Ed Notes Online: How to Make a Fool Out of Yourself: I Do It the Company Way at Rockaway Theatre Production of “How to Succeed…”

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

How to Make a Fool Out of Yourself: I Do It the Company Way at Rockaway Theatre Production of “How to Succeed…”

Opening night is Friday, March 14, 8PM - YIKES -

OK, it's put up or shut up time. After weeks of rehearsals we have hit dress-rehearsals - until midnight.

I have a total of 4 lines and am in a bunch of production numbers where I try to hide behind the other guys. I love working with this mainly very young cast - even with some high school kids who already know a hell of a lot about the theater. I'll get into details about some of the wonderful guys and gals I've been meeting, as well as the RTC usual suspects. Lots of teachers involved too.

There are 2 performances this Saturday - a 2PM matinee and 8PM evening performance. I had a big conflict as March 15 (The Ides) is the NYCORE conference and Bree Picower recruited me a year ago to tape the keynote in the morning. I really love this conference and usually stay right through the after party lasting 'till 8PM. But the roar of the greasepaint calls and I must leave for the matinee, thus missing the Change the Stakes workshop which I had hoped to tape. But I think that professional film maker Michael Elliot who is working on some opt-out stuff for CTS will be there.

Here is the poster and if you want to venture out to Rockaway here is the web site to get tickets. (If you are coming to see me make a fool out of myself, I won't be in the March 23 Sunday matinee due to a previous commitment.) http://www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org

Here is my column for Friday's Wave, followed by some cute rehearsals pics.

For The Wave (www.rockawave.com), March 14, 2014

I Do It the Company Way at Rockaway Theatre Production of “How to Succeed…”

By Norm Scott

Is it 2 steps to the right and a turn? Or 2 steps forward? And what is that lyric we need to do it on, again? What’s the cue for us to go onstage? Thus I go pleading for answers from my fellow actors as I try to get things straight in my head for my musical comedy debut in the Rockaway Theatre Company production of the venerable corporate sendup, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

I am usually behind the video camera at RTC shows, other than my acting debut 3 years ago in “The Odd Couple,” an 8-character play. “How to Succeed…” is an entirely different experience – a vey funny musical comedy with a large cast of around 40. Most members are in their teens, twenties or early thirties, with a sprinkling of forty-somethings. Having just turned 69 I sort of stand out. The only person anywhere within a decade of me is the RTC jack of all trades, the always amazing Cliff Hesse, who plays J.B. Biggley, the boss of “World Wide Widget” (WWW) whose fling with a young floozy almost brings down the entire corporation.

“How to…” is the Abe Burrows 1961 Broadway production and 1967 film send-up of corporate culture which made a house-hold name of Bobby Morse, playing the young window cleaner who uses a How-to book to guide him to through the corporate maze, and Rudy Vallee playing J.B. Biggley. Much of the choreography was done by Bob Fosse. Both “Madmen” and “How To…” have large ensemble casts of corporate executives and secretaries, with the expected hints of the shenanigans and rampant sexism that goes on in those pre-feminist times.

Fans of the AMC show “Madmen” will instantly recognize the similarities to “How to…” clearly an inspiration. Brilliant casting of that show has an older (and much heavier) Bobby Morse playing the big boss of the advertising agency. I had never appreciated just how funny the play is, satirizing the corporate culture with brilliant songs like “The Company Way” and “A Secretary is Not a Toy,” where WWW 2^nd-in command Bratt, played by excellent actor and Leon Goldstein HS teacher Steve Ryan, admonishes the men that a secretary is not “to fondle and dandle and playfully handle in search of some puerile joy.” The secretaries, played by an amazing collection of beautiful women that will take every guy who sees the show’s breath away, reply with “A secretary is not a thing wound by key, pulled by string. Her pad is to write in and not spend the night in…”

As one of the ensemble cast of executives I have 4 lines which, thank goodness I only have to remember one at a time. I also have to dance and sing, neither of which I can do very well, in some big numbers, including the famous “Brotherhood of Man.” Doing two things at the same time is pretty much beyond me at this point so I don’t add a third by chewing gum.

I can’t say enough about the professional level of theater the crew at the RTC puts together. They do everything that Broadway productions do. Being involved in a big production lets me see how the sausage is made. There are so many aspects of the theater that go beyond what you see on the stage. Set design and construction – I have the honor of being part of the crew assembled by the great Tony Homsey, watching Susan Corning – one of the best actresses I’ve seen at RTC – handle the wonderful costuming – just wait ‘till you see these gals dressed in office-60s garb, musical director Richard Louis Pierre who also makes sure the hi-tech sound board is working, the lighting by Andrew Woodbridge and of course the direction of John Gilleece and Producer Susan Jaspar who gave a guy like me this unique opportunity. (There are many more people to mention by far).

How else would I find myself at a post-rehearsal late Friday night cast party doing the Zumba on state ‘till 1 AM with people young enough to be my grandchildren? Excuse me – I gotta go ice my knees.

Opening night is Friday March 14 and it runs for 3 weekends (Friday nights – Mar. 14, 21, 28, Sat nights – Mar. 15, 22, 29 – all at 8PM and 2PM matinee on Sat. Mar 15, and 3PM on Sun Mar 23 and Mar. 30.)

If (editor) Kevin (Boyle) lets me, I’ll do a follow-up next week about how I survived both a matinee and evening performance on March 15. If you come to the evening performance, bring me some Advil.

Norm still takes time from his budding acting career to write his daily blog at ednotesonline.org.

These secretaries are not toys.

The Paris originals

Note that guy center right with the big belly

1 comment:

proofoflife said...: Break a leg Norm! Have fun!; Friday, March 14, 2014 at 10:33:00 AM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

How to Make a Fool Out of Yourself: I Do It the Company Way at Rockaway Theatre Production of “How to Succeed…”

I Do It the Company Way at Rockaway Theatre Production of “How to Succeed…”

1 comment: