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12/26/2014

So I’m standing on Mass Ave in Indianapolis in August having completed my third show in the six-show IndyFringe Festival. A man in his late 40’s to early 50’s and his wife walk up to me and say: “Excuse me.   We wanted to thank you. We saw your show Thursday night and we wanted to let you know that how I support my wife and how we relate to each other has been changed forever and we just want to thank you for that.”

Then in November, I am at the University of Virginia School of Medicine offering the show as the closing program for the 13th Annual Breasting Imaging Conference. There are about 50 people in the audience, about 45 are women, including oncologist, radiologist, oncology nurses, Mammogram technicians, and others medical and treatment professionals. I am a bit nervous, my first all “medical” crowd. I’m actually worried that the medical detail in the play will be judged wanting!   Instead, it is the most emotional audience I have ever performed for and I am myself moved. Dr. Harvey, the program chair, steps out at the end, hanky in hand, and explains how important and rare it is for the medical professional to hear “this side” of the story.

2014 was a great year for The Actual Dance. I started performing in 2013, there has since been 62 performances.   Now, I am getting ready for the biggest opportunity and challenge.   A limited run in New York in an off-Broadway venue

The Actual Dance is set to premier in New York on January 10th.  2015.    The purpose of this New York production is to set the stage for marketing to venues throughout the US and to reach our goal of reaching everyone who needs to see the show.

Luckily I have had the support in 2014 of the Collegiate Churches of New York and EmblemHealth of New York.   Now, in 2015 and beyond, I need your help.

I can continue to do this work only because of the generosity of organizations and individual supporters. All donations to The Actual Dance are made through my fiscal sponsor in New York, Artistic New Directions (AND).    AND has been my artistic home for nearly 15 years. The donations to my show support too their mission of training and empower emerging artists.

I have launched an Indiegogo Campaign   You can easily make a contribution by clicking on the link and pick a perk that speaks to you. You can click here and see that you can be in good company in terms of people who have supported the show.

While on the Indiegogo site, I also encourage you to take a minute an click on the Gallery and watch the video “Our Story.” It is a digital story about Susan and my journey through this existential challenge and how we experienced it very differently.

The Actual Dance is about bringing the power of theater to soothe the soul and move the heart.   It changes the lives of those who see it for the better.

Thank you in advance and I hope to see you at a show in 2015.

Sam

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Terrorism and The Arts

12/19/2014

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               The decision by Sony Pictures to pull the distribution of The Interview because of threats of violence in the wake of an unprecedented cyber-attack is understandable. Yet it makes me very sad. No one wants to be responsible for the loss of a single human life, particularly if it is centered on this one show rather than the context of the larger principal of freedom expression in society.

               The question now arises. Does Sony’s decision to pull the show embolden others in the world? Will every time a terrorist threat is made do theaters or libraries or TV Networks pull the “offending content.”

               In the same week, another blow to freedom of expression fell here in Washington, DC. The Washington, DC Jewish Community Center (DCJCC) fired its long time (18 years) artistic director of Theater J, Ari Roth. I was at the Association for Jewish Theater conference on December 7th and 8th in Washington, DC, part of which was hosted by Theater J.

               Ari is very successful and has created in Theater J a first rate, nationally acclaimed venue. It has brought in and nurtured great theater not only about difficult issues, especially the Middle East, but also by controversial figures with controversial points of view. To me he was doing just what theater is supposed to do.   Both Ari and the JCC should be very, very proud of what they created. No doubt that if Ari’s departure was “in the normal course of events” there would be a party.

              Yet the Washington Post today reports that Ari was fired for insubordination.   It appears that Ari’s comments during a panel at the AJT conference last week, which was a panel on the topic of difficult themed theater, constituted the insubordination given as the basis of his dismissal. It is hard to know. Press was in the room as were members of Theater J’s advisory board who made the decision to dismiss him.

               It appears Ari spoke out at a time when there were delicate negotiations under way. I am not an insider so I cannot be certain. However, listening to everything suggests to me that this transition away from Theater J by Ari Roth has been in the works for a while and for reasons that also remind me of the Sony situation.

               For some time now a group of very rich people in the Washington Jewish community have been pressuring the JCC to fire Ari. An anonymous group calling itself “Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art” threatened the financial viability of the JCC over Theater J decisions three years ago.

               While all the details are not public the most immediate issue has been the cancellation by the JCC under pressure from donors of a festival called “Voices from A Changing Middle East." A leak to the Daily Jewish Forward of documents by Ari critical of that decision went public as well.

               It is not my intent to litigate here the details of the disputes. Perhaps Ari spoke out of turn and in the wrong way. It is apparent he was in negotiations to leave over the growing opposition by donors to Ari’s artistic choices around Middle East issues. There was a hint of that in Ari’s comments at the AJT Panel discussion.

              The point is that the DCJCC has succumbed ultimately to the pressure of large donors who object to theater that they believe shows Israel in a light that they disagree with. Not unlike North Korea not wanting the world to see a movie that might show their Supreme Leader in a light they disagree with.

          The decisions by both Sony and the DCJCC are regrettable. Both discourage freedom of expression, creativity and the willingness of playwrights or artistic directors to test edges of orthodoxy in a community. Indeed the world.

            Of course, Sony may end up eventually selling more of what might have been a modest box office hit, and Ari is probably going to land on his feet with a great theater company.

             The real loss is what one commentator said on television: Producers and theaters will now be just a bit more reluctant to create really daring and challenging content. For that possibility we are all much worse off.

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Who Would Have Thought! Reflections on the Journey to 42nd Street, just off Broadway

12/13/2014

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In just under a month at 69 ½ years old I will walk on stage at Studio Theater in the Theatre Row complex on 42nd Street and 9th Avenue, just off Broadway.   I will perform The Actual Dance, a play that I wrote and I perform. I hope you can be there. The official opening performance is 8 p.m. January 10th. A small reception will follow. You can get your tickets here. In appreciation please feel free to use the friends and family discount code (TRTADFF), it will take $10.00 of the ticket price.

                A most unlikely journey for me, yet a journey that has transformed my life.   I have been fortunate in my career and my personal life to be involved in some extraordinary projects with exceptional people.   First of all, I am trained as a lawyer, not an actor nor a playwright.   I started my career with Ralph Nader, still a friend and mentor in so many ways, in 1970 with a small group of lawyers to launch what was known then as The Public Interest Research Group. I got to work with people like Ralph, Joan Claybrook, Donald K Ross , Mark Green and Tom Stanton and about 9 others back when we were just 20-something years old. Ralph, now 80, was only 36. It was heady times. I can remember when Tom Stanton and I stayed up all night writing and research so we could sue President Nixon the next morning!

                For nearly 45 years it has been an explosive life filled with opportunities and activities all aimed at “changing the world.” In that time I have had the chance to meet Ted Turner and participate in CNN’s launch (Trivia question: what was the first debate ever on CNN and who participated? Answer: It was CNN’s first week and it was on the issue of the “fairness doctrine” and the guests were Sam Simon and Shaun Sheehan). What a hoot to be the one who introduced Ralph Nader and Ted Turner. And then there was the dream of bringing people together in Washington by forming a public affairs firm that operated on the theory that there can always be common ground between different interests. Our job was to facilitate that common ground. I worked in what one newspaper called “the messy middle.”   In that process we were able to broker deals that have survive even today. Just this week the Federal Communications Commission renewed and revamped a program that has brought billions and billions of dollars for technology to schools. A program that was launched only after a deal between interests was negotiated in our offices.

                Along the way, our firm launched the first internet campaigns for corporations and non-profit groups. Thanks to the talented staff lead by Ken Deutsch, by then Vice-President and youngsters like Kenita Earl, we put both Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People`` (NAACP) on the Internet!

My personal life journey has been equally exceptional. I am blessed with a fabulous family. I grew up in El Paso, Texas in the late 40’s early 50’s as a member of a very large family that squeaked by in life. Somehow I went to law school and live a very comfortable life even in my “fourth age” in McLean, Virginia.   My son, Marcus Simon, also a lawyer, was recently elected to the Virginia House of Delegates and my daughter, Rachael, is a partner in a thriving pediatric dental practice in Maryland. They both live near us, each with two amazing children (our grandchildren). I am not mentioning Susan, my wife of now of 48 years because she is the center of the story – the details of which require you to see The Actual Dance.

                Bragging? Maybe, a little, more like feeling really fortunate. At my age and comfort in life most people I think would say “Dayenu” -- or that would be enough. I offer these stories to paint a picture of just how big a shift this acting business is for me. I have been interested in acting and theater. I did a little bit in high school and college, and beginning in 2001 I started training in improv through Artistic New Directions (AND) in New York. With their generous encouragement I attended their summer Catskill retreats with teachers like Gary Austin, Kristine Niven, Jeffery Sweet, Michael Gellman and the amazing Carol Fox Prescott.   My work at the time was for personal development   I saw (and see) theater and improv in particular as highly valuable personal development tools. Bring “yes and” into your daily life and see how the world will change for you.

             Perhaps these early “ah ha!” moments from improv were precursors to the current journey. The Actual Dance is auto-biographical. It came out of encouragement from the acting teachers at AND to improvise a story, write it down and perform it.

                The story that was in my head became the story of my heart. Along the way of my incredible life story of doing things and thinking things there has been an unspoken part of feeling and believing.   Spiritual moments that I did not – or was afraid to – acknowledge. In the retrospect of nearly 70 years, it feels to me like everything that has happened to me has happened for a reason. The reason is to have written and perform and to being The Actual Dance to everyone who needs to see it

                The show is the story of my heart and soul as I have had to engage in the existential moments of the people I love as they have faced their own mortality. The impact of the expression and the art of the show – The Actual Dane -- has taken me by surprise.   It never occurred to me as I was writing it that when people see it performed -- I like to say “experience the show” -- they are transformed in their own lives. Yet it happens over and over again.

                Most recently after a performance in the Indianapolis Fringe Festival while standing outside between shows a man in his late 40’s or early 50’s and his wife walked up to me. They said they had seem my show on the opening night and they wanted to thank me. The husband said that “how I support my wife and how we relate to each other has been changed forever and I wanted to thank you.”

                I now live for those moments. It is what I do and hope to do for as long as I can. After now over sixty performances I also am changed by each experience.    “I now know why my wife reacted to my cancer.” “My entire family and I are able now to reframe our experience with our loss. Thank you.” Ways I cannot imagine and with love expressed so deeply the audiences for The Actual Dance give me an incredible gift.

                When asked today “what do you do” I no longer say I am a lawyer or a businessman or an advocate nor “retired.”   I say I am an actor and performer. Who would have thought?!

                So, New York, come join me on this journey.   Take a chance that your life will be transformed and enjoy a night of theater just off Broadway this January. Join us opening night or at any of week-end performances.   Then during our discussion, held after each show, tell me how your life is changed. www.theatrerow.org

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Death on the Street: Changing the Conversation that is Not Taking Place

12/5/2014

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              I would like to change the conversation that is not taking place in America – or the world as a matter of fact – about taking another human life. At the moment there is no conversation. Instead there are a series of activities and outcries from different communities about justice and justification. The voices and the souls of the families of those who died and those who took the life are largely (though not entirely) unheard.   The signs and the arguments are becoming more and more about who should or should not be going to jail.

               There is almost no conversation about the real issues. What does it mean to take a human life and what are the criteria for doing so. This conversation is one that becomes a conversation about the existential role and responsibility of those with the authority to kill and those who are killed. It is NOT about if someone should go to jail.

               My overwhelming reaction to the last few years, starting with Trayvon Martin and continuing through this very minute is that these are tragedies for the people involved and the community. We need to learn how to stop them by addressing underlying values and behavior. This is not really about the criminal justice system. It is about how we relate to each other and how we treat human life at every level, including at the police, military and street level.

