#Shakespeare Acting Classes & Workshops

[ingravinoveritas]

But he was talking about the characters of R&J, wasn't he? About the situation from their POVs. I don't think we should interpret every word in his Shakespeare essays as his lived experience/subconscious desires. These things have their place in person's writings, but it's very difficult to untangle. If all lit crit was only about the person writing it down to the last detail, we'd never learn any new insights in their subject's works. Ultimately any writing IS about the person writing it, of course. But it's more about the spirit of the writing.

I 100% agree with you, Anon! I think what I was trying to parse is how difficult it is to untangle. That was my point. That it's interesting to try and understand/think about how much of that production of Romeo & Juliet and that interpretation of Romeo/Mercutio's relationship was something that was already in Shakespeare's writing and David just chose to emphasize it, vs. how much came from his own lived experience.

That's why I homed in on that one specific sentence, about "the grown-up world of heterosexual relationships." Because I truly wondered if that was something that was coming from Shakespeare/the play, or from David himself. And to me, it just felt like it had a personal resonance separate from any authorial intent (of the playwright). We also can't overlook that David actually co-lead a workshop about Shakespeare and gender-bending around almost the same time as when he acted in this RSC production of Romeo & Juliet (and shout out/thanks to @consanguinitatum for this awesome article!):

...So it seems clear that this is something he has thought about specifically and deliberately for a very long time, and that his interest in the queer aspects of Shakespeare went on to inform his interpretations of the characters he played. Again, as you said, it's more about the spirit of the writing overall, and I have no doubt that David knows that and was trying to write a genuine, thoughtful criticism of the play/production rather than a vanity piece, especially because Shakespeare means so much to him. But I just think this is another, important lens to view the piece through, because it is clearly important to David.

I hope that makes sense, and I appreciate your follow-up comments. Thanks for writing in! x

[consanguinitatum]

David, Shakespeare and Gender

Did you know David once helped to teach a workshop on Shakespeare?

But on what, exactly, you ask?

Head over there and find out everything I know (which I will warn you up front, ain't much!)

--

A Tennantcy To Act is an in-depth compendium of David's growth from a sharp kid to the greatest live stage actor of his generation.

There's so much to read and learn and be amazed by, and a resource you'll find yourself going back to again and again. You'll find nothing else like it on the internet, expertly curated and compiled over many years of professional research. there's also a resource page if you want to know how to find and watch David's stuff. Subscribe for free (or click "Let me preview it first!) to get notifications whenever a new article is posted; you won't be disappointed!

And feel free to chat with me there - you can message me directly if you have any thoughts, questions, or info to add!

[georgefairbrother]

RIP Brian Murphy; passed away 2nd February, 2025, aged 92.

From his BBC Obituary:

"...Born on the Isle of Wight in 1932, Murphy's acting career began in the 1950s when he became a member of the pioneering Theatre Workshop.

Founded by Joan Littlewood and her partner Gerry Raffles, it was dedicated to modernising theatre and reaching working-class audiences.

Image: The Guardian

Murphy performed in many Shakespeare productions directed by Littlewood, and acted in her only feature film, the kitchen sink comedy Sparrows Can't Sing.

He was best known for his role in Man About the House, an ITV sitcom exploring the dynamics of one man and two women flat-sharing in the 1970s.

He went on to star in the spin-off George and Mildred, in which Murphy played a henpecked George Roper opposite fellow Theatre Workshop actress Yootha Joyce as his wife.

He is survived by his wife, Hi-de-Hi! actress Linda Regan, and his two sons.

"...Ms Regan said: "I was lucky to have in my lifetime found my soulmate, Brian, who I will love forever..."

[lboogie1906]

Kenneth Earl Holliday (June 25, 1949) is an actor of stage, film, and television. He is known for his role as Tyler Hudson on Matlock and as Sgt. Curtis Baker on Carter Country. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film Great World of Sound.

He is a product of the Copiague area of Long Island. At age 12 he lost his father. With the encouragement of his mother, he participated in track at Copiague High School where he was part of the Fantastic Four Relay Team and was the star of his football team. He attended the University of Maryland on a full scholarship.

He was “jazzed” by a class he took related to the history of theater and acting became his new passion. As an undergraduate, he played Yank in The Hairy Ape. He was the first African American to perform in a leading role on the college’s “main stage.”

His first work was with the Inaugural Theater Group at the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC. He conducted workshops as a founding member of the DC Black Repertory Company. He starred in the role of Carlyle in Streamers at the Lincoln Theatre.

That play led him to Los Angeles where he guest-starred on several shows such as Kojak; What’s Happening!!; The Incredible Hulk; Quincy, M.E.; Lou Grant; Soap, Benson; The Jeffersons; The Fall Guy; Hart to Hart; and Doogie Howser, M.D. He guest-starred on many other shows. He was featured in Roots: The Next Generations and starred in a series of pilots. He provided the voice of the character Roadblock in G.I. Joe and G.I. Joe: The Movie. He appeared in Badge of the Assassin.

He has numerous television and movie appearances to his credit, including Miracle On The Mountain, Hope & Faith, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

He published a book of poetry in 1998 entitled The Book of K-III: The Contemporary Poetics of Kene Holliday.

He became a traveling evangelist and he and his wife spent the next decade preaching in gospel musicals.

While taking care of his mother, he accepted the lead role in the movie Great World of Sound. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[karimaathowest]

English Language Teaching

Being that English is one of my favourite subjects to teach, I was so enthusiastic about this study unit! As this is the case, I enjoyed these lectures a lot and found them extremely useful!

One particular moment I enjoyed was our visit to Poperinge with this class!

For this quick trip, we visited the Talbot House in Poperinge and took part in a Shakespeare Drama workshop.

During the workshop, we participated in different activities ranging from improv acting, treasure hunts, and Shakespeare acting!

We also had English tea and scones as a little treat, it was so yummy!

[okokokfuck]

Must I become an actor!

Do I have to. I mean can I retract myself from the project? It echoes a question I already asked on reddit a while ago. While some responses were positive, some others were more on the beligerent side og things. Må jeg bli skuespiller? by u/Powerful-Flower-8348 in norske Some girl answered: Jeg elsker disse innleggene, blitt en stund siden nå Paal-Erik. Sier seg selv at når du har gått på en spansktalende førskole og hatt en natt i cellule de degrisement du comissariat passage Charles Dallery de Paris onzieme arrondissement at du må bli skuespiller. Ingen andre yrker som kan være en smule relevant lengre.

