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Montaigne's Tower

"Queen Victoria's Secret": publicity interview from 2011

My play “Queen Victoria’s Secret” was presented by Nameless Playwrights as part of Portland’s Fertile Ground New Play Festival on Monday, January 24, 2011, at the Someday Lounge, 125 NW Fifth Avenue, Portland. Publicity for the production included responses to the following prompts:
Short prompts:
1. A Writer I Admire Is . . . Cormac McCarthy.
2. My Writing Style Can Be Described As . . .J.M. Synge Meets Emily Dickinson.
3. The Celebrity I Would Most Like To See Star In This Play On Broadway Is . . . Helen Mirren as Queen Victoria and Paul Lynde as Dr. Lavalle. Read More 
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London Semester Journal 2008

During the winter of 2008 I served as the Resident Director of California State University Fullerton's London Semester and posted a blog about culture shock and transformation as experienced by fifty students from CSU Fullerton and CSU Long Beach. I'm reposting the blog in the form of a weekly journal with three primary audiences in mind: existing students; future students (those who want to know what the experience was like, and who would like some evidence to gauge whether or not the program is worth the expense); and also an imagined audience of readers who enjoy travelogues—who view them as philosophical, literary, and personal journeys of discovery.

Week 1: January 7-13, 2008
The Pre-Tour and Arrival in London

Every journey should start with a disaster.  Read More 
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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it (George Santayana)

In July 1941, a small paper in Oregon called the Columbus Record gave four columns to a New York prosecutor, John Harlan Amen, who railed against discrimination against immigrants. "The growth of America was accomplished through the centuries...Generations of people from every corner of the world came to settle on these shores. They represent races, creeds, religions, and nationalities from practically every known group of human beings. America is composed of each and every one of these men and women and citizenship means that each and everyone of them enjoys the same rights and privileges. America does not belong to any one particular man or woman, or group; it is the symbol of all its citizens."

He was talking about discrimination against German-Americans and Italian-Americans in the context of World War II.

"...the only way that discrimination could successfully be wiped out would be for an aroused public opinion to demonstrate itself against any and all individuals who are found guilty of such practice."  Read More 
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