Archive
Life Itself XVII: To All the Writers I’ve Loved Before – 25 Years of Stories About Writers and Writing
Life Itself XVII:
To All the Writers I’ve Loved Before – 25 Years of Stories About Writers and Writing
Noah Diaz making run for his dream at Yale School of Drama and theater companies nationwide
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/08/05/noah-diaz-making…anies-nationwide
Journalist-author Genoways takes micro and macro look at the U.S, food system
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/06/06/journalist-autho…u-s-food-syystem
Things coming full circle for Doug Marr, Phil’s Diner Series and Circle Theatre
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/04/24/things-coming-fu…d-circle-theatre/
Doug Marr and wife Laura Marr
A book a day keeps the blues aways for avid reader and writer Ashley Xiques
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/03/a-book-a-day-kee…er-ashley-xiques
Voyager Bud Shaw gives up scalpel for pen
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/04/20/voyager-bud-shaw…-scalpel-for-pen
Kevin Simonson on Interviewing Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/05/kevin-simonson-o…nd-kurt-vonnegut/
Literary star Ron Hansen revisits the Old West in new novel “The Kid”
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/08/25/literary-star-ro…ew-novel-the-kid/
Ron Hansen
Noah Diaz:
Metro theater’s man for all seasons and stages
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/07/19/noah-diaz-metro-…asons-and-stages
Old Hollywood hand living in Omaha comes out of the shadows: Screenwriter John Kaye scripted “American Hot Wax” and more
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/01/30/old-hollywood-ha…hot-wax-and-more
Bomb girl Zedeka Poindexter draws on family, food and angst for her poetry
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/11/zedeka-poindexte…t-for-her-poetry/
Playwright turned history detective Max Sparber turns identity search inward
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/02/07/playwright-turne…ty-search-inward/
Paul Johnsgard:
A birder’s road less traveled
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/24/paul-johnsgard-a…ad-less-traveled
Lew Hunter’s small town Nebraska boy made good in Hollywood story is a doozy
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/02/25/lew-hunters-smal…story-is-a-doozy
Lew Hunter with Francis Ford Coppola
Alesia Lester: A Conversation in the Gossip Salon
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/03/09/alesia-lester-a-…the-gossip-salon/
Hardy’s one-man “A Christmas Carol” highlights Dickens-themed literary festival
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/11/03/hardys-one-man-a…iterary-festival/
Omaha World-Herald columnist Mike Kelly:
A storyteller for all seasons
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/04/02/omaha-world-hera…-for-all-seasons/
Mike Kelly
Creative couple: Bob and Connie Spittler and their shared creative life 60 years in the making
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/12/23/bob-and-connie-s…rs-in-the-making/
A WASP’s racial tightrope resulted in enduring book partially set in 1960s Omaha
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/28/a-wasps-racial-t…t-in-1960s-omaha/
Alex Kava:
Bestselling mystery author still going strong
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/11/03/alex-kava-bestse…ill-going-strong/
Yolonda Ross adds writer-director to actress credits; In new movies by Mamet and Sayles as her own “Breaking Night” makes festival circuit
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/02/28/yolonda-ross-add…festival-circuit/
Omahans put spin on Stephen King’s “The Shining” – Jason Levering leads stage adaptation of horror classic to benefit Benson Theatre Project
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/03/17/omahans-put-thei…-theatre-project
Omaha author Timothy Schaffert delivers again with his new novel, “The Swan Gondola”
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/03/07/omaha-author-tim…the-swan-gondola/
Timothy Schaffert
The Omaha Star celebrates 75 years of black woman legacy
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/11/the-omaha-star-c…ack-woman-legacy/
Ex-reporter Eileen Wirth pens book on Nebraska women in journalism and their leap from society page to front page
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/03/22/ex-reporter-eile…ge-to-front-page/
Bob Hoig’s unintended entree into journalism leads to career six decades strong
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/01/25/bob-hoigs-uninte…cades-strong-now/
Wounded Knee still battleground for some per new book by journalist-author Stew Magnuson
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/20/wounded-knee-sti…or-stew-magnuson/
Omaha native Steve Marantz looks back at city’s ’68 racial divide through prism of hoops in new book, “The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/01/omaha-native-ste…of-omaha-central/
From the heart: Tunette Powell tells it like it is
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/10/from-the-heart-t…ls-it-like-it-is/
Finding her voice: Tunette Powell comes out of the dark and into the spotlight
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/01/24/finding-her-voic…to-the-spotlight/
Omowale Akintunde film “Wigger” deconstructs what race means in a faux post-racial world
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/21/deconstructing-w…ost-racial-world/
Beware the Singularity, singing the retribution blues: New works by Rick Dooling
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/beware-the-singu…-by-rick-dooling/
Richard Dooling
Lit Fest delves into what we fear, how we relate in extremis
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/09/lit-fest-delves-…late-in-extremis/
Omaha Lit Fest puts focus on Women Writers and Women in Publishing
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/10/06/omaha-lit-fest-p…en-in-publishing
Omaha Lit Fest Offers a Written Word Feast
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/10/18/omaha-lit-fest-o…itten-word-feast
Writing close to her heart: Author Joy Castro
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/11/23/author-joy-castr…in-two-new-books/
Ron Hull reviews his remarkable life in public television in new memoir
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/10/06/8945/
Ferial Pearson, award-winning educator dedicated to inclusion and social justice, helps students publish the stories of their lives
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/25/ferial-pearson-a…s-of-their-lives
Lit Fest brings author Carleen Brice back home flush with success of first novel, “Orange Mint and Honey”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/02/lit-fest-brings-…e-mint-and-honey/
Novel’s mother-daughter thing makes it to the screen
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/26/novel’s-mother-d…it-to-the-screen
Carleen Brice
Sun reflection: Revisiting the Omaha Sun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of Boys Town