I��m done acting personally speaking. Was an elk in some musical my mother directed, then I played Arlequin with my middle school theatre group, registered for a drama faculty but was late for like 30% of my classes and sent home. Anyway I feel done with the world of drama. Tried for like 5 years while in Montreal.

Started with a NTS workshop on Shakespeare and auditioned for theatre and improvisation clubs. Did background acting on student sets, got some roles here and there, some advertisement, a TV show, but mostly background acting in movies. Short answer. No. Apart from a first role as a harasser for a EDUCALOI 1 and 2 harassment prevention campaign I never got the fame I was looking for but I did get certified in harassment prevention with the AQTIS 514 IATSE.

[andrewwoodactingstudio]

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Known for its focus on improv, The Groundlings is a renowned institution that has produced many successful actors. Their workshops emphasize spontaneity and creativity, making them an excellent choice for those looking to enhance their improvisational skills.

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[mielabong]

The Actors' Workroom - Week 2

Before I promote Week 2, I'd like to thank my first two actors for the TAW series for supporting the first class. So, hi Mary and Rina! Thank you for supporting the first session! I hope you enjoyed!

Now, onto Week 2! Yay!

I'm excited to share 3 classes for Week 2 now that I've warmed up with my Week 1 class.

Week 2 Schedule

For SATURDAY MARCH 16, there'll be two consecutive classes.

1:00 - 2:30 pm PHT is another session of St. Joan. I feel I need to sit with this text one more time, as might be the case with a lot of scripts. As much as I love Shakespeare, I've spent a solid 14 years of my life with it and would like to explore other English scripts.

4:00 - 6:00 pm PHT will be a Commercial Acting Basics class. My past classes focused a lot on foundational technique, but being a part of the Workroom series, the actors in this class will tackle different types of commercial scripts.

For SUNDAY MARCH 17, there'll just be one class.

1:00 - 2:30 pm PHT will be a new scene work session, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. This is a play I'm very familiar with and have long wanted to direct or use in an acting class. Despite the darkness of the theme, I'm quite looking forward to this.

-

Participation and Pricing

My classes have two ways you can participate. If the Workroom is scene work, there will be a PLAYER group and an OBSERVER group.

PLAYERS get to do the scene work, receive feedback, implement feedback, and will be cast during class.

OBSERVERS will be observing for the most part. But by the time we open the round table at the end of the class, observers may chime in and join the conversation with their takeaways.

But for other Workrooms like the Commercial Acting Basics class, I will only have one type - Participant. I won't be opening Observer seats yet for those classes.

My classes are open to anyone who can attend during the scheduled class. I remember when I used to have class during the pandemic at the ungodliest hours because I had students all the way in the other hemisphere of the planet! It was so much fun! I'm not opposed to the idea, but for now, the best option is to stick to the time of day I'm still coherent since I still have very few students. Maybe I'll find the time and audience to do that some day!

-

Registration

To register for the class, please head over to my page: https://mielabong.tumblr.com/actorsworkroom

I will stop accepting participants for classes up to 12H before the class starts so I have time to adjust the script to the headcount

-

Anyway, this is my small attempt at giving actors a regular space to play and train without long-term commitments of multi-part workshops. I think it's important to just jam, really.

Skill-based is wonderful! But I'm excited to explore more intuition-based training as a teacher and I hope there are those out there who are just as eager to go on this journey with me!

See you in the Workroom!

[llo-ro-na]

WANT LIST 1/11/2017

To “get out of my way”

Written in my notebook during a poetry class last semester. I told my professor that I wanted to write how I watercolor—intuitively, trigged by a curiosity with material, handled with the levity of suggestion. The tact and trust required to let a piece sit, and float, and dry. A drop of ink on page. Now that, but with language.

I wanted to be a priest, an empty vessel, to abdicate control in the service of flow. But I cannot pretend as if my hands move freely. They do not. With effort, I strain every word.

Loosen. Let the poem write itself. Or: don’t let grasping, precious projections desensitize the subject from the form. Attend to the unknown on the page.* Leave a space so God can rush in (Anne Carson, via Maggie).

Loose, freely.**

*How? C.A. Conrad’s So(matics) come to mind, rituals to enact presence in the process of composition, so that a poem isn’t produced, it’s divined. In one ritual Conrad described interpreting a Shakespeare poem by feeding it line by line to a chosen crystal, placing said crystal under his pillow, and asking it translate the line’s meaning to him in his dreams. He would wake and place his collaborator on his Third Eye, and write. Attend to the unknown might mean: come with humility.

Or Gertrude: “Stein shut her eyes and travelled where the sentences led her, and didn’t describe the destination but rendered instead the systematic movement of sentences toward the unspecified.” (Wayne Kostenbaum)

Or Fanny Howe: “I was trying to explain that I let the words write the poem. That is, as you said, making meaning, but at the same time I have this other side, which seeks what’s unknown. I see it come to meet me if I let the words do the work and write the poem”

Attend to the unknown might mean let the words do the work. Which reminds me of my most beloved writing credo, from Reginald Shepherd: attend to the senses and sense will often attend to itself.

**from Trihn T. Minh-ha’s Women, Native, Other (read it!), and possibly, my next tattoo.

To decenter and expand

(Conrad also describes sending students to commune with trees in a writing workshop. The returned dismayed because, “trees hate us … The hubris of our species is that we don’t believe a tree has any thoughts until we cut them down and grind them up and put our own thoughts on them with pencils and pens.”)

A soft spot for philosophies that extend conscious beyond the matter encased in our skulls, matter made of the same matter made of all else. Humility. Decentering the mind as a first step towards unlearning dominion. Our hubris. This both appeals to whatever Zen sensibilities I inhabit, but more importantly, acts as a foundation for an ecological ethics. A decolonization of the spirit.

If God is infinity, then everything that exists is in God; therefore, all creatures and things are part of the single substance that is variously called Nature or God (Jackie Wang on Spinoza).

Or Yusef Komunyakaa: I am the space my body believes in (A kind of material faith).

Such expansiveness undermines any (false) sense of self-containment. Blessedly—

We seemed to be alone but I knew we weren’t. Skin was some temporary solitary confinement. I assumed things would ratchet up to a better version of awesome with my death—at which point I would resume the ecstatic, breezy, primordial bustle of simply flying around with everything.

