsen, Lee Strasberg, Norway, scripts, Stella Adler
4 Comments
“In the beginning I never found poems in the American literary pantheon about the things I knew best. I decided that I would at least do my part and try to put some of those poems in there.” — Rhode Island’s first poet laureate, Michael Harper
“My poems are rhythmic rather than metric; the pulse is jazz; the tradition generally oral; my major influences musical; my debts, mostly to the musicians who taught me to see about experience, pain and love, and who made it artful … Continue reading
“If it hadn’t been for the videocassette, I may not have had a career at all.” — Kurt Russell
It’s his birthday today. How I love him. I grew up with him. The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes. I remember that being screened for us in grade school in what they called “the multi-purpose room” (lol: gym, cafeteria, theatre). … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Elvis Presley, hockey, Kurt Russell, miracle on ice
19 Comments
“A pas de deux is a dialogue of love. How can there be conversation if one partner is dumb?” — Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev — born on this day — was once asked how he got so much height in his legendary jumps. He replied, “When I am at the peak of the jump, I just pause a little bit.” As though … Continue reading