Everything is everything, or... it is nothing at all!

 Being a ‘modern artist’ of Any kind, in this day and age, is the greatest opportunity on Earth. It also presents some incredibly complex challenges. Having faced, survived and thrived through almost all of these challenges that have arisen in my life and career over the past half-century, suffered the slings and arrows of family, friends, colleagues and many who have fancied themselves my ‘competitors,’ you may find that this blog might have considerable gravity. I assurer you, your journey will not be mine, but you will, more than likely, face at least some of them.

For you, who think that you will somehow be spared Any challenges in the course of the pursuit of your ‘art,’ you are either a supreme egoist, a misguided naïve or totally delusional. The cultural landscape is littered with the likes of you poor souls.

There is no armor that you can don that will protect you from jealousy, vanity, ignorance and stupidity, both others’ and your own. These horrors pervade the world of art and the World at large. We (artists) do not do well when having to operate behind these obstacles, never mind when struggling to pay rent, eat and transport ourselves from place to place.

IN the next several weeks, I will be exploring some of these ‘challenges’ and how they may be effectively addressed. Mind you, I would never deign to pontificate here. There are few who have made as many ‘faux pas’ than I have. I view it as a minor (or maybe ‘Major’) miracle that am I not only still productive, but even alive. Believe me, it could easily and probably should have been otherwise.

Regardless, my first suggestion is that you may want to adopt a philosophy that embraces the idea that, ‘I don’t know what I can’t do.’ With that instilled in your psyche, you are just liable to try and even do Anything that is your ‘Heart’s desire.’ 😎

Its liable to give you gas!

 About this flap over 'Inflation' and 'gas prices:' What a crock of REPUBLIKKKON BS! Your 'corporate overlords' pulled the same shizzle on Jimmy Carter back in '77, when he tried to wean our sorry butts off of foreign oil, get us into wind and solar ( NO Friggin' FRACKING) and then sabotaged his attempt of a rescue in the "Iran Hostage Affair." ('Shrub #1' was CIA chief!) All to get that phoney wind bag full of Hollywood manure (Ronny Reagan) installed, so the 'fat cats' could run their 'dinosaur deals,' push coal and pull another banking scam, all while QUADRUPLING (4X) the National Debt to $3.2 TRILLION! (It was $800 billion when Jimmy stepped down.) That put us in a 'debt spiral' that has left us here. Ah! 'Repulselikkkon revisionism!' (January 6, 2020 never happened, right? YEAH! FAR RIGHT!) Not to mention, "Iran Contra" and the "Star Wars Initiative," you can stick those cuties where the sun don't shine! Oh! I almost forgot, Repubs don't read, they run lip and rip-offs! Look it up! ESAD. 

"Adele! What the H€££!"

 It's been less than a week since the release of Adele's latest smash hit album, "Adele 30" and I'm still not sure what to think. It's been 2 days since one of the most pricey and over produced, over promoted  launches ever from Viacom/CBS. The album has some fine, slick production, but it just sounds so 'Adele' it left me asking, 'Where's the growth?' You would think after all the soul vomit that she dumped in Oprah's abundant lap, she would want to thank God (or, at least someone else) for helping pull her through it all. Instead, it was a typical Hollywood 'One Note Symphony' here. (You know, "Me! Me! Me! Me!") Regurge and purge, those Tinseltown' staples were rolled out in full regalia.  Her incredible pipes not withstanding, she sounds much like every other pop artist out there. I can barely tell the difference between her spiel and those of Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber. (Look out, Billie. They're coming to replace your 'Eilish' with 'eyelashes!'). I'm personally interested more in her guts, not her girth or how it was packed into that gown. What about using your influence in a two hour, globally broadcast program to affect some real issues on the planet, besides your dress size. How about some of those things with which that young beautiful boy will no doubt have to negotiate, like global warming, pandemics, world hunger, small stuff, ya' know. Hey girl! How about growing your Consciousness, while shrinking your outfits. You seem to me to have lost some of that 'soul' that made you great. I trust that God is watching and HE will grab her before she falls into the 'Helltown abyss,' at which she is now obviously teetering. What do you guys think? 💖🙏

Dining with the lions on “Mean Street.”

Dining with the lions on “Mean Street.”

I graduated the Neighborhood Playhouse 50 years ago, this past May. My final production at the school was, “The Hawk" by Murray Mednick, directed by a 1st year 'apprentice' teacher named Fred Kareman. I went on to quietly have a long and very successful career as an actor, writer, director, producer, singer and teacher. I'm still in the midst of it. 

I loved working with Fred, Bill Esper, Bill Alderson, but most of all, Sandy. It seems so strange to call him that. To me, he was ALWAYS "Mr. Meisner," even after several years and a string of major roles, including co-starring with academy award winner, Sandy Dennis and James Broderick (also an NP alum) as 'Stanley' in 25th Anniversary the Chicago (where it premiered) revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the tender age of 23. Even, when he called me into his office for a meeting to tell me how insane I was to have done the part, I addressed him as "Mr. Meisner."

He called me on the carpet for attempting to play a role, so iconic that he he said, “No one should EVER play that role, again!” It completely altered the American and the entire World concept of ‘acting’ forever. 

