[NEohioPAL] Another Great review of MAGICAL THINKING Final 4Performances at Actors' Summit

[Fred Dolan]

I want to thank Neil Thackaberry for wanting to quote my radio review of The Year Of Magical Thinking on NEohioPAL. It will be broadcast a few times on WJCU-FM (88.7) this week.
I sent Neil an mp3 of the segment, and in the translation from the mp3 to the NEohioPAL email, a few things got lost. 
So out of respect for the performance, the original draft of the piece appears below. It's a little longer than the mp3 translation. These Arts On The Heights segments are locked into a 90-second format. I write what I think is 90 seconds worth of words and then record it. I usually have to edit it down as I did with this piece.
Please note that I am writing for the spoken word. These pieces are not necessarily written to be read on a page like other reviews. Examples of other Arts On The Heights segments can be found on wjcu.org.
Uncle Fred has been my radio name for the last 19 years on WJCU. In addition to Arts On The Heights, I welcome you to tune in Sunday nights for the best in folk and acoustic music from 9:00PM to midnight. In addition, don't forget the Irish Music Marathon on St. Patrick's Day from 6:00AM to midnight.
Thanks,
Fred Dolan
Arts On The Heights
Visiting The Folks
WJCU-FM 88.7 & wjcu.org

Hello, Cleveland.

This is Uncle Fred for Arts On The Heights.

I was invited to a recent performance of Joan Didion's The Year Of Magical Thinking at the Actors' Summit in Hudson.

The one woman performance is based on Joan Didion's book of the same name where she recounts the death of her husband and the eventual death of their only daughter after a prolonged severe illness. 

Since Didion is a writer and writers experience life to distill it onto a page, the whole tone of the play is analytical rather than emotional. Didion examines the details of her husband's death, the details of her child's illness in an attempt to try to establish some sort of control in situations that are beyond it.

For the audience, it's almost like rubbernecking a bad accident on the freeway. We are detached from the actual event, but in the back of our minds, we know that only by the grace of God or dumb luck that it could have been us. Fascinated, we can't resist looking at the carnage.

Alone onstage for 90 minutes, Mary Jo Alexander delivers a finely nuanced performance and is fascinating to watch as she clinically examines these devastating, life-altering events, and all the while we sit there thinking about how we will react when it's our turn as she tells us at the beginning of the play that "This too will happen to you."

The Year Of Magical Thinking has four more performances at Actors Summit in Hudson - this Thursday thru Sunday, March 1 and additional information can be found at actorssummit.org.

For Arts On The Heights, this is Uncle Fred reminding you that any day at the theater is a good day.


  
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