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/28/sun-reflection-r…ose-on-boys-town
Alexander Payne and Kaui Hart Hemmings on the symbiosis behind his film and her novel “The Descendants” and how she helped get Hawaii right
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/01/23/alexander-payne-…get-hawaii-right/
Thy kingdom come: Richard Dooling’s TV teaming with Stephen King
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/16/thy-kingdom-come…ith-stephen-king/
Buffalo Bill’s Coming Out Party Courtesy Author-Balladeer Bobby Bridger
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/06/buffalo-bills-co…er-bobby-bridger/
The Worth of Things Explored by Sean Doolittle in his New Crime Novel “The Cleanup”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/02/the-worth-of-thi…ovel-the-cleanup/
When Safe Isn’t Safe at All, Author Sean Doolittle Spins a Home Security Cautionary Tale
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/19/when-safe-isnt-s…-cautionary-tale/
Acclaimed Author and Nebraska New Wave Literary Leader Timothy Schaffert
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/nebraska-new-wav…imothy-schaffert/
A Man of His Words, Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/07/a-man-of-his-wor…illiam-kloefkorn/
JACOB HANNAH / Lincoln Journal Star
Kurt Andersen’s new novel “True Believers” revisits 1960s through reformed radical breaking her silence
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/28/kurt-andersens-n…king-her-silence/
Dissecting Jesse James
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/dissecting-jesse-james
Ron Hansen’s masterful outlaw blues novel about Jesse James and Robert Ford faithfully interpreted on screen
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/27/ron-hansens-mast…preted-on-screen
Playwright Carlos Murillo’s work explores personal mythmaking
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/26/playwright-carlo…sonal-mythmaking
The Many Worlds of Science Fiction Author Robert Reed
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/22/the-many-worlds-…thor-robert-reed
He knows it when he sees it: Journalist-social critic Robert Jensen finds patriarchy and white supremacy in porn
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/17/i-know-it-when-i…upremacy-in-porn
Litniks Unite! The Downtown Omaha Lit Fest brings writers, artists and readers together in celebration of the written word
Omaha Lit Fest: In praise of writers and their words: Jami Attenberg and Will Clarke among featured authors
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/19/omaha-lit-fest-i…featured-authors/
Omaha playwright Beaufield Berry comes into her own with original comedy “Psycho Ex Girlfriend”
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/20/omaha-playwright…iend-now-playing/
Omaha Lit Fest: “People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/07/omaha-lit-fest-p…-thing-they-like/
Martin Landau and Nik Fackler discuss working together on “Lovely, Still” and why they believe so strongly in each other and in their new film
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/09/23/martin-landau-an…-in-the-new-film/
Martin Landau and Nik Fackler
“Lovely, Still,” that rare film depicting seniors in all their humanity, earns writer-director Nik Fackler Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/03/lovely-still-tha…first-screenplay/
Filmmaker Nik Fackler’s magic realism reaches the big screen in “Lovely, Still”
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/when-dreams-that…neath-do-surface
Nik Fackler, the Film Dude Establishes Himself a Major New Cinema Figure with “Lovely, Still”
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/the-film-dude-es…ew-cinema-figure/
Writers Joy Castro and Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes explore being women of color who go from poverty to privilege
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/12/writers-joy-cast…rty-to-privilege/
Being Jack Moskovitz: Grizzled former civil servant and DJ, now actor and fiction author, still waiting to be discovered
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/being-jack-mosko…to-be-discovered/
With his new novel, “The Coffins of Little Hope,” Timothy Schaffert’s back delighting in the curiosities of American Gothic
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/13/with-his-new-nov…-american-gothic/
Timothy Schaffert Gets Down and Dirty with his New Novel “Devils in the Sugar Shop”
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/29/timothy-schaffer…n-the-sugar-shop/
Rachel Shukert’s anything but a travel agent’s recommended guide to a European grand tour
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/rachel-shukerts-…opean-grand-tour/
Author Rachel Shukert: A nice Jewish girl gone wild and other regrettable stories
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/author-rachel-sh…rettable-stories/
Rachel Shukert
After whirlwind tenure as Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser goes gently back to the prairie, to where the wild plums grow
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/after-a-whirlwin…-wild-plums-grow/
Keeper of the Flame: Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/keeper-of-the-fl…inner-ted-kooser
Ted Kooser
Being Dick Cavett
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/04/being-dick-cavett-2/
Homecoming always sweet for Dick Cavett, the entertainment legend whose dreams of show biz Success were fired in Nebraska
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/04/homecoming-is-al…ed-in-nebraska-2/
Dick Cavett
Dream catcher Lew Hunter: Screenwriting guru of the Great Plains
http://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/dream-catcher-lew-hunter/
Q & A with playwright Caridad Svich, featured artist at Great Plains Theatre Conference
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/02/a-q-a-with-playw…eatre-conference/
Featured Great Plains Theatre Conference playwright Caridad Svich explores bicultural themes
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/featured-great-p…icultural-themes
Playwright-screenwriter John Guare talks shop on Omaha visit celebrating his acclaimed “Six Degrees of Separation”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/02/playwright-john-…es-of-separation/
Attention must be paid: Arthur Kopit invokes Arthur Miller to describe Great Plains Theatre Conference focus on the work of playwrights
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/attention-must-b…s-and-their-work/
Q & A with Edward Albee: His thoughts on the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Jo Ann McDowell, Omaha and preparing a new generation of playwrights
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/a-q-a-with-edwar…n-of-playwrights/
Great Plains Theatre Conference ushers in new era of Omaha theater
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/28/great-plains-the…of-omaha-theater/
John Guare
Hard times ring sweet in the soulful words of singer-songwriter-author Laura Love, daughter of the late jazz man, Preston Love Sr.
