Chance = Change

...is George Bernard Shaw in NYC!!

At least a love for his words....for his plays! THE SHAW PROJECT is off and running and if last night at the Players CLub is any indication, it will be popular..

David Staller, a smart and passionate man, gathered together such a fine combination of actors for this first reading , ARMS AND THE MAN, that when we all congregated onstage in the assigned seats he put our names on, the chemistry bubbled immediately and with only one read-through under our belts, and never having read it on our feet before, the play took on a life of its own and the place was soon rocking with laughter...and it was SOLD OUT! Yes, it was FREE ADMISSIOON (Shaw believed in FREE THEATRE), and that may have helped bring people in, but the sort of people who filled the Players Theater last night were the sort that could and would well have paid for seats...all sorts of theater notables, critics, writers, actors, producer sorts, theater people, real theater people....and they adored, i mean vocally ADORED what we had to put in front of them....Mark Kudisch,Nancy Anderson, Malcolm Getz, Cynthia Harris...I mean it was a stellar group ...Alison Fraser, Nick Wyman, George Irving, me (of course) and Victor Slezak reading the fun narration...Peter, whom David S. adores, was good enough to run the sound for us, since David had adorned our entrance and exits with lovely Chopin polonaises,etc....he really produced the event wonderfully well...food for us all in the Equity Room upstairs in the Club, official lanyards and nametags for all his staff (Peter included), clever Shaw charicatures used as signs all over the club...every detail done right and well...genuine tasteful entrepenurial spirit...we all felt proud to be a part of it.

And then, the audience roared! And gave a partial standing "o" at the end...they really enjoyed themselves, and Shaw was undoubtedly rollicking in his grave...

The next reading is February 27, and David has asked me to be a Narrator again...i will gladly do so...and Peter will have a role in this one: FANNY's FIRST PLAY...
Again at the Palyers Club...all sorts of New York "names" have expressed interest in reading, and Howard Kissel, the critic, who opened last night's festivities with a short talk on Shaw and the rightness of such a thing as THE SHAW PROJECT at this time in NYC, will maybe even read the part of "The Critic" on the 27th of February. I had ample opportunity to talk with Howard K. last night and boy is he interesting! I like him, and we also got the feeling he enjoyed being a part of the group instead of being as he usually is: outside it...after all, Shaw was the premier theater critic of his day...it seems only right that we have our very own fusty, literary man in the group, right?

We had such a good time last night. I could feel the dust in the Players being blown about as we allowed the spirit of Shaw to come through us all...a fresh gust of Shavian wit, clearing away the cobwebs of dis-use...that lovely Gramercy Park townhouse where the Players Club has lived for decades, is just the right spot for bringing GBS back to life...it felt just right. The right era, the right furniture, the right feel. I can hardly wait for the 27th! Meanwhile, David and his partners in producing will keep building the Gingold Company into something he has always dreamed about, I think..and they are doing it with care and good taste...nice people with a mission.

It is because of David's liberal Democratic leanings and his admiration for Shaw's political soul that he wanted to embark on THE SHAW PROJECT to begin with...Howard Kissel was right: this is an important time for Shaw to revive in NYC...what he had to say about the foibles of his time, the greed and short-sightedness of his contemporary politicians, all can be applied to what we have going on in our country today. It is ever thus, and we need brilliant minds and wits to remind us to be vigilant and careful....it helps that he reminds us, while making us laugh at ourselves as well.... Bravo Shaw. Bravo David for creating THE SHAW PROJECT.