A stew of everythingness. Or, like Wang on “oceanic feeling”—an experience of expansiveness where one’s illusion of a bounded self dissolves into an experience of infinite communion. Freud’s denial of such oceanity as a dissociative regression gives away his dismissal of an infant’s (our) sensorial envelopment with the Mother. However—Freud coined the phrase from his correspondence with Romain Rolland (a Spinozian) who, rather, described oceanic feeling as a mystical encounter, “the affective state underlying all religious experience,” limitlessness, unbounded.

Wang asks: Is our experience of ourselves as bounded, discrete selves just a trick of the ego? Is it an effect of language, which operates through differentiation and naming? Or is the self a construction or mode of perception conditioned by an idea of the “individual” articulated in the discourses of the Enlightenment, psychoanalysis, and liberalism (which locates freedom in individual choice and agency)?

And, more importantly: How does the disintegration of the ego alter one’s orientation to the world and to others?

A hunch: inhabiting a flesh, a space, beyond the body might (must) deepen an empathetic experience of the Other, of all other beings, of the world. A communion of feeling. Or—

Hapticality, the capacity to feel through others, for others to feel through you, for you to feel them feeling you… (Fred Moten & Stefano Harney).

And, finally, hauntingly, Clarice Lispector: Am I free? There is some thing still holding me. Or am I holding it? It’s also this: I’m not entirely unbound because I am in union with everything (She was a Spinozian too).

To let words fail

Slowly reading through Julia Kristeva’s fictional analysis of St. Teresa de Avila (thank you Fi), a marriage between my preferred modalities: mysticism and psychoanalysis. Kristeva reads Teresa’s mystical testimonies as halting approximations of the (inherently) inexpressible mystical experience.

Teresa is Lacan’s poster-girl for the Other-jouissance: the ineffable, unspeakable, coming. Upon seeing Bernini’s Teresa, agasp in ek-stasis, Lacan concludes that the essential testimony of the mystics consists in saying that they experience it, but know nothing about it. (Again, attend to the unknown!)

Wang applies this to oceanic feeling and writing: if oceanic feeling is a regressive state, akin to a return to immersive child’s play, the artist/writer can, in a process of concentrated creativity, oscillate between this “incommunicable world” (a mystical state) and a sobered consciousness that allows for the mystical experience to be (haltingly) assimilated into signification.

I would also add that oceanic states animate writers and artists precisely because they are inexpressible. If we agree with Lacan’s assertion that the subject’s desire is animated by lack, then the impossibility of expressing the oceanic state may paradoxically incite the subject’s desire to symbolize that state (Wang).

Enter a poet’s fetish of the failure of language: to be an artist is to fail, as no other dare fail (Beckett). Still, it’s idle to fault a net for having holes (Nelson).

I do not feel constrained by language’s disappointments. They keep me humble. And hopeful. The fact that our perception is delineated and thereby inherently limited allows for something else, for the beyond-words, for, for example, Merleau-Ponty’s phantasmic: something (or, more properly, some non-thing) that escapes our attempts to…survey it…a register characterized by an ungraspability.

The phantasmic may or not be material. It is not necessarily invisible, but it is indefinable, rendering the phantasmic as that which cannot be encompassed by our knowledge of it*, rather than that which cannot be perceptually grasped (Gayle Salamon via Dodge).

*A fine expression for (of) God.

[howyoutalktostrangers]

So,

Tuesday was my last day at work.

For the past five years I've been working in communications full-time, and I was fortunate enough to become part of an inclusive, fulfilling and inspiring organization that challenged me, valued me, and gave me the tools necessary to level up both as an employee and a human being. Though this latest development, being laid off without cause, is an unsettling surprise, what I'm feeling is mostly gratitude.

Since I first applied for this storyteller position in 2018, I've moved multiple times, gotten married and experienced the birth of my first two children. This employer is responsible for my current existence, stood by me through three significant mental health crises (including the death of my sister) and gave me the opportunity to spend every day creating content and sharing knowledge. We weathered the pandemic together, and I legitimately believe we made the world a better place in demonstrable ways.

It's true that I'm profoundly sad about this, because endings are sad, but I also feel intensely privileged that I was able to have these experiences (like taking the photo attached to this post at an Indigenous workshop about being "active for life"). Five years is the same amount of time we spend in high school, and now apparently it's time for me to graduate.

When I lost my job at the Nelson Star in 2017, it felt like the sky was falling. The multi-month aftermath was absolute chaos, and resulted in my first entanglement with the mental health system. Since that time I've done significant work on myself, built a family and established a home. As I went through my day today, writing an internal email to the staff team and discussing the reality of this with Kristina, I felt the familiar panic and financial despair but reminded myself that I have the tools I need to navigate those emotions and sort out the practical problems I'm now faced with.

The thing is, looking back at how my life has progressed since high school, I could've never predicted the various pivots and hurdles of the past 20 years. First there was a decade of lifeguarding, teaching swimming lessons and working at summer camp. I didn't know then that acting school would lead me to creative writing, that creative writing would lead me to journalism, that journalism would lead me to communications. I've slalomed from Vancouver to Victoria to Whitehorse, Nelson, and Scotch Creek then back to Victoria again, and now here I am in Duncan having come full circle back to acting in Shakespeare.

There's a peculiar cosmic math at play here, even if I can't quite decipher it.

There's a trick to all this. The primary thing I learned during my time working as a whitewater rafting guide at Adams River was the concept of fear management — which has benefited me psychologically in a variety of contexts. Every day I would face a Class 3 rapid called the Gorge, or the Canyon, that legitimately scared me. And every day I would master my fear, embrace the inevitable, and navigate my raft through it anyways.

So that's where I find myself today, drifting along in the current with the watery tumult ahead getting ever closer. This is where I convince myself that panic won't serve me, that the outcome will be better if I remain calm, and that I have the training necessary to make it through.