               I have not written much about people who are responsible for a death. The opening line of the show is: “There is a dance. A dance that one day each and every one of us will dance.”    Yes, we will all die one day. How that happens and whom we are with matters. Will we have the opportunity to be with and comfort someone we love as we or they transition from this earth?    There is a ritual and a process around both that is imagined and portrayed in The Actual Dance.

               There are, we now see, other moments. It is what one critic of The Actual Dance described: “What about the shop owner who is shot in the throat and is gurgling blood,” where is the “beauty and dignity in that.” This is a criticism because The Actual Dance imagines the moment as one of grace as we hold the hand of the one we have loved and lived our life with as they or we die.   While there is another vision around how this plays out during sudden tragedy, see the poem “Hallow”,   I have not yet figured out how this all fits into death on the streets in confrontations between police and citizens.

               One argument was made by the Police Commissioner in New York. When you are told by a policeman you are under arrest, submit immediately. Anything else that happens if you do not is the “resistors” fault.   Maybe in running a successful police department this can be a necessary point of view.

               I wonder though what it is like to be responsible for taking a human life. I wonder what sort of training police officers are been given around the sacred nature of their actions. We think about this most often in war and I understand that for the solider who kills there is often deep emotional trauma and impact. A good soldier, in my view, suffers when he or she kills. It is presumed that all such killing in a legal sense is justified self-defense. The same for a police officer. When a police officer takes a life they are also damaging their own soul in some way, even in a fully justified situation. And there are such situations.

               I pine for a society where the culture on the street for all people is to honor the sanctity of human life. This includes not engaging in criminal or illegal activities nor activities that contribute to increasing the risk of crime, or drugs or gang activity.   Good policing works hard at keeping the streets civil and free of risky activities and behaviors. The goal should be for there to be zero police involved shootings and deaths.

               In looking at the Eric Garner incident in New York I am willing to say that he should not have been selling contraband cigarettes on the street and he should not have been arrested in that way. Both situations contributed to the unnecessary death. The real tragedy is that a human being lost his life and that another human being owns that for the rest of his life.

               The Actual Dance – the ritual of coming to terms with the meaning of and loss of life – takes place for both individuals in these situations. I do not suggest the consequences are equal. The first priority is to preserve life. Once that line is crossed then there are moral, psychological consequences for all involved. And that is the Dance or process or ritual confronting everyone, not just those immediately involved, but society as well.

               It is NOT only about the criminal justice process. The focus around weather we criminalize the behavior or if the jury gets to decide if the death was justified is not the important conversation. In some ways, the likelihood is that the police will always prevail. What is more important is changing our system to reduce the frequency with which this happens. And that is NOT going to happen just because a jury convicts or acquits.

               It needs a conversation that is about the value of life in our society and how far we will go to chose life.

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Join the Campaign Make a Tax-Deductible Contribution Today!

Terrorism and The Arts

Who Would Have Thought! Reflections on the Journey to 42nd Street, just off Broadway

Death on the Street: Changing the Conversation that is Not Taking Place

Sam Simon

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ACTUAL DANCE
Contact Samuel A. Simon for information and media inquiries:
sam@theactualdance.com • 202-329-1851 (mobile)
www.TheActualDance.com

Join the Campaign Make a Tax-Deductible Contribution Today!

Terrorism and The Arts

Who Would Have Thought! Reflections on the Journey to 42nd Street, just off Broadway

Death on the Street: Changing the Conversation that is Not Taking Place

Sam Simon

Archives

Categories

Archives

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ACTUAL DANCEContact Samuel A. Simon for information and media inquiries:sam@theactualdance.com • 202-329-1851 (mobile)www.TheActualDance.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ACTUAL DANCE
Contact Samuel A. Simon for information and media inquiries:
sam@theactualdance.com • 202-329-1851 (mobile)
www.TheActualDance.com