World of Amitin

On Friday I had a reunion with my friend Mark Hall Amitin. We'd not seen each other in far too many years. It truly felt like a homecoming. Mark had been at the center of my life in the theater for over a decade, and has influenced my thinking about the role of theater in society more than perhaps anybody else. He is the very embodiment of the artist/activist, and has spent a lifetime working to advance the evolution of humankind away from cynicism and violence and toward equality, peace and freedom of expression. This he has done both from outside "the system" (such as his work with the Living Theatre) and from within (bringing non-mainstream artists to prominence in Hollywood). His is a lifetime of achievement. I couldn't even begin to recount his accomplishments in this one blog entry. But let me just say this: if you look at every major theatrical movement of the past forty years - every significant experimental theater, many of our most honored writers, actors, and directors - somewhere you will find a link back to Mark. He operated as the hub for the convergence of politics and art at a time when America was most desperately in need of the voice of opposition.

In 1968 Mark began a company called Universal Movement Theatre, sharing an office space with Abbey Hoffman. He has known, worked with, represented, taught, produced and/or influenced artists such as Julian Beck and Judith Malina, Joseph Chaikin, Jean-Claude vanItallie, Lee Breuer, Ruth Maleczek, JoAnne Akalitis, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Spalding Gray, Ellen Stewart, Shami Chaikin, Joan MacIntosh, Karen Ludwig, Shirley Stoller, Bread & Puppet Theatre, Squat Theatre....the list goes on and on. He also discovered and nurtured many new talents, most notably Steve Buscemi (see photo on left), but also David Cale, Paul Zaloom, Mark Boone Jr., The Kipper Kids, and Peter Facinelli. Mark also earned his PhD. in Theatre from the Sorbonne in Paris, and has been active as a teacher, lecturer, and director for more than twenty years. Quite simply, he is "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma".

For several years I worked alongside Mark as he ran his theatrical management company World of Culture, Inc. It was here that I first learned the nuts and bolts of show business. I also got my feet wet as an actor. Mark helped me land me first roles in the theater, and also coached me for a recurring role on As The World Turns. It was through Mark that I met playwright Jean-Claude vanItallie, which ultimately led me to Joseph Chaikin. I will be forever grateful to Mark for giving me the opportunity to move among the most revered figures of the American theater.

Mark has overcome much adversity in his life. He came from very humble roots - a small town in New Jersey - where he grew up gay in pre-sexual-revolution America. He has always proudly maintained his identity as a Jew, even has he has questioned the deeper meaning of God and religion in his life. His passion for the plight of the Palestinians brought him to Gaza during the second Intifada, where he worked with a group of Palestinian actors to tell the story of their life and struggles. In more recent years he has traveled to Egypt to adjudicate a festival of international theater, and to China where he directed his own adaptation of Peer Gynt.

In the few short hours I spent with Mark on Friday, our conversation wandered from topic to topic - politics, relationships, eBay, death - but always we came back the theater. This is the common ground that we share, a project begun twenty years ago, whose next chapter is yet to be written.

Good to see you, Mark.
Wayne

Saved by The Long Arm of the Law & Order (or How I Managed to Not Take the GREs)

This is truly one for the book.

There I was, yesterday afternoon, sitting at my computer and trying to solve an algebraic equation! Egads. I was scheduled to take the GREs today in preparation for my application to various graduate schools. At 5:30 pm, I got a phone call from my agent David Cash, saying that Law & Order wanted to hire me for a week, would I be available. Uh...yes. "Your first day would be tomorrow". Huh?

So much for the GRE.

I had auditioned for this new episode ("Tango") last Wednesday, and was completely flummoxed because I waited an hour and a half to get in. It was also the first night of the Winter Workshop which I am teaching with Eva Burgess , and I finally told Suzanne Ryan (Law & Order's casting director) that I had to leave. She squeezed me in, but I was in such a tizzy I assumed that was the end of it.

And it was. They cast somebody else.

But, whomever they cast suddenly booked a commercial and I was their next pick. So lo and behold...the role was mine. Not bad. A week's work on a network show in the middle of a writer's strike. I'm stoked!

I immediately contacted Ted Sluberski, and had a great coaching session.

So today I showed up at Chelsea Piers at 5pm and was rushed into hair and make-up. I got a great free haircut. And then on to wardrobe. Before I knew it, I was sitting in a bustling courtroom watching the work of such esteemed actors as Jeffrey DeMunn, Marlyne N. Afflack, Maria Dizzia, Valerie Whitman, Alana de la Garza...it was wild! Peter Parros was superb as Judge Matthew Alden, as was Eli Ganias who plays the court Clerk.

While I was in hair and make-up, Jesse L. Martin (who plays detective Green on the show) came in to chat. It's Jesse's birthday tomorrow (January 18) and apparently there had been cake. He was talking to Marlyne about The Wire, and was so passionate about the show, wondering why it hadn't been nominated for an Emmy for Best Ensemble. He went on and on about how underrated the show is. ( I can't wait to watch it on DVD. I don't have cable, so I've never seen it.) And then the conversation turned to my friend John Doman (pictured on left), who is one of the stars of The Wire. John did a guest-star on Law & Order back in December, and everyone was so delighted to work with him. I was grinning to myself, thinking I just directed John Doman in reading of Orange Alert. How lucky was I to have such a great actor!

All I can say is...thank God for Dick Wolf. I don't know how they managed to keep shooting while everyone else isn't working. But I'm so grateful for the opportunity. And for the paycheck. Maybe now I can have my teeth cleaned.

Ciao for now.
Wayne

Excerpt from The Kite Runner

Keeping with the same topic as my entry yesterday - the role of positive feedback in the creative process - here's a little excerpt from Khaled Hosseini's extraordinary novel The Kite Runner.


One day, in July 1973, I played another little trick on Hassan. I was reading to him, and suddenly I strayed from the written story. I pretended I was reading from the book, flipping pages regularly, but I had abandoned the text altogether, taken over the story, and made up my own. Hassan, of course, was oblivious to this. To him, the words on the page were a scramble of codes, indecipherable, mysterious. Words were secret doorways and I held all the keys. After, I started to ask him if he'd liked the story, a giggle rising in my throat, when Hassan began to clap.
"What are you doing?" I said.
"That was the best story you've read me in a long time, " he said, still clapping.
I laughed. "Really?"
"Really."
"That's fascinating," I muttered. I meant it too. This was...wholly unexpected. "Are you sure, Hassan?"
He was still clapping. "It was great, Amir agha. Will you read me more of it tomorrow?"
"Fascinating," I repeated, a little breathless, feeling like a man who discovers a buried treasure in his own backyard. Walking down the hill, thoughts were exploding in my head like the fireworks at Chaman. Best story you've read me in a long time, he'd said. I had read him a lot of stories. Hassan was asking me something.
"What?" I said.
"What does that mean, 'fascinating'?"
I laughed. Clutched him in a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"What was that for?" he said, startled, blushing.
I gave him a friendly shove. Smiled. "You're a prince, Hassan. You're a prince and I love you."
That same night, I wrote my first short story.