All that's left is to grab ahold of my oars, and begin to row. The Literary Goon

[what-even-is-thiss]

Classes this year:

Process-Oriented Photography: Polaroids and Pinholes

Art>Anthropocene<Action

Comics and Graphic Storytelling Workshop​

Drawing and Painting in Florence, Italy

Mexico City: History through Art and Culture

Hip-Hop & Street Dance with Rennie Harris Un​iversity

Dance Improvisation & Ritual: Embodying the Ancestors

Animation Production Studio

Screen Scoring

Scoring for Video Games

Jazz Con Clave: An Afro-Caribbean Jazz Workshop

The Business of Acting

Chicago Style Comedy

Devising New Work through Dance/Theatre: Stories in Motion

Shakespeare & Company: Voice, Heritage and Community

Acting German Theatre in Germany

Social Action Writing: Creating Community and Perspective

Triple Threat: Writing for Film, Television and Theater

Hey if you’re over 18 and have time this summer and can make it to Fresno, CA and you wanna take a niche class in acting, animation, writing, music, visual art, design, or dance you should see if CSU Summer Arts has something you want. The deadline to apply is May 15.

I’m not getting paid to do this or anything. It’s just that one of these classes like literally changed the trajectory of my life a few years ago and they’re so fun and idk if even one person out there decides to check the program out because of this post I’ll be happy.

You can get college credit too if that sweetens the deal for you lol. I did Summer Arts to substitute for my senior intensive seminar for my English degree when I took a writing class there.

And they accept international students fyi

[bigskydreaming]

Hot take that all of the bats are theatre kids but on varying ends of the spectrum. Like Dick? 110% the legitimate performer. Jason? Just here cause he's weirdly obsessed with Shakespeare. Tim is the kid manning the stage effects. I haven't broken down the rest of them yet but I know in my bones that it works. Stephanie's probably a diva or always plays the fool

Yessssssss. Theater is absolutely the one thing that could unite them. Chaotically. Also potentially disastrously. Eh, semantics.

But Dick is of course a ham and I do believe he genuinely enjoys ‘taking a break from himself’ to immerse himself behind a cover identity.....but more than that, I honestly believe he’d love directing and putting his skills with coaxing potential out of people individually or in groups to use for something purely hobby-ish. 

Jason I also see as someone who potentially could love acting for a similar reason I see as behind his love of reading....its the vacation from the self or his own life, the trip in someone else’s shoes or story. Through books, and also acting, the ‘you can be anything you set your mind to’ thing has actual practicality. 

Tim I could see enjoying being the tech guy, but also I could see him liking the directing side of things too, or actually lots of different parts of the process, from script to stage.....like, I dislike when fandom focuses overly much on Tim as the tech guy because it tends to go hand in hand with acting like everyone else but Babs is clueless at such stuff, and also death to the instinctive correlation between smarts and tech like that’s the only possible place to showcase genius or the obvious go-to for how to show a smart person is smart, death to that I say, death and murder and also annihilation. But more than that its that IMO its not tech that Tim likes/focuses on in particular, its workshopping stuff. Taking something from idea to fruition, and being responsible for shepherding its progress every step of the way. 

Cass of course loves dancing and everything to do with it, but another headcanon I’ve always had is that Cass potentially could love choreographing dance. If dance appeals to Cass because its spoken in her first language, that of movement and the body, think about the potential that lies in not just the fact that dance innately is meant to put everyone else for once on the same page as her, watching the dancer for the story they’re telling with their movements.....but through choreographing others, Cass has the opportunity to tell stories of her own for other people to ‘hear’....again, in that same language so to speak. To communicate through others’ movements the way others’ movements normally just speak to her.

Damian I could see a case being made for him gravitating to literally any aspect of theater first out of his innate competitiveness....if his siblings have a skill, he wants to prove its perfectly within his own capabilities as well....but then discovering that oh no, he actually likes a lot of this, what trickery is this, he has been bamboozled, clearly Grayson is behind this, this....insidious attempt to....make him do things just because he “enjoys” them. What utter rot. And other such thoughts and inner rantings that all just further provide proof that this boy was BORN to monologue, and oh look, a stage for such monologues. Also, stage combat? Okay, having to pull his actual punches irks, but the applause for knocking a class rival to the ground instead of censure because he was directed to, look its literally in the script......that’s a plus. Because Damian’s unique form of middle-school Machiavellianism is such that he absolutely would audition for a role for no other reason than the role calls for doing something terrible to the character of someone he immensely dislikes (or just finds tedious, hey its a spectrum), and getting to spend a couple hours every week doing so is catharctic in a way the family isn’t entirely sure they want to encourage but hey, can’t argue with results.

Duke I also could see taking a lot of different routes, but I think he’s another one who would do really well in the director’s chair, coaxing potential classmates didn’t even know they had out of a performance. In the sense that yeah, I think he’s one of the closest to Dick personality wise so a lot of the reasons I see that being ideal for Dick are why I see it working for him as well, but also just like....the way it naturally calls back to the fact that part of his meta powers is he literally boosts the powers of other metas. He has a knack for bringing stuff out of people.

Stephanie is the understudy that’s just there to goof off and have fun, its a nice, relaxing A and that’s the only reason she’s in theater class or using drama club as an extracurricular that can afford her skipping a rehearsal or two or three.....but for all her big talk of “Pffft, nerds, I just came for the stage combat class and stayed because I forgot what else I was going to do’.....she just happens to know all the lines and mouths them along with the actors on stage and gets personally offended when they mess up because they’re doing it BADLY and ugh are they trying to suck this hard or are they just naturally gifted at that part, here, lemme show you how its done, and that’s how she accidentally rom-com scenarios her way into being the star of the show two hours before curtain call or else the plucky impromptu interim director when the real one quits in a fit of high school theater histrionics, or y’know, is made to quit when Stephanie incites a mutiny among the cast because that’s kinda plausible to tbh. Look, there are options here is all I’m saying.

And then Babs as well I see as being not so much in a particular single role at the exception of all others, but whatever puts her most in the driver’s seat of taking something from idea to opening night, like starting with a script maybe, hell even just the line producer or script supervisor, and then accidentallying her way into more and more creative responsibilities and control because the parts just start to come together more easily/readily when she’s rearranging the pieces into orders and in ways that make more sense to others and they find themselves gravitating to, because maybe this was just a local community thing people were doing for fun or to blow off steam but without even noticing a change it starts to take more and more shape as an actual thing as she finds her groove and sees how to improve on this scene here or tighten up things here or what happens when these two actors swap roles and then almost belatedly people are like oh wait, this doesn’t just HAVE to be fun hobby shenanigans this could also be something actually good too, weird thought, hey did anyone else know things could be both fun AND good? Is this a thing or are we in uncharted waters here.

[badsext]

I wish you would write a Leon fic.. that's it. That's the message 😅

Scene Partners: Leon X Reader

Thank you for the request @misskittysmagicportal.  I love Leon.  I hope I’m doing him justice.