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/01/hard-times-ring-…uthor-laura-love
Gospel playwright Llana Smith enjoys her Big Mama’s time
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/07/gospel-playwrigh…r-big-mamas-time
Blizzard Voices:
Stories from the Great White Shroud
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/07/27/blizzard-voices-…eat-white-shroud
Click Westin, back in the screenwriting game again at age 83
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/11/click-westin-bac…-again-at-age-83/
“The Bagel: An Immigrant’s Story” – Joan Micklin Silver and Matthew Goodman team up for new documentary
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/16/the-bagel-an-imm…documentary-film
Actor Peter Riegert makes fine feature directorial debut with “King of the Corner”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/12/actor-peter-rieg…ng-of-the-corner/
Talking screenwriting with Hollywood heavyweight Hawk Ostby: Omaha Film Festival panelist counts “Children of Men” and “Iron Man” among credits
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/02/talking-screenwr…mong-his-credits/
Hawk Ostby
Tempting fate: Patrick Coyle film “Into Temptation” delivers gritty tale of working girl and idealistic priest in search of redemption
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/09/tempting-fate-pa…ch-of-redemption/
Otis Twelve’s Radio Days
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/otis-twelves-radio-days/
Three old wise men of journalism – Hlavacek, Michaels and Desfor – recall their foreign correspondent careers and reflect on the world today
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/three-old-wise-men-of-journalism/
John and Pegge Hlavacek’s globe-trotting adventures as foreign correspondents
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/02/john-and-pegge-h…n-correspondents/
John Hlavacek
Preston Love: His voice will not be stilled
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/03/preston-love-his…l-not-be-stilled/
Marguerita Washington: The woman behind the Star that never sets
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/marguerita-washi…-that-never-sets
“Walking Behind to Freedom” – A musical theater examination of race
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/21/walking-behind-t…mination-of-race
Sacred Trust, Author Ron Hansen’s Fiction Explores Moral Struggles
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/06/sacred-trust
Jim Taylor, the other half of Hollywood’s top screenwriting team, talks about his work with Alexander Payne
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/30/jim-taylor-the-o…lexander-payne-2/
Author, humorist, folklorist Roger Welsch tells the stories of the American soul and soil
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/author-humorist-…he-american-soul/
From the Archives: Warren Francke – A passion for journalism, teaching and life
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/11/from-the-archive…eaching-and-life
Author Scott Muskin – What’s a nice Jewish boy like you doing writing about all this mishigas?
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/05/author-scott-mus…ll-this-mishigas/
Vincent Alston’s indie film debut, “For Love of Amy,” is black and white and love all over
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/11/29/vincent-alstons-…nd-love-all-over
Screenwriting adventures of Nebraska native Jon Bokenkamp, author of the scripts “Perfect Stranger” and “Taking Lives'”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/11/28/screenwriting-ad…ve-jon-bokenkamp/
Murder He Wrote: Reporter-author David Krajicek finds niche as true crime storyteller
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/28/murder-he-wrote-…rime-storyteller/
Bobby Bridger’s Rendezvous
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/bobby-bridgers-rendezvous/
Nancy Duncan: Her final story
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/her-final-story/
Nancy Duncan: Storyteller
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/nancy-duncan-storyteller/
From the Archives:
Nancy Duncan’s journey to storytelling took circuitous route
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/01/from-the-archive…circutious-route
Joan Micklin Silver: Maverick filmmaker helped shape American independent film scene and opened doors for women directors
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/joan-micklin-sil…-women-directors/
Joan Micklin Silver: Shattering cinema’s glass ceiling
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/shattering-cinemas-glass-ceiling/
Joan Micklin Silver
Doug Marr, Diner Theater and keeping the faith
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/06/doug-marr-keeping-the-faith/
Short story writer James Reed at work in the literary fields of the imagination
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/03/short-story-writ…-the-imagination
Culturalist Kurt Andersen wryly observes the American scene as author, essayist, radio talk show host
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/culturalist-kurt-andersen/
Slaying dragons: Author Richard Dooling’s sharp satire cuts deep and quick
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/slaying-dragons-rick-dooling/
K
Kurt Andersen
Hispanic Authors-Artists Part of Omaha Lit Fest Experience
Hispanic Authors-Artists Part of Omaha Lit Fest Experience
©by Leo Adam Biga
Originally published in El Perico (el-pericp.com)
The September 10-11, 2010 (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest gathers authors and artists to investigate the theme Curiouser & Curiouser: The Book in Flux.
Some guests, like University of Nebraska-Lincoln Ph.D. candidate Sarah Chavez, are Hispanic, Others, like first-time festival panelist Peter Kuper of Manhattan, New York, are not, but explore Hispanic themes.
Nebraska native Belinda Acosta, the Latina author of two Quinceanera Club novels, was a panelist last year and the Austin, Texas resident would like to come back again.
Chavez, a Fresno, Calif. native poet, has completed a chapbook she’s expanding into a full-length volume. This will be her first Omaha Lit Fest. She read some of her original work at an August 26 preview. She looks forward to the fest, saying she’s “impressed” by the supportive literary community here and by the diversity and quality of writers presenting at area lit events.
In her poetry Chavez explores the working class character of Fresno. She also explores borders and boundaries of identity. Her father is a first generation Mexican-American migrant worker. As a girl she joined her father laboring in the fields. Her Irish-American mother comes from upper middle class roots.
Chavez said by phone, “I was always sort of aware of this transferring back and forth between cultures. My parents divorced fairly early on, so I was always going back and forth, crossing like city and cultural borders, learning you act like this in this environment but then you can act like this in this other environment.
“So I was always aware of this mobility and the tenuous nature of environment. I was also aware of being, like my sister and I joke, ‘half breeds.’ Because of that mix we’re able to pass in different areas. I go to minority programs and have cultural cachet as a Mexican there but then people don’t automatically assume I am of that heritage. I don’t quite fit, I don’t look like this but I don’t feel like this other group.”
