"Tis ten to one this play can never please." (Henry VIII)

.....In Shakespeare's play, "Hamlet", it is revealed that "...something is rotten in the state of Denmark." And Hamlet, depressed and suicidal, says, "...The time is out of joint...O cursed spite! That ever I was born to set it right." And so why does this seem to me to be somewhat similar to what President Obama has to confront today? The answer is that "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." The theory that an organism, in the course of its development goes through the same successive stages as did the species in its evolutionary development. (Bio.301) Simply speaking--but not so simple-- history repeats itself, and the mistakes we make today we are sure to make in the future. If one looks sharply he can see that in our world, "...the time is out of joint." And Obama has arrived apparently as the man to set it right. Perhaps he is the 21st Century Hamlet. I hope not. Hamlet was killed by the tip of a poisoned sword. And he certainly didn't set Denmark right. However, that was at the end of Shakespeare's play. Obama's play has not yet ended.

.....Speaking of setting things right, I doubt that it is possible with the "Showcase" that the Theatre Workshop is putting on tomorrow in our clubhouse. Today we had a dress rehearsal, and in my opinion, it was uniformly and universally terrible. I gave a C- to the group I directed. None of the three in the cast performed as they had done in practice. This club is permitted to read "in concert"; that is "acting" with script in hand during the Showcase event. However, I taught my group ways to hide their script sufficiently so that the audience does not see them flipping the pages. One lady was given a Reader's Digest in which to hide her script while reading, and to hold that magazine on her knees, but she plunked it right on the table where she was sitting. One part of the program had the entire cast, about fifteen people, read "one liners" each, some of which were actually funny, but it was hard to tell. One would think that people studying acting at least ought to be able to commit ONE LINE to memory; that is ONE lousy LINE! The bit would have been 100% more entertaining without having them read ONE LINE from the script held in their hands! I can say much more about the readings of these wannabe actors, but I won't. This is how I get into trouble.

.....I'm certain that someone in the cast reading this assessment of the Showcase might find it insulting (which it is not meant to be). If so they might be inspired to create their own insult to me by reading the following:

.....He has all the virtues I dislike, and none of the vices I admire."-- Winston Churchill"

.....I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."-- Clarence Darrow"

.....He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.-- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

.....I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.-- Groucho Marx

.....I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.-- Mark Twain

.....He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.-- Oscar Wilde

.....George Bernard Shaw said to Winston Churchill: "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one." Churchill's response: "Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one."