Summary: After Leon’s ill fated role as Neil Armstrong in the fake moon landing, he decided that fancy acting classes would be just the thing to launch (pun intended) his career as a serious actor.

Warning: Very irresponsible and spontaneous smut (Please use protection IRL) 18+ and suggested assault of a character within a play.  I hid the smut under the ‘read more’. These warnings make it sound heavier than it is...it’s actually super light and fun.

________________________________________________________

Johnny looked at Leon incredulously. “Where are you going at 10:00 AM on a Thursday morning?”

Leon looked his best mate in the eye and lied. “The pub, of course.”

In fact, this was the first day in months he wasn’t drunk or high...Alright, maybe just a toke or two to take the edge off. He even washed his hair and put on a turtleneck because that is what serious actors wore. Leon had lied and stumbled his way into a local university Theatre School, financing his tuition with a fraudulent cheque.

It was only an introductory scene workshop for beginners, but after watching the real Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon, Leon aspired to do great things. He arrived at the theatre more or less on time and with an inflated sense of purpose. It smelled like dust and leather and old wood. Framed photographs of former students lined the hallowed halls. Nervousness began to set in. He felt like an imposter, just like he did when Johnny had asked him to impersonate Stanley Kubrick some months ago. Accept this time, the only thing he had to impersonate was a man with confidence. After a brief internal struggle, Leon decided that he would go to the pub after all. There was always next Thursday.

As he reached for the door, a young woman had just entered, shaking the rain off her umbrella. Seeing how cute she was, Leon immediately changed course.

“Are you here for the workshop?,” she asked politely.

“Yes, I am,” he replied with a bashful smile. “I’m Leon.”

When she took off her coat, he saw how she wore a very similar black turtleneck.

“Y/N. Pleasure to meet you, Leon.” She paused, looking up from her cat eye glasses. “I think we might be late!,” she added urgently.  He followed her onto the workshop, sitting beside her in the back row of chairs. His interest in y/n distracted him from the enormity of the theatre and his growing stage fright.

The professor explained the warm up exercises, but Leon learned nothing. He was watching y/n chew on her fountain pen. They started with a series of vocalizations and deep breathing. Leon watched y/n’s chest and diaphragm expand and contract with each concentrated breath. Once she caught him staring, he would look up to the rafters or down at his shoes, thoughtfully scratching his beard. She smiled at his lack of subtlety.

The professor distributed scenes to the students at random. Leon looked down at his script. His stage fright resurfaced as he read the words at the top of the page. ‘Macbeth: Act 4, Scene 1.’ The ‘Second Witch’ part had been highlighted.

The students were given fifteen minutes to rehearse their scenes wherein Leon mumbled and stumbled through his lines. The actresses playing the other witches were good-natured about it, but everyone knew the scene would be shit.

He broke into a sweat as the actors were called to the stage.  His mind was nothing but static at that point.  He watched the actresses move their lips, hunched in crone-like fashion and wiggling their fingers over an imaginary cauldron.  They chanted in unison:

“Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

When they stopped, everyone looked at Leon.  This was his line.  The last ‘bubble’ just hung in the air while the silence took over.  He gave it his best effort, though his voice was weak and his hands were shaking.

“Fillet of a fanny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of twat and tongue of hog.”

His hands shook with such force that he dropped the script.

“Oh, bollocks - It’s gone in the soup!”  He improvised rolling up his sleeve and fishing it out of the hot cauldron.

“Leon...Leon!”  It took the professor several tries to rouse him from his panic.  “That’s enough, Leon. We mustn't paraphrase Shakespeare.”  The students giggled.   The professor pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.  “Let’s try something else, shall we?”  

He turned and pulled two scripts from his briefcase, handing one to Leon.  “We need something to build your confidence.  You will play Stanley Kawalski.  He’s a proud, domineering brute.” He beat his chest for emphasis.  “And you...y/n, you will play Blanche, the jealous, simmering sexpot,” he said, casually handing her the other script.

“A Streetcar Named Desire?  Wasn’t that a film with Marlon Brando?,” Leon muttered nervously.

The professor put a hand on each of their backs.  “I’ll read the stage directions.  Don’t think, just use your instincts.”

Leon read the lines with as much bravado as he could muster. “I've been on to you from the start! Not once did you pull any wool over this boy's eyes! You come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light bulb with a paper lantern, and lo and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile! Sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor! I say--Ha!--Ha! Do you hear me? Ha--Ha--ha!”

“Okay, now he walks into the bedroom.”

Y/N cried out a warning as Blanche, “Don't come in here!” 

“That was quite good,” Leon whispered, eliciting a small smile.

“Stanley goes into the bathroom and Blanche picks up the phone.”

Blanche: “Operator, operator! Give me long-distance, please.... I want to get in touch with Mr. Shep Huntleigh of Dallas. He's so well-known he doesn't require any address. Just ask anybody who--Wait! I--No, I couldn't find it right now.... Please understand, I--No! No, wait! ... One moment! Someone is--Nothing! Hold on, please!”  

Leon grinned out of character, so impressed by y/n’s acting.

“Blanch is going mad now, pacing back and forth.”

Blanche: “Operator! Operator! Never mind long-distance. Get Western Union. There isn't time to be--Western--Western Union!  Western Union? Yes! I--want to--Take down this message! "In desperate, desperate circumstances! Help me! Caught in a trap. Caught in--" Oh!

Stanley: “You left th' phone off th' hook.”

“Now he blocks her from the door.”

Blanche: “Let me--let me get by you!”

Stanley: “Get by me! Sure. Go ahead”

“But he only gives her an inch.”

Blanche: “You--you stand over there!”

Stanley: “You got plenty of room to walk by me now.”

Blanche: “Not with you there! But I've got to get out somehow!”

Stanley: “You think I'll interfere with you? Ha-ha!”

Blanche: “I warn you, don't, I'm in danger!”

“He takes another step and she smashes the bottle breaking it.”

Stanley: “What did you do that for?”

Blanche: “So I could twist the broken end in your face!”

Stanley: “I bet you would do that!”

Blanch: “I would! I will if you--”

Leon’s reading becomes increasingly stilted and awkward.  “Oh! So you want some rough-house! All right, let's have some rough-house!”

“He springs out at her.  She swipes the bottle at him, but he captures her wrist and overpowers her.”

