In Defense of Beauty

Over the past few weeks, my new play about New York real-estate holdout, M. Jean Herman, In Defense of Beauty, had two very successful public readings by the Pegasus Theatre. These readings are designed give the playwright feedback from the public and the actors.

After the first public reading, it became clear that one of three puppet scenes had to be cut. As with mimes, puppets are best in small doses.

The second reading, at the historic Druids' Hall at Plantation Ranch greatly benefited from the cut, as well as from the outstanding venue.

Druids' Hall is a 19th century building, recently restored and converted into a museum of local memorabilia. It was the perfect setting for a play dealing with one woman's unwaivering determination to save a rapidly vanishing piece of Manhattan.

Pegasus actors, Lois Pearlman and John Rowan, were terrific in their multiple roles.

Will In Defense of Beauty see a full production? Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, if you are planning to be in Sonoma County on the 14th of November, please join me at Copperfield's Bookstore in Petaluma between 1:30 and 3:30 PM where I will be signing my book of short fiction, Gone to Ground.

Here's to good reading and good writing!

In Defense of Beauty

Pegasus Theatre Company in Sonoma County has now done two staged readings of my new play, In Defense of Beauty. The first reading was done in Guerneville, at the River Lane Resort. The reading was well received but it was obvious to me that there needed to be some cuts and edits made to the script. I did that, and then, yesterday, Pegasus did a second reading with the revised script, at the Druids Hall at Plantation Ranch (Western Sonoma County).