The Art of Men Acting
3 Novels

I wrote THE ART OF MEN ACTING after a wonderful life as a freelance theatre director where I had the exceptional opportunities to know my country, its people, and its attitudes.  I kept discovering how dramatic life is, and though I was dedicated to the dramas and comedies I directed on stage I could not help but be aware that many real life dramas and comedies are better. THE ART OF MEN ACTING is my three part series of bio-theatrical novels, in which I try to demonstrate how incredibly interesting people are. But also, in truth, how obvious it has become to me that everyone one of our societal failures are also the fault of We the People!

I found myself turning towards ANANKE, the goddess of unalterable necessity, fate and destiny, from which one cannot escape (Plato). ANANKE is the tough love that forces us to fulfill our spiritual life. By completing obligations honorably, paying the costs for truth willingly, and obeying the rules of justice faithfully we save that much of the world we inhabit.

I decided to evaluate our relationship to ANANKE by writing the combined three books in THE ART OF MEN ACTING.

BOOK  I :: BROOKLYN ODYSSEY
The first step I took to illuminate my life and my society’s was to return to my childhood. This was odd because I certainly chomped at the bit throughout my youth to get away and begin my odyssey, to take that journey that would help me to know fully who and what I am. How odd, then that the first step I took once I had achieved my life, once I owned it fully, was to return to the place I had run away from.  I had, after all, ultimately realized that my childhood had love, and comforts that the world was lacking, so I returned to take a look.  In BROOKLYN ODYSSEY I pit the womb I enjoyed of my family against a desire for the world at large. I create a battle of life during a period of American innocence when it was possible for a little boy to struggle out of his family’s limitations.

BOOK II :: TONIGHT I WON’T BE ACTING
My career was, as my life has been, blessed from start, hopefully, to finish. So I wrote TONIGHT I WON’T BE ACTING because I could in this style of writing combine the way in which my career proceeded, but also the fun and games, and insanities that permeate a life in the theatre; for instance, the backstage things that occur to also shed light on THE ART OF MEN ACTING. I tell anecdotes that involve, Betty Grable, Hans Conreid, Luther Adler, Kay Medford, Colleen Dewhurst, Dana Andrews, Chita Rivera, and dozens of others. It was a treat to be a young man beginning his career surrounded by so many famous people, but it was even better to discover how human they all were, equally dramatic and comic as my family, friends, and associates and all part of THE ART OF MEN ACTING.

BOOK III :: NOT FOR PROPHET
As I reflect on my life I realize I tried to sustain the love I always had as a Don Quixote, I find instead rage for the incredible injustices and corruption I personally witnessed. And since all politics is local, that I could multiply the local evils I have experienced and see why our magnificent country exhibits signs of cancer everywhere. Consistent to THE ART OF MEN ACTING, I include unique professional trips to Brussels, and particularly twice to Cuba, to interweave my angers with a lighter touch.