She considers different cultural expectations attending Latinas or African-American women and white women. She examines what it means for women of color to move away from traditional domestic duties to inhabit professional and academic roles.
Political cartoonist and illustrator.Kuper anticipated a two-year siesta in Oaxaca, Mexico with his wife and daughter, but when a teachers’ strike there was violently put down by government forces, he went from casual tourist to engaged reporter. His visceral Diario de Oaxaca journal sketches and commentaries capture how nature and civilization, history and modernity, bounty and deprivation are intertwined there.
He prized playing the role of first-hand witness and participant. In a phone interview he said this active, intimate experience “made it feel we were inside of Mexico rather than standing on the edge regarding it from a slight distance.” He said when he first arrived he made up for his “lousy” Spanish by using his sketches to communicate with people, adding that his habit of walking the streets offered interactions that drew him deeper into local rituals and customs.
His work expresses the surreal-like quality of nature run riot amid a busy tourist trade, an oppressive regime, crushing poverty and citizen protests.
“It’s fascinating. I kept on feeling I was walking through a metaphor.”
Perhaps most striking to him is how people risk everything to oppose an unjust ruling class. He’s quite taken by the politicized street art there. He’s also impressed by how every day people make art an expressive part of their life, whether arranging flower and candle homages for Day of the Dead festivities or painting murals.
“There’s so much creating of art that goes on in daily life as a natural thing to do,” he said. “It really gives me a sense of art having purpose, enriching and playing a role.”
He said the whole experience shook him up artistically, putting him on a different track once he returned home.
“It challenged and opened me up to trying different approaches. I had to sort of reinvent myself with the new information.”
Acosta grew up in Lincoln. She was active in Omaha theater, helping found the Center Stage Theatre and touring a one-woman show on Midwestern Latinas, before attending the University of Texas at Austin to focus on writing.
A freelance journalist by trade, she’s a contributing writer for the Austin Chronicle and Texas Observer. Her books Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz and Sisters, Strangers, and Starting Over chart family relationships within the backdrop of the quinceanera, which she finds ironic since she never had a quince herself. But she said she researched the coming-of-age celebration in preparation for her books.
She’s presently working on a new book set in Nebraska.
For event details, visit www.omahalitfest.com.
2017 Nebraska Book Festival: Saturday, July 15 in Lincoln
Source: Announcing the Nebraska Book Festival
I am proud to be a part of the 2017 Nebraska Book Festival this weekend in Lincoln’s Union Plaza. The Saturday, July 15 event is an all-day (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) celebration of the written word featuring presentations by several Nebraska authors, including yours truly. As the following description explains, I will share my writer’s life as an author-journalist-blogger. Since the figure and subject of Alexander Payne plays a prominent part in my career, I will discuss my book “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film” and sign copies of it.
2:15-3:15 p.m.
Jane Snyder Trails Center
“My Adventures as a Nonfiction Book Author, Freelance Journalist and Compulsive Blogger” with Leo Adam Biga
Sponsored by Nebraska Writers Guild
Veteran Omaha writer Leo Adam Biga has done a little of everything in his career. He started in public relations in the arts and athletics fields, then became a freelance journalist for business and health publications. His work today as a contributing writer for newspapers, magazines and online sites ranges across many topics – from boxing to books and movies to food to social justice issues. His extensive work on Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne is the basis of his book Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film, one of a handful of books that Biga has written. He will share insights into what the life of a full-time writer entails, including its challenges, rewards and opportunities.
Click links for the complete schedule of author presentations and festival events and activities.
I hope to see some of my Lincoln friends there. And if any of you from Omaha can make it, so much the better.
Wish I could make it to the festival kick-off party the evening of Friday, July 14, but my schedule won’t allow it. Hope to see you there on Saturday.
Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film
Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film
If you are an Omaha native like me, then I am sure you agree our shared hometown boasts many leading lights of merit. In arts-entertainment, fellow Omaha native Alexander Payne is at the top of his profession. The two-time Oscar winner’s craftsmanship makes him one of the Hollywood film industry’s most acclaimed and sought after professionals. His reputation as a writer-director extends worldwide.
As Nebraska celebrates 150 years, Payne represents the best this state has to offer in terms of talent, output, loyalty and work ethic. I am privileged to be the author of a book – “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film” – that takes the full measure of the man and his work. My comprehensive look at his career is newly released in an expanded second edition.
I am happy to say that “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film” has many champions.
Leonard Maltin gives it a big thumbs up with:
“Alexander Payne is one of American cinema’s leading lights. How fortunate we are that Leo Biga has chronicled his rise to success so thoroughly.”
Thomas Schatz, (“The Genius of the System”) recommends it with:
“This is without question the single best study of Alexander Payne’s films, as well as the filmmaker himself and his filmmaking process. In charting the first two decades of Payne’s remarkable career, Leo Adam Biga pieces together an indelible portrait of an independent American artist, and one that’s conveyed largely in the filmmaker’s own words. This is an invaluable contribution to film history and criticism – and a sheer pleasure to read as well.”
The publisher is River Junction Press LLC in Omaha and its distributor is Independent Publishers Group (IPG). The book is a available at Barnes & Noble and other fine bookstores nationwide, as well as on Amazon and for Kindle. In Nebraska, you can find it at all Barnes & Noble stores as well as at The Bookworm and Our Bookstore in Omaha, Indigo Bridge Books in Lincoln and in select gift shops statewide.
The easiest way to purchase it is at–
You can order signed copies by emailing your request to leo32158@cox,net.
Just as it’s my pleasure to showcase one of Nebraska’s greatest natural resources in Alexander Payne, I hope it’s your pleasure to read about his journey in film. That journey is about to take a dramatic new turn with the December 2017 release of his long-awaited film “Downsizing” starring Matt Damon. Look for my new Reader story about it in the April 2017 issue.
To all the writers I’ve loved before…
To all the writers I’ve loved before…
If you’re a longtime follower, then you know by now I like making lists. It’s not that I don’t have anything better to do, it’s just that it helps give my mind a focused distraction from whatever the real task at hand is, which is usually a writing project or two or three or four…Oh, well, you get the idea.
So, the other day I began listing out as many of the writers I’ve written about over the years that I could recall. I knew it would be a long list, but it turned out longer than I expected. I mean, it’s a very broad and impressive group of writers, some of whom don’t make their living as writers, But in any case they are variously journalists, essayists, poets, novelists, biographers, memoirists and in many instances combinations of these things. I interviewed them all and in most cases wrote profile of them as well. In some cases I quoted them as part of more general features related to their work or project or program. I enjoy speaking to and writing about fellow soldiers of the craft. Read their names below and see how many you recognize and if you’ve read anything by them. Most are Nebraska native or transplant authors but a fair number are not from here.
There are some Pulitzer, National Book Award, Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Poet Laureate and other writing prize nominees and winners among their ranks.
Before I release you to the list, please note that the names are not listed in any particular order – just when their occurred to me. And you can find what they spoke to me about and what I wrote about them and their work by visiting my blog, https://leoadambiga.com/:
Ron Hansen
Richard Dooling
Timothy Schaffert
Rachel Shukert
Beaufield Berry
Ellen Struve
Max Sparber
Summer Miller
Denise Chapman
Scott Working
Kevin Lawler
Doug Marr
James Reed
Robert Reed
Bobby Bridger
Ted Kooser
William Kloefkorn
Roger Welsch
Dick Cavett
Milton Kleinberg
Jack Moskovitz
Joy Castro
Zedeka Poindexter
John Hardy
Stew Magnuson
Colleen Reilly
Warren Francke
Sean Doolittle
Alex Kava
David Krajicek
Michael Kelly
Lew Hunter
Alexander Payne
Jim Taylor
Carleen Brice
Tekla Ali Johnson
Jami Attenberg
Scott Muskin
Will Clarke
Faith Ringold
Isabel Wilkerson
Jon Bokenkamp
Nik Fackler
Eileen Wirth
Kurt Andersen
Edward Albee
Arthur Kopit
Mac Wellman
John Guare
Caridad Savich
Kia Corthron
Megan Terry
Jo Ann Schmidman
Larry Williams
John Nagl
Howard Silber
Robert Jensen
Otis Wesselman
Preston Love Sr.
Laura Love
Robert Nelson
Joan Micklin Silver
Howard Rosenberg
Thom Sibbitt
John Kaye
Lou Leviticus
Dan Mirvish
James Marshall Crotty
Matt Mason
Nancy Rips
Bill Ramsey
Betty Dineen Shrier
David O. Russell
Jason Levering
Hawk Ostby
Bob Hoig
Ron Hull
Patrick Jones
Rebecca Rotert
MCC Creative Writing Forum – October 28-29
Join yours truly and fellow area wordsmiths, along with keynote speaker Sam Ligon, for the MCC Creative Writing Forum on Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29 at Metropolitan Community College’s Fort Omaha campus. This all things considered writing forum is highly recommended for aspiring and emerging writers looking to navigate the process, publishing and business sides of the craft.It’s a chance to hear from and ask questions of veteran writers from different genres and mediums. Networking opportunities abound.
Hope to see you at the Writing for Local Markets panel I am a part of from 9 to 10:20 a.m. on Saturday.
Full event details, presenter bios and registration information can be found or linked to below.
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| $45 Regular forum | Includes all sessions, hospitality and a copy of Sam Ligon’s book. |
| $25 Student forum | High school and college students. Includes all sessions, hospitality and a copy of Sam Ligon’s book. |
| $20 Friday only | Includes opening session, poetry slam and hospitality only. |
| $30 Saturday only | Includes Saturday sessions only and lunch buffet. |
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More details and presenter bios can be found at here. Online registration can be found at creativewriting.brownpapertickets.com. |
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This year’s keynote speaker is Sam Ligon. He is an associate professor at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, Washington. Ligon is also the editor of Willow Springs and the artistic director of the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference. He is the author of two collection of stories, “Wonderland” and “Drift and Swerve,” as well as two novels, “Among the Dead and Dreaming” and “Safe in Heaven Dead.” His stories have appeared in The Quarterly, Alaska Quarterly Review, Story Quarterly, New England Review, Noise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth, Post Road, Keyhole, Sleepingfish, Gulf Coast, Prairie Schooner, Okey-Panky and New Orleans Review. A recipient of a 2005 Artists Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship, Ligon holds an MA from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA from New School University.
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Friday, Oct. 28 |
Mule Barn, Building 21 |
| 6–7 p.m. | Opening reception: heavy hors d’oeuvres, cash bar, soda and water, networking. |
| 7–8 p.m. | Reading and Q&A with Sam Ligon. |
| 8:15–10 p.m. | Poetry Slam – coordinated by Matt Mason. |
Saturday, Oct. 29 |
Swanson Conference Center, Building 22 |
| 8:30–9 a.m. | Check in, coffee, networking. |
| 9–10:20 a.m. | Breakout session #1 (three sessions)
Young adult reading and Q&ALydia Kang, Tonya Kuper, Christie Rushenberg Writing for local marketsRyan Syrek, Kevin Coffey, Leo Adam Biga Telling your (compelling) storyLiz Kay and Brett Mertins |
| 10:30–11:50 a.m. | Breakout session #2 (three sessions)
Tell me about your processStephen Coyne, Liz Kay, Tim Schaffert Slam poetry, process and performanceSara Lihz Staroska, Stacey Waite, Noni Williams Writing to get paidLindsey Anne Baker, Danielle Herzog, Elizabeth Mack |
| Noon–12:30 p.m | Lunch buffet and networking. |
| 12:30–2 p.m. | General session
How to get publishedSam Ligon and Q&A. |
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Come to Alexander Payne expert Leo Adam Biga’s Sept. 21 book talk-signing “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film”
Come to Alexander Payne expert Leo Adam Biga’s Sept. 21 book talk-signing: “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film” at KANEKO-UNO Creativity Library
Come to this relaxed book talk and signing by your friendly neighborhood Alexander Payne expert, Leo Adam Biga, the author of “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film.” My passion project and labor of love is a must-read for movie buffs and fans. I will be selling and signing copies of the new edition before and after my 7 p.m. talk at the KANEKO-UNO Creativity Library, 12th and Jones Streets, in the Old Market, on Wednesday, September 21.
