Randy is another alum of my Piven Theatre workshop voice class. He revealed himself as a king of improv in that class as well and I was excited when he said he would be available to do Talking with My Dad. His character, Nurse James, is perhaps the most ethereal of us all, working many […]
Read MoreAmanda and I met at a Piven Theatre Workshop class dealing with an actor’s use of voice and bodily movement. It was a fantastic class and it was there Amanda’s love of Shakespeare revealed itself to us all, as she did a Shakespearean monologue, a massive challenge for any actor. I have since seen the […]
Read MoreAll this week we’ll be featuring profiles of our amazing cast coupled with my personal stories of how I met these fantastic actors. Bringing you Talking with my Dad started months ago in workshop sessions during which we read through my first draft and then my second draft of our script. Rehearsals began in September […]
Read MoreTalking wiht my Dad is a one-act play set in a fictional hospital in the present day. But to bring you to that time and place, we’re renting the famed Piven Theater in Evanston for our six shows Nov. 15-16 and Nov. 22-23. Here’s what the empty stage looks like. As you can see, audience […]
Read MoreTalking with My Dad, a one-act play, takes place entirely in a hospital room at our fictional St. Francis Hospital. A hospital room can be one of the coldest, loneliest places on earth, especially for a patient wondering if he will live to see the next morning , as is our main character Frankie Casafranc. […]
Read MoreNurse James is a night nurse at our fictional St. Francis Hospital, the setting for Talking with my Dad. He has seen and heard it all during his many years at the hospital where he was himself born. Rather than become hardened by his experience, as have some of his colleagues, he has adapted a […]
Read MoreNurse Strickland is a veteran of the cardiac unit at our fictional St. Francis Hospital, the setting for Talking with My Dad. She has seen it all in her many years in healthcare, the good, the bad and the ugly. A bit world-weary from it all, she carries on out of a sense of duty […]
Read MoreDr. Edward Chasen is the head of cardiac surgery at our fictional St. Francis Hospital, the setting for Talking with My Dad. He’s been a surgeon for almost 40 years, a man widely respected in his field, known throughout the country for some of the heart surgery break-throughs he’s pioneered over the years. But hallway […]
Read MoreDad is Frankie’s dad, a man who came of age during the Great Depression and fought his way across the Pacific in World War II. Like much of his generation, he is not a father who could speak easily with his son, especially during the turbulent youth young Frankie had. The two were estranged during […]
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