The professor read the stage directions, but Leon wouldn’t move, delivering the next bit of dialogue with a sigh of regret.  “Tiger--tiger! Drop the bottle top! Drop it! We've had this date with each other from the beginning!”

“Overpower her, Leon.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t like to do that, Professor.”

“It’s acting, Leon...It’s pretend.”

“I don’t even want to pretend.  Stanley is horrid and I hate him.”

The professor rolled his eyes, disregarding Leon’s protest. Then he clapped his hands together addressing the other students.  “Okay, everybody, that’s it for today.  I want you off book by next week.”

The students started getting up from their chairs and shuffling their things.  Y/N approached Leon who was staring down at the stage with his arms folded.  He looked up anxiously as she leaned in to whisper in his ear.  Meet me in the ladies room in five minutes.

Leon was at first confused, then his eyes widened with surprise when he realized what she meant.  She laughed and swaggered away.

Y/N spotted Leon lurking by the door.  “Leon, that was three minutes, at most.  Luckily everybody left after class.  At least I think so,” she added with a cheeky grin.  “Come here.”  She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside the cubicle.  Do you want to shag?

Leon nodded his head. “Y-yes.”

“I liked what you did today,” she said, removing her knickers.  “It was very chivalrous of you.”

Y/N tilted her head and kissed him.  He inhaled at the contact of her lips.

She pulled back and looked him in his glistening green eyes.  “Go on then.”

“What ‘d ya mean?

“Fuck me, Leon.”

“Shouldn’t I, you know...foreplay?”

“Leon, I’m already soaked.  Get your cock out and fuck me.”

Leon quickly unbuckled his belt and let his trousers fall down around his ankles.  She turned with her back against the partition wall and one foot on the toilet seat.  He lifted her tartan skirt and drove up inside her, groaning at the tight wet sensation. She inhaled through her teeth, clutching  at his shoulders, then wrapping her arms around his neck.  Leon closed the gap between them, his pelvic bone at the base of his cock creating a throbbing pressure on her clit as he thrust.  The hard bouncing rhythm made her glasses fall askew.  She whimpered and moaned as the orgasm pulsed through her, overwhelming her senses.  

“Was that?...Did you?”

Her eyelids drooped peacefully.  “Um hm.”

He smiled, encouraged and continued thrusting.  His eyes shined like Christmas trees. She pet his curls, watching the pleasure wash over his face.

“I’m gonna…”

“Don’t stop, sweetie.”

He plowed into her, releasing his warm seed with a hearty grunt.

“Bravo, Leon,” she smirked.

@bubblyani @elliethesuperfruitlover @super-unpredictable98 @salvador-daley @helena-way07 @chipster-21 @punknatch @slutforrobbiebro

[lboogie1906]

Kenneth Earl Holliday (born June 25, 1949) is an actor of stage, film, and television. He is known for his role as Tyler Hudson on Matlock and as Sgt. Curtis Baker on Carter Country. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film Great World of Sound.

He is a product of the Copiague area of Long Island. At age 12 he lost his father. With the encouragement of his mother, he participated in track at Copiague High School where he was part of the Fantastic Four Relay Team and was the star of his football team. He attended the University of Maryland on a full scholarship.

He was “jazzed” by a class he took related to the history of theater and acting became his new passion. As an undergraduate, he played Yank in The Hairy Ape. He was the first African American to perform in a leading role on the college’s “main stage.”

His first work was with the Inaugural Theater Group at the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC. He conducted workshops as a founding member of the DC Black Repertory Company. He starred in the role of Carlyle in Streamers at the Lincoln Theatre.

That play led him to Los Angeles where he guest-starred on several shows such as Kojak; What’s Happening!!; The Incredible Hulk; Quincy, M.E.; Lou Grant; Soap, Benson; The Jeffersons; The Fall Guy; Hart to Hart; and Doogie Howser, M.D. He guest-starred on many other shows. He was featured in Roots: The Next Generations and starred in a series of pilots. He provided the voice of the character Roadblock in G.I. Joe and G.I. Joe: The Movie. He appeared in Badge of the Assassin.

He has numerous television and movie appearances to his credit, including Miracle On The Mountain, Hope & Faith, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

He published a book of poetry in 1998 entitled The Book of K-III: The Contemporary Poetics of Kene Holliday.

He became a traveling evangelist and he and his wife spent the next decade preaching in gospel musicals.

While taking care of his mother, he accepted the lead role in the movie Great World of Sound. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[yegarts]

“I Am YEG Arts” Series: Hunter Cardinal

The magic of collaboration and connection starts with an encounter. If you’re an artist reading this, you likely have goosebumps. If you’re the artist who said it, you’re Hunter Cardinal, a sakāwithiniwak (Woodland Cree) theatre artist, hailing from Sucker Creek Cree First Nation. Though his name has been on the lips of Fringe Theatre fans since 2018, he’s most recently gained attention for his and his sister’s newest co-endeavour, Naheyawin. With clients including the Legislative Assembly Office, Naheyawin offers sustainable, Indigenous-based solutions for businesses and institutions working to improve diversity and inclusions and reinvigorate the spirit of Treaty into their organizations.

Regardless of whether he’s writing a play or teaching a workshop, it’s the questions Hunter asks that change the approaches people take. Those skills, paired with his belief that storytellers tell stories for those who need them, help us value our shared histories. Playwright, actor, and myth architect, this week’s “I Am YEG Arts” story belongs to Hunter Cardinal.

How did you first get involved in the YEG arts community?

I got my start in high school at Strathcona Composite High School! Through the different musicals and training opportunities during that time, I found myself surrounded by incredible teachers and artists from this vibrant community. This often results in me getting to work with people I’ve looked up to for a very long time—something that never gets old for me.

You describe yourself as an Indigenous myth-architect. What does that involve, and what’s the significance of the title?

Myth-architecture is an extension of the teachings we’ve gained from our Elders, who have told us that storytellers tell stories for those who need them. Myth architecture begins with a question that feels important but is without an answer and challenges us to craft a narrative that provides some sort of response. Often, this looks like “completing,” “expanding,” or “setting up” a pre-existing myth. With the play Lake of the Strangers, for example, we completed the myth of Mista Muskwa (The Big Bear) as we tried to answer the question: Why should we heal when there is so much darkness?

Looking back on your success as a first-time playwright with Fringe Theatre, what advice would you give aspiring playwrights?

I would encourage people to use everything they can about themselves and who they are as a person when crafting a story. So often we’re encouraged to leave who we are and whatever we’re bringing with us ‘at the door’ so that we can perform at our best. However, in my experience, the personal is highly universal.

Tell us a little about how Naheyawin came to be and what one of the highlights has been for you.

Naheyawin came from the ways in which my sister and I wanted to combine our passions—storytelling and system thinking—and be of service to our communities. The word Naheyawin, which can be said to translate into ‘the act of being Cree,’ was inspired by a phrase in our family.

That phrase is “When the people forget, the language remembers,” which reminds us that we can look to aspects of who we are—like our language—for guidance and tools to help us with the challenges we’re faced with today. What this looks like today is providing Indigenous-based solutions for the improvement of diversity and inclusion in businesses and organizations across Turtle Island (North America). This can take the form of webinars or us working with organizations on the unique challenges and opportunities they have to better incorporate Indigenous ideas or peoples into their work. I would say a highlight for me is whenever I get the opportunity to facilitate a webinar. I am so honoured to take part in the journey of learning that folx embark on—and so inspired by their open minds and hearts during our time together.

When you’re working with Edmonton businesses or community groups, what do you help them understand about Indigenous spirit.

For me, the most important thing is recognizing the gaps in world views of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. We often forget that Indigenous peoples have an entirely different way of looking at the world, so when we are talking about certain things like art, land stewardship, or Treaty—though we are using the same words, we are relating to them in entirely different ways. So recognizing these gaps gives us the opportunity to build those metaphoric bridges that lead to a deeper understanding and innovative solutions.

Did you always want to combine your passions for your work and your culture into your artistry?

Combing my culture into my work was fairly recent for me. I was raised with regular, but not frequent, exposure to things like smudging, going to sweat lodges, and visiting family up north at Sucker Creek First Nation. But it wasn’t until I was struggling with a role for a small project that was exploring Chekhov’s Three Sisters that I saw the utility of my culture and identity. For the entire process, I felt like the worst actor in the whole world (an all too familiar feeling)—every choice I made felt awkward and contrived, and nothing felt authentic or realized. When debriefing with my director at the time, he drew a connection between my character’s love of Latin and my love of Indigenous languages—and then everything changed for me. I felt like I had permission to use parts of myself that I otherwise would have ignored because I didn’t think it would be useful or appropriate (kind of tragic when I think about it). I then explored using parts of my identity as an Indigenous 20-something male as the backbone of my role as Hamlet at the Freewill Shakespeare Festival and felt like I could bring something very unique and grounded to that role.

What role has mentorship played in your life? Is there a piece of advice that you carry with you?

Mentorship has guided me entirely through my career—so it would be difficult to pin down just one piece of advice. But if I had to pick one, it would be the late Brent Carver sharing with me that in order to be fully present in a scene, an actor cannot leave themselves at the door. The bits of your life, emotions, etc., that you carry with you throughout the day can be fuel for creating beautiful, authentic, and singular moments on the stage. In that teaching, I walked away with the feeling that I am more than enough, and every single part of who I am and where my life has taken me is valuable.

What excites you most about the YEG arts scene right now?

The community. Edmonton has such a thriving scene here—and I would attribute that to the wonderful people that make this such an incredible ecosystem. All the success I’ve been fortunate to experience was all given to me (freely, without question) by those in this community—the roles, experiences, training, and connections.

A lot of the themes in your work seem to focus on the benefits of talking and listening—the richness of understanding. How have you seen that turn into meaningful change.

Talking and listening—whether as an actor, artist, or just a human going about their day—allows you to take a moment to connect with whoever or whatever is around you. That moment of reflection can also allow you to ground yourself in who you are, the values you enter a space with, etc., while at the same time allowing others to be different and unique themselves. I find that this moment to remember that you are connected—yet distinct—can really help folx become a more rooted ally, actor, or person. Often this can be done by asking yourself things like: what or who brought me here? How? What is my goal? What or who is around me?

Why do you choose to live and work in Edmonton?

I’m living here because this is where my friends and family are! When I’ve travelled or lived in other cities, I have always missed the sense of community here. Plus, the cost of living here is much more reasonable than Toronto or Vancouver. Also, I have a great connection to a local farmer for some very high quality, grass-fed beef.

What kind of city do you hope to help Edmonton become?

I hope this city becomes a place where folx feel connected to the larger stories that we’re connected to as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. The richness of our shared histories makes me so excited to be here, and I really hope that people feel that in the future when they think about their connection to this place. Not only that, I hope that they feel a sense of wonder at the futures that await us.

Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here all year and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! Click here to learn more about Hunter Cardinal and Nahayawin

About Hunter Cardinal

Hunter Cardinal is a sakāwithiniwak (Woodland Cree) theatrical artist hailing from Sucker Creek Cree First Nation and currently based in Edmonton, Alberta. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting degree from the University of Alberta, class of 2015, Hunter has performed across Canada and off-Broadway in New York. Recent stage credits include Titus Bouffonious (Theatre Network), Lake of the Strangers (Naheyawin and Fringe Theatre) and Hamlet (Freewill Shakespeare Festival). He is humbled by the steadfast support of his community, with notable achievements to date including the 2020 Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role in a Comedy for his work as Fink in Titus Bouffonious, the 2019 Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding New Play given to Lake of the Strangers, his first play co-written with his sister and dubbed Edmonton’s Best Actor by Vue Weekly in 2018.

[redshirtgal]

As mentioned in our previous article, our Transportation Assistant Ensign Wilson was played by Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.  He was born in 1938 in Muskogee, Oklahoma but his family moved to Portland, Oregon when he was seven. It was during high school there that he discovered his love of theater and dance. At age 20, he moved to Los Angeles. His first movie part was that of a ceremonial dancer in the Roger and Hammerstein movie, South Pacific.

His dual talents in theater and dance paid off when he landed the part of Wilson in “The Enemy Within.” According to his son, Garland Thompson, Jr., there was no stuntman coordinator to block out the moves Thompson and Shatner would have to make during the fight scene between the two of them. Luckily, William Shatner had also studied dancing and the two of them went into a corner and choreographed the movements. By the time they were finished, the filming crew was ready to roll. Shatner and Thompson hit their marks perfectly, the scene was all done in one take, and the focus puller declared the film gate was clean. Which thrilled the crew because that meant everyone could eat an early lunch. 