I pointed out that Brando was only 23 when he did it and, in fact, it was he (Meisner) who had instilled in me the idea of "taking big risks" and throwing myself into Any role with everything I had. He sat there quietly, pondering my defense. Then, he looked up at me and said, “That wasn’t a risk, it was tantamount to ‘career suicide.’ He told me, “If that had been here in New York, the lions (critics) would have had me for breakfast.” He then congratulated me for surviving the run. 

I asked him where he had heard about the production. He told me Jimmy Broderick (Matthew’s dad who had played the role of ‘Mitch’ and was a great actor himself, had talked to him. I asked what Jim had thought about my effort. He said, “he thought you were, young.” Then, he released me back onto the ‘mean streets.' 

I thought about what he had told me for a moment or two, then I remembered what Tennessee Williams’ brother, Dakin, had told me after watching my performance on opening night. He said, “You know, I saw Marlon’s ‘Stanley’ opening night and I liked yours more.” After having his words echo in my ear, that “mean street” and Sandy’s critique lost some of their bite. DPW

Hard to believe

 It is hard to believe that we are where we are today. Our Capitol is under siege by our own, 'soon-to-be'  former president, his minions gathering to further threaten our Republic, which they assaulted only last week. The attempted 'coup' vanquished by American democratic loyalists, the Fascist wannabe has retreated to the hinterland to assemble his hoard for the coming conflagration. Horrific as it may be, it pales in comparison with the potential threat of actions for this weekend's MLK Day celebration and the impending Inauguration.

The truly dismaying prospect of an armed insurrection in our Nation's seat of power is the possibility of losing our democracy to an army of infidels whose sole aim seems to be putting a narcissistic autocrat on a newly fashioned throne for life. Beyond that is the realization that this is a concerted effort to overthrow our entire society and all that we have worked at for nearly three centuries, now. There is little doubt in my mind that we are being exposed to the consequences of some of our leaders being compromised by foreign powers, who have gotten their hooks into our highest ranking officials. 

We will prevail and eliminate the threat FOR NOW. But, we can NEVER ALLOW another self-aggrandizing charlatan to 'con' our electorate into giving them  the keys to our coffers and greater treasures without the proper vetting and complete disclosure.  NO  TAXES, NO TICKET! NO TRANSPARENCY, NO EMPOWERMENT! NO OPENNESS, NO OVAL OFFICE! We must make 'Honesty,' NOT ONLY "the best policy," it MUST be made, 'THE ONLY POLICY!' It should be just that simple. 'Nuff said! 

I have been asked to make a blog about how COVID has impacted my industry. I have been in Broadcast & Entertainment (B&E) for 50 years. The ONLY other event vaguely reminiscent of this horror was the “triple witching” event of 1988. It shut our industry down and forced me to shutter a project into which I had sunk a bundle. The WGA dragged on for nearly 6 months. It was devastating.

The difference now is “streaming,” the internet and COVID. Back then, the internet was in its infancy
and “mobile streaming” was ‘non-existent.’ I had been pushing for the development of ‘interactive
multimedia,’ as new technologies were beckoning a new dawn to suit the “Next” and All future
generations. It was a turbulent era that has yet to resolve some very large issues, but at least we had
the, “THEATER!”

Where this series of events greatly differs is the fact that this one is literally a, “life or death” game
changer. It has thrown the breaks on All production of every kind. Will it “end?” YES! Will our $2.7
TRILLION a year recover? One wants to believe that will happen, but only time will give us that answer.

The” good news” is that we are learning to play “differently” for now. Soon, we will see who are those who used this time to discover and explore, “The NEXT NORMAL.” (As if, there was EVER A “NORMAL”to start with. Peace. 🙏

Now Here This! Now Here This!

Now Here This! Now Here This! All hands-on deck! We have moved the fleet! We have hauled anchor from St James Episcopal Church and are now firmly moored at: CoLab 45 St John St, Goshen, NY 10924 Aftspa.org is a 501 c3 corporation (‘not-for-profit’ organization) dedicated to providing the best available training, affordably priced for professionally motivated individuals looking to enter the $2.7 TRILLION a year B&E industry. To better serve our students, we have relocated our training programs to Co Lab and will continue acting and technical training at this location, while we continue to prepare multiple productions in All disciplines with film works (“Shadow Serenade”, “Driving Marilyn Home”, “The Split”, “The Big Ride”); stage works (“Supper with Ja, ”Jesus the Kid”, “The Gin Game” and “Status Quo Vadis”), television projects (“Three for the Road, “Empowering Women Everywhere”) Acting Anyone presents private and group trainings in a ‘series’ of 8-10 classes at different levels in the Modern Meisner Method (‘3M’). Classes are also offered in ‘Speech Level Singing’ (Seth Riggs) and will be adding ‘movement for actors training’ (Graham/Alexander) to help developed greater physical consciousness and grace in performance, later this Spring. All classes are for those interested in being a ‘professional’ and are designed and administered by the principals of Willy-Gilly Productions, Inc., David Patrick Wilson and Nan-Gill Wilson, to maximize individual output and impact. For more information, to register for classes or submit your information to become eligible for casting, you can visit us at www.willygilly.com or Call (845)294-7500 Visit Our Website