The book sells for $25.95, plus tax. Available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle and at select book stores and gift shops.
My informal presentation will offer insights into the Oscar-winning writer-director’s creative process gleaned from 20 years of interviewing and covering the filmmaker. The book is a collection of my extensive journalism about Payne and his work. I will also take questions from the audience.
Strong praise for “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film”–
“This is without question the single best study of Alexander Payne’s films, as well as the filmmaker himself and his filmmaking process. In charting the first two decades of Payne’s remarkable career, Leo Adam Biga pieces together an indelible portrait of an independent American artist, and one that’s conveyed largely in the filmmaker’s own words. This is an invaluable contribution to film history and criticism – and a sheer pleasure to read as well.” – Thomas Schatz, Film scholar and author (“The Genius of the System”)
As many of you know, I am an Omaha author-journalist-blogger who often writes about film. In 2012 I turned my in-depth reporting about the celebrated filmmaker from Omaha into “His Journey in Film.”It is the most comprehensive study of Payne’s cinema career and work anywhere. Its collection of articles and essays is based on interviews I conducted with Payne and with many of his key collaborators. The new edition is releasing this fall through River Junction Press in Omaha and features expanded and enhanced content, including a Discussion Guide with Index. It makes a great resource for film buffs, critics, filmmakers, educators and students as well as more casual film fans who want a handy Payne primer and trivia goldmine.
The book is updated and current through Payne’s “Nebraska” and “Downsizing” projects.
“Downsizing’s” (2017) epic, tragicomic tale tackles big ideas having to do with pressing world crises and universal human conflicts. The story’s imagined solution to ever depleted world resources is downsizing human beings to a fraction of normal size, thus decreasing mankind’s footprint on planet Earth. Only the reduction experience doesn’t quite go the way that Paul, the Everyman hero played by Matt Damon, envisioned. We go down the rabbit hole of this dark wonderland with Matt into a mind-blowing, soul-stirring, heart-breaking and ultimately inspiring odyssey that traverses everything from geo-political intrigue to classism and racism to human trafficking to love.
The adventure immerses us into new worlds that may represent the new dawn of man. Payne and his collaborators have traveled the globe to make an ambitious film shooting in multiple countries and starring an international cast. It promises to be a cinematic experience filled with spectacle, pathos and satire, yet never losing touch with human intimacy. Every Payne film is about a physical, emotional, intellectual journey. The stakes for the journey Paul takes in “Downsizing” are high because, unbeknownst to Paul, humanity’s future rests on his actions.
Payne and his film should get lots of attention when it releases next year.
“His Journey in Film” takes you deep inside the creative process of this world cinema artist and follows the arc of his filmmaking journey over a 20-year span, when he went from brash indie newcomer to mature, consummate veteran. Along the way, he’s made a handful of the best reviewed American films of the past two decades and his movies have garnered many top honors at festivals and at the Independent Spirit Awards, the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
This is a must-get book for Nebraskans who want to know how this native son has arrived at rarefied heights and in the company of legends. Nebraskans love the fact that through all of Payne’s remarkable success, he has remained rooted to this place. There is much more to come from him and much more to be said about his work. But for now “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film” is the definitive word on his journey and output.
Look for announcements about future Biga book talks-signings at:
Book about Alexander Payne a must for film buffs, film critics, film students, film instructors, film programmers, filmmakers
Book about Alexander Payne a must for film buffs, film critics, film students, film instructors, film programmers, filmmakers
New edition of ‘Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film’ to feature Discussion Guide and Index
From the world’s foremost expert on the Oscar-winning Payne
Releasing September 1 from River Junction Press
A big thank you to Mike Kelly for his fine column on Father Ken Vavrina
A big thank you to Mike Kelly for his fine column on Father Ken Vavrina
In the Omaha World-Herald issue dated today (Wednesday, December 23, 2015), columnist Mike Kelly finds the heart of Father Ken Vavrina and of the book I did with him, “Crossing Bridges: A Priest’s Uplifting Life Among the Downtrodden.” Mike was aware that Father Ken got to know Mother Teresa quite well during his missionary years overseas. At Mike’s urging, he, Father and myself took in a screening together of the new dramatic feature film about Mother Teresa, “The Letters,” since Father alone among us could provide first-hand impressions of what Mother was really like. Mike took notes as Father reacted to various things depicted in the film. After the film, Mike interviewed us. Mike’s resulting fine column takes the full measure of the humble humanitarian and servant that is Father Ken. It is Father’s ardent wish that each of us cross our own bridges to experience other cultures and serve diverse peoples. This is how we grow and this is how we make the world a better place to live.
BOOK EVENT:
Sunday, January 3rd
Father Ken will be signing his book starting at 10:30 a.m. at St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church (in the social hall in the basement of the church), 2423 Grant Street. Refreshments will be served.
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BUY THE BOOK:
“Crossing Bridges” is available on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com. You can also access it on your Kindle. You can also order the book at- http://www.upliftingpublishing.com/#!book/c24jx
The only two local bookstores carrying “Crossing Bridges” are The Bookworm at 2501 South 90th Street and Hudson Booksellers at Eppley Airfield.
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EXCERPT FROM KELLY’S COLUMN:
At the new movie about Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an Omaha priest occasionally leaned over and whispered about the saintly Nobel Peace Prize laureate he knew well.
“Sadness took a toll on her,” Father Ken Vavrina said at one point. At another: “Tough lady.”
At the Aksarben Cinema for a showing of “The Letters,” the 80-year-old priest, who himself worked with lepers, admired the actress’s portrayal: “Mother walked stooped, just like that.”
Through letters Mother Teresa wrote over 40 years, the biopic tells of her work amid the slums — and her crisis of faith, never feeling she did enough for God.
Father Ken knew nothing about the letters she wrote to her spiritual adviser, but he knew Mother, who died in 1997. He tells about her in a new autobiography with Omaha writer Leo Adam Biga, “Crossing Bridges: A Priest’s Uplifting Life Among the Downtrodden.”
As we left the theater and walked into afternoon light, the cleric remembered the nun, who died in 1997, as an inspiration.
“We meshed well together,” he said. “She contributed so much to my life and was a great influence in the way she was so humble. She reached out to help people without expecting anything in return.”
The last time I interviewed Father Vavrina was 1998, not long after he returned from 19 years of missionary work overseas. He’d just been assigned to troubled St. Richard Catholic Church at 43rd and Fort Streets, where the former pastor was Daniel Herek, convicted of child pornography and sexual assault.
Vavrina, who had worked in poor, sad situations for most of his priesthood, proclaimed that the parish and elementary school would turn the “negative publicity” around. Always optimistic, he predicted: “This school will still be here in 25 years.”
He tried. But because of declining attendance and enrollment, the church and school closed 11 years later.
Vavrina later served as pastor of St. Benedict the Moor parish in north Omaha. He eventually stated from the pulpit that, against his wishes, Archbishop George Lucas was forcing him to retire at 75.
The priest, who since has survived cancer, now looks at the situation differently. “The archbishop was right, and I was wrong. It was time.”
In retirement, Father Ken can look back on a lifetime of helping the poor — and, as a missionary, assisting “the poorest of the poor.”
He grew up in Clarkson, Nebraska, and was 9 when his father died after a fall from a ladder. As a teen, Ken dated and looked forward to a possible law degree.
But he felt a calling and was ordained in 1962. He worked on the Winnebago and Omaha Indian Reservations in Nebraska and later took medical supplies to members of the American Indian Movement during a 1973 protest in Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
He also served inner-city Omaha parishes, taking part in the civil rights movement.
In 1976, Mother Teresa came to Omaha and received an award at Boys Town. (Its official address today is Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, 14086 Mother Teresa Lane, Boys Town, NE 68010.)
Vavrina had long been inspired by her work, and in 1977, he received a leave of absence from the Omaha archdiocese.
In Rome, he met Mother, asking if he could help.
“She threw her hands up in her typical way when she was excited,” he recalled. “She said, ‘Father, I need a priest in Yemen to help the sisters working with lepers.’ ”
And so he went, staying five and a half years. He lived in a dirt-floor hut, scraped dead skin from lepers and witnessed amputations. He called it taxing but fulfilling work, “the best job I ever had.”
He contracted malaria, but not leprosy. Eventually, he was arrested and jailed for two weeks, suspected of spying for the CIA. (He says he was not.) The U.S. Embassy arranged his release.
Catholic Relief Services hired him to manage a rebuilding effort after an earthquake, and then to supervise aid in India. As he says in his book:
I will never forget my first night in Calcutta. I said to the driver, “What are in these sacks we keep passing by?”
“Those are people.”
Hundreds upon thousands of people made their beds and homes alongside the road. It was a scale of homelessness I could not fathom.
Father Ken was reunited with Mother Teresa, noting the admiration she received wherever she went. When he left Calcutta in 1991, he wept. He said Mother teared up, too.
He next went to Liberia during civil war, supervising Catholic Relief Services aid and dealing with ruthless dictator Charles Taylor, whom the priest calls “a paranoid egomaniac.”
Father Ken hadn’t planned to write a book, but so many people urged him to do so that he agreed, hoping his story might inspire readers.
He contacted Biga, a freelance writer whose work includes a book about director-screenwriter Alexander Payne. Biga also has traveled to Uganda and Rwanda to write about relief work by world champion boxer Terence Crawford of Omaha.
For the rest of the story, visit-http://www.omaha.com/columnists/kelly-from-mother-teresa-to-a-liberian-dictator-nebraskan-priest/article
Hardy’s one-man “A Christmas Carol” highlights Dickens-themed literary festival
There’s something appealing about a lone actor assuming dozens of roles in a one-man performance of a multi-character play and John Hardy is bold enough to tackle a much read, seen and loved work, the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. He performs his adaptation at this fall’s Joslyn Castle Literary Festival, whose theme “Dickens at the Castle” is celebrating the great author’s work in many other ways as well, including lectures and concerts. But clearly Hardy’s one-man rendition of this work that so many of us are familiar with through theater and film versions is the main attraction. I profile Hardy and the “Dickens of a time” he has bringing this work to life in the following story I did for The Reader (www.thereader.com). By the way, if you’ve never been to the Joslyn Castle, use this as your escuse because it is a must-see place in Omaha that really has no equivalent in the metro. You should also check out the arts and culture programming that goes on year-round at the Castle.
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Hardy’s one-man “A Christmas Carol” highlights Dickens-themed literary festival
Actor to bring timeless classic to life by enacting dozens of characters
©by Leo Adam Biga
Appeared in the November 2015 issue of The Reader (www.thereader.com)
The Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol has long haunted actor-writer-director John Hardy. Though ghosts have yet to visit him ala Scrooge, the story’s held an enchanted place in Hardy’s heart ever since he got his Equity card acting in a professional stage version.