Garland Thompson performed on other television shows of the 60s such as The Lieutenant, Perry Mason and Bewitched. But he always preferred working on the stage. Even while he was on stage or before the camera, he still attended acting classes at various conservatories and workshops. The most influential of these was  Frank Silvera’s Theatre of Being Workshop. Frank Silvera was an accomplished black actor in film and on the stage (his performance as King Lear in the Shakespeare play of the same name, directed by Joseph Papp, is still considered one of the best). Silvera started his workshop as a way of improving racial equality in the arts by providing instruction and support for young black actors. He also helped them attain membership in the actors’ unions and he created a theater where they could perform. Garland Thompson gave full credit to Silvera for helping him attain success as an actor, a playwright, and a theater producer. His mentor’s  sudden death in 1970 at the age of 56 affected him deeply.  (photo on left is Frank Silvera and on the right is a playbill from one of his productions. Note the names Isabell Sanford and Whitman Mayo)

Garland was already learning his way around and behind the stage as well as in front of it. He had served as the stage manager for Ray Bradbury’s plays in L.A. but then moved to New York to be the original stage manager and associate director for No Place to be Somebody by Charles Gordone on its first national tour as well as twice more during its run on Broadway. He also began to dabble in writing plays. This led him to realize how hard it was for black playwrights to have their plays produced.  As a result, Garland Thompson decided to join actor/director Morgan Freeman, actress/director Billie Allen Henderson, and journalist/ theater critic to form the Frank Silvera’s Writers’ Workshop as a testament to his mentor and as a place for people of color to develop their play writing skills. He also served as its Executive Director.  Within weeks, Garland was leading Monday night readings (and later Saturday night readings) along with critical discussions at the Martinique Theater in New York, one of many theaters that housed the Frank Silvera’s Writers workshop over the years. These readings were almost always packed. But they allowed budding playwrights a chance to hear their material read aloud for the first time and critiqued. Some rewrote their plays after the first presentation and brought them back to be read and critiqued a second time. 

Over the years, around 20,000 scripts were written and read at the workshop. Thompson also helped writers get their scripts produced on stage, including Ntozake Shange’ and her award winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Consider Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf.  Many of the students in the workshop also learned how to work backstage in largely unseen but very important duties, such as those involving lighting and sound. This gave them a more complete education in the theater arts.  Garland Thompson even brought his own work in front of his students to be read and critiqued, then later produced.  A playbill and a newspaper advertisement illustrate production details of two of his plays. Many major figures in Black Theater participated in several aspects of the workshop. These included Ruby Dee, Angela Bassett, Adolph Caesar. Morgan Freeman, Debbie Allen,  Aduke Aremu, Samuel L. Jackson, LaTonya Richardson-Jackson, Phylicia Rashad, and Charles Dutton. 

In early 1999, Inside New York (a local TV news magazine) interviewed Mr. Thompson about the reasons he and his cofounders believed a workshop for people of color to write and produce plays was necessary. Do yourself a favor and carve yourself out some time to watch it in its entirety. This man’s charisma was  amazing as was his enthusiasm for helping young people of color enter the world of theater.  

During his lifetime, Mr. Thompson worked with and often headed many other organizations devoted to Black Theater and received many honors in connection with them. He was the founding board member of the Harlem Arts Alliance and also served on the Board of Directors. In addition to being one of the founding members of the FSWW, he served as its director and was President of the Board of Directors of the FSWW Foundation, Inc. in 1981.  The AUDELCO awards were created to promote "recognition, understanding, and awareness of the arts in the African-American community." Garland Thompson was given the Board of Directors Award in 1976 for superior and sustained contribution to community theater. He also earned another AUDELCO award in 1981 as the producer of Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues. The photo above shows him along with two other recipients at the 1981 Awards. He also was the winner of the Washington D.C. One-Act Play Festival (according to the book Voices of Color) and the FSWW under his direction was awarded the Obie for playwrighting in 1989. 

Garland also became involved in the National Black Theater Festival, starting with its second year. He set up and directed The Readers Theatre program, which grew and expanded over the years. He is shown above with his friend Ossie Davis, who was another major figure in Black Theater and who started the Festival’s first poetry slam in 2001. 

(photo credit - Lia Chang)

Unfortunately, Garland Thompson suffered a serious fall in early November 2014  which resulted in being transported to the intensive care unit at Harlem Hospital. Unfortunately, he never regained consciousness and developed pneumonia and other serious conditions. He died on the 18th at age 76. Garland Thompson’s death was mourned by the Black Theater world. The first memorial devoted to his life and contributions was the addition of his life story to the “harlem is... Theater” Exhibition at New York’s Interchurch Center in December of 2015. Garland Lee Thompson Jr. is seen in the photo above in front of the the tribute to his father. 

On February 12th of 2015,  Representative Charles Rangel of New York gave a speech in front of the U.S. House of Representatives to celebrate the legacy of Garland Thompson. This speech became an official part of the Congressional Record. If you wish to read it, then click here: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2015-02-12/html/CREC-2015-02-12-pt1-PgE208-3.htm

Instead of a traditional funeral, there was a Three Act Performance Tribute, two of which were held on February 14th, which would have been Garland’s 77th birthday. The First Act was a Memorial held at St. James Presbyterian Church. In the photo above, Garland’s son (Garland Lee Thompson, Jr.) is holding a copy of the Congressional Record containing his father’s tribute along with a photo of his father.  Act Two was a reception later that day at the Johnson Theater for the New City. Garland Lee Thompson, Jr. and Sean C. Turner hosted an afternoon of readings, poetry, and performances which ended with a celebration of Garland Sr.’s birthday.   The final act was held in August of that year during Harlem’s National Black Theatre Festival. This is where Garland created the Readers Theater so Act III was a fitting final tribute to a man who had spent over 40 years teaching, encouraging, and nurturing writers and artists of color.  His son Garland Thompson, Jr., is a noted playwright, actor, cinematographer, poet, director and producer, although he has worn many, many other hats in the arts over the years. Since 2008, he has been the Coordinator for the Poetry Out Loud recitation contest for high school students in  Monterey County, California (this is part of a national contest funded by the National Endowment of the Arts) and hosts the Rubber Chicken Open Mic and Poetry Slam at the East Village Coffee Lounge in Monterey (which he co-founded 14 years ago). In 2014  he took over running his father’s Frank Silvera’s Writers’ Workshop in New York.