Philip Carlson
Marjan Neshat, a member of The Actors Center Company and Ken Prewitt and his wife Susan Vogel, whose voluminous interests and credits are set forth in their own interview, all remark on, and much more than casually, the centrality of this Journal’s primary concern in their lives.
As I was growing up in Buffalo, long after the departure of Katherine Cornell and Mame Dennis, longing for some like-minded companionship, it would appear, judging from our contributors to this issue, that if I had only had the fortitude and the curiosity to reach out to some fellow humans and actually give voice to my passion, I might have found someone who shared my longing for whatever it was that was created up there on the stage of the our local theatres – the Erlanger, or The Studio Arena or The Holloway Bay Playhouse, and been able to share secrets and hopes and reasons for living that were very likely not too far beneath the surface of so many impenetrable faces I saw every day. Except for those under my own roof. The philistinism of my own family must never be doubted. Else who would I be without someone to react against? But the number of people who have been touched by the theatre would seem to be vast and not so far away from wherever one’s formative years were spent. Always excepting my father who slept through “West Side Story,” while I was enraptured in the next seat. Wake up, folks!
Also, in this edition of The Journal, Michael announces our addition of new and more varied voices to these pages and I take a crack at further setting forth (or perhaps discovering) my own thinking on what is meant by those mysterious words: not for profit.
In his column In the Room, Zach Fine reflects with his usual eloquence, on the trials and rewards and insights that arise from putting together a one man show. It’s called “Walled In”. Information can be had at http://irttheater.org and it should be seen.
As to the new voices you will be hearing from in the future, I must add my own to Michael’s and tell you how thrilled (not too strong a word) we are to be adding new thinking and perspectives to those we have already been offering up. I would be lying if I did not confess that I hope these upcoming more frequent postings will encourage you all who now come to us to come to us more frequency and with, perhaps, more willingness to engage us with your responses.
And so, I give you The Actors Center Journal. Happy reading.