Much theater work followed but he soon tired of others dictating his artistic life and took creative matters into his own hands. He’s since developed a pair of one-man shows he now tours nationally, including a solo rendition of Christmas Carol. He will perform his adaptation of Carol at the free Nov. 14-December 13 Joslyn Castle Literary Festival, “Dickens at the Castle.”
Joslyn Castle is located at 3902 Davenport Street.
The festival includes lectures, concerts and other Dickens-themed events. But Hardy’s one-man Carol stands apart. In his energetic show he assumes more than 40 roles across a spectrum of Victorian and Industrial Age archetypes.
The well-traveled Hardy is no stranger to Omaha. He performed his other one-man play, Rattlesnake, here. He directed Othello at this past summer’s Nebraska Shakespeare Festival.
Able to pick and choose his projects, he’s reached a golden period in his performing life. But getting there took years of searching.
This native of Texas grew up in New Jersey and got bitten by the theater bug attending plays in New York City. He studied drama and stagecraft under his muse, Bud Frank, at East Tennessee State University. He no sooner graduated then went off to do the starving acting bit in the Big Apple, making the rounds at casting calls and booking work on stage and screen. A stated desire to create “my own opportunities” led him to Calif., where he co-founded a theater. Then he earned a master of fine arts degree at the University of Alabama, where he started another theater.
He soon established himself a director and acting coach. Once fully committed to following his own creative instincts, his original one-man play, Rattlesnake, emerged.
“You know how it is, you come to things when you come to them,” Hardy says. “Freedom explains all good things I get. Man, there’s nothing like liberation.”
In casting around for another one-man play, he returned to his old friends, Dickens and Christmas Carol.
“As much as I had done it, I always felt like there was something else there. I wasn’t quite sure what it was. But there’s a reason why that play is done and why that book’s become a play and become so many movies. I feel like people were searching for it, just as I was, too.
“The other thing is it had a built-in commercial appeal. People have heard of it, it’s known.”
Tried and true is fine, but Hardy imagined a fresh take on the classic.
“I’ve seen one-man versions, but they’re nothing like the one I do. The one I do is not storytelling, it’s not described. Mine is dramatic theater, It’s characters fully involved in this world, this existence from moment to moment. I’ve never seen that in a one-man Christmas Carol. In the others, there’s always a separation – it’s storytelling with a hint of characterization here and there. Whereas mine is moment to moment characters living through this world, which makes it distinctly different.”
The more Hardy dug into the book and play, the more he discovered.
“A Christmas Carol must have a universal thing in it because it never dies and therefore there must be some very human thing that most of us can see in it and relate to in it.”
He believes Dickens possessed insights rare even among great authors or dramatists in exploring the experiences that shape us, such as the transformative powers of forgiveness, humility and gratitude.
“It’s a thrill to have anything to do with Dickens or talk about him. Dickens is just one of those people like Shakespeare that seems to have a window into the human experience that few people have. The more we get to know about ourselves through his work then the closer we get to not killing ourselves and I would like to participate in that endeavor,” he says.
“The psychology of the human being – that seems to be what he has an insight into in a way that is almost never if ever spoken. In other words, what he does is allow characters to engage in living from moment to moment and doesn’t necessarily draw conclusions about it. He doesn’t explain their behavior, he allows them to live.”
That approach works well for Hardy, who abides by the axiom that “you only really come to know a character when they’re engaged in doing something – forget about someone describing them or they describing themselves.” And therein lies the key I think to A Christmas Carol,” he adds.. “It’s not an accident this story has been made into a play and a movie again and again because it’s so active. Somebody’s engaged in doing something. It’s on its way somewhere a hundred percent of the time. It’s never static. It’s not reflective. It moves past a moment into the next moment and you can’t stop and think about it.”
“Even as a book it doesn’t have that page-long description of reaching for a door handle and turning it and that kind of thing. It’s in the room, it’s taking in the room, it’s dealing with what’s in the room and going into the next room. It never stops moving forward. It really doesn’t take a breath. It lends itself to the dramatic universe as opposed to the prosaic. It’s a series of actions characters do – and that reveals them.”
In his one-man show Hardy is our avatar embedded in the story. He embodies the entire gallery of characters immersed in this fable of redemption. As he moves from one characterization to the next, he seductively pulls us inside to intimately experience with him-them the despair, tragedy, fright, frivolity, inspiration and joy.
“Seeing a person move through that whole thing is even more human,” he says. ‘We see ourselves passing through it as this one human being passing through it. Maybe we are everyone in A Christmas Carol –Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit – and Scrooge is everyone, too.”
Because this is Hardy’s vision of Carol, he can play the omnipresent God who let’s us see and hear things not in the original text.
“I get to do things the book and the plays don’t get to do. For instance, in the book I think Tiny Tim says one thing – ‘God bless us everyone.’ He says it a couple of times. Well, I get to have Tiny Tim say whatever I want him to say. In the book Bob Cratchit explains to his wife what Tiny Tim said when he was carrying him home from church on Christmas morning but I get to have Tiny Tim actually say that. I get to have him actually experience these things and you get to see him live a little more. That’s the kind of thing I can do.”
Hardy’s well aware he’s doing the show in a place with a special relationship to the Dickens drama. The Omaha Community Playhouse production of Charles Jones’ musical adaptation is a perennial sell-out here and in cities across America where the Nebraska Theatre Caravan tours it. Hardy auditioned for the Caravan himself one year.
“It seems like half of everyone I know in the business has had something to do with the Nebraska Theatre Caravan or with the Playhouse or A Christmas Carol. It’s kind of like six degrees of separation – you’re not far away from knowing someone who knows someone who was in that.”
As for his own relationship to Carol, he says, “I’ve been with that story for a long time.”
His one-man homage kicks off “Dickens at the Castle” on November 14 at 6:30 p.m. A pre-show panel of local theater artists, plus Hardy, will discuss adapting the novel. For dates-times of Hardy’s other performances of Carol during the fest and for more event details, visit http://joslyncastle.com/.
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