Vero Beach: Post-WW II ethical drama runs, 'All My Sons', Sept. 15 to 25

The play that brought me out of the woods, back treading the boards (as we theater folks say, ahem), after roughly 17 years, just got its first bit of promotion from the local daily, the Press-Journal (http://TCPalm.com -- site is short for Florida's Treasure Coast & the Palm Beaches). Story goes, they are going to review it soon -- keep an eye out! 

Vero Beach Theatre Guild opens war drama 'All My Sons' on Sept. 15

...The play is based on a true American tragedy and was written in 1945. It examines the ideas of capitalism and its power to corrupt as the story of a successful business man unfolds. Joe Keller, played by local James Anthony Davis, knowingly sells defective airplane parts to the Army during World War II causing the tragic killing of 21 men.

 

The truth behind Keller's choice begins to unravel as his son plans to wed the daughter of his former business partner, the man who Keller blamed for the faulty aircraft parts.

 

Although the theatre guild hasn't produced a drama such as "All My Sons" in quite a few years, Strauss and the 10-member cast is hoping this will be the start of something new.

 

"We thought it was time to put in a drama, and if we were going to do a drama, we wanted to do one of the very best," Strauss said. "We're hoping that when we show our audience base the richness of a really good drama that they will decide that they indeed enjoy having that, and we can add drama to our repertoire more often."

I am playing "George Deever", the son of a jailed business partner whose fate proves to not be all it's cracked up to be by the accuser's family. It poses issues of human and business ethics, personal versus common interests, cowardice, trust, blind self-interest, and more. Ooooo! It's an intense one that'll cause you to appreciate Arthur Miller.  

Personally, I respect Miller far more for this work than "Death of a Salesman". Give it a look! 

- Jon 

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous

Little Pipers to F-16s: Pilots who flew on September 11

Give the story a read. It creates a good image of some Sept. 11, 2001, experiences. The segment below is engaging. 

‘Something you never forget’: Pilots who flew on 9/11 tell their stories

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/213806/group/homepage/

 

After fumbling to put on his headset, the Piper pilot heard the warning that by then had been beaming out on radios for hours: Land or you’ll be shot down. As soon as he heard that, he reached for the switch to deploy his landing gear.

 

It was a moment of levity on an otherwise tragic and anxious day, one in which pilots from the North Dakota Air National Guard’s Fargo-based 119th Wing for hours defended Washington as another pilot from the unit flew across the U.S. through empty skies.

 

“When you look down and see the Pentagon burning, you know something tragic has happened. You know people have died and are suffering below you,” Eckmann said. “It’s something you never forget.”

My recollection of the emptiness of the skies immediately after the tragedies of Sept. 11 are an integral part of my memories of that day. I was in Middle Tennessee at the time, living in Goodlettsville, and working at the new daily paper, The City Paper, then in Green Hills.  

The silence of the skies represented the impact of those events on the entire country: The skies were silent even hundreds of miles from the trouble. 

- Jon 

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous

Best-selling author says she's a victim of fortune teller family's $40 million fraud

Hard lessons are not often learned the easy way. Just because you can tell a good story -- as in, write best-selling novels -- it doesn't mean that you can tell a good story -- as in, recognize that someone's conning you. 

Belief is a powerful thing. Hope is a powerful thing. Talent is an elusive thing. The ability to control fears and emotions with common sense and rational thinking is elusive, too. A successful novelist learned this, having been caught up in a psychic scam. She reportedly lost around $20 million while trying to relieve her thoughts about a young son, lost in a motorcycle accident, and other things. She was scammed over a period of 20 years, it seems. 

Best-selling romance novelist Jude Deveraux has confirmed she is one of the alleged victims of a Fort Lauderdale family of fortune tellers accused of defrauding clients of $40 million.

"This is an ongoing federal investigation and I am not allowed to say anything to anyone. However, I am allowed to tell you that I wrote about the way the gypsies work — without mentioning that they were gypsies — in my book Scarlet Nights," Deveraux wrote in an email to the Sun-Sentinel. She declined further comment and referred questions to federal authorities.

Deveraux, who writes under a pseudonym, is referred to by her real initials "J.M." in the indictment. Federal investigators said in court Friday that a successful author – who they declined to identify – had lost about $20 million in the scam.

Federal prosecutors accuse the family and its associates, led by matriarch Rose Marks, of preying on vulnerable people during times of personal crisis.

READ MORE: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/aug/23/romance-novelist-jude-deveraux-lost-millions-to/

One's intelligence does not encompass all things, only some things. We are not all wise; no one is wise about everything. This is one among many reasons why people need each other.


- Jon

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous