I Love Erie Theatre

Love can tell a million stories... - William Finn, FALSETTOS [While this production was not in Erie, it did feature the performance of Erie native, Mercyhurst Preparatory School alumnus, and for Playhouse performer, Nick Adams.] The Murphy/Falchuk/Canals television series, POSE, is striking more than poses; it's touching on moments and experiences that many in the arts hold in our memories. While it celebrates the performative and political assertions of gender and orientation identity, with more than just a little dramatic flare, it also plucks at heartstrings and remembers those beautiful people held in death's dateless night. The AIDS crisis, an integral part of the POSE storyline, sometimes seems like centuries ago. Last April the New York Times Style Magazine ran a sobering list of the names of those who were lost to the AIDS epidemic - Alvin Ailey, Michael Bennett, Tina Chow, Dorian Corey, Brad Davis, Robert Drivas, Tom Eyen, Michel Foucault, Larry Kert, Robert Moo...

My books are based on the "what if" principle. "What if you became invisible?" or "What if you did change into your mother for one day?" I then take it from there. Each book takes several months in the long process of writing, rewriting, writing, rewriting, and each has its own set of problems. The one thing I dislike about the writing process is the sometimes-loneliness of it all. Readers only get to see the glamour part of a bound book, not some of the agonizing moments one has while constructing it. - Mary Rodgers So many of our conversations circle the topics of sympathy and empathy (as our cultural and social environments seem to be challenging our human abilities to exercise these very human traits). When we sympathize, we feel pity or sorrow for another, or share a mutual understanding or feelings for another person. More than just feel or understand for another person, empathy invites us to identify with another, to share their emotional state...