Welcome

Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

As a writer, one of your jobs is know words, use words and understand their origin(s)

  

Camaraderie comes from French camarade, which is also the source of English's comrade, meaning "friend or associate." Camarade means "roommate," "companion," or "a group sleeping in one room." It is related to Latin camera, meaning "chamber."

 


Ad-lib is a shortening of Latin ad libitum, which means "in accordance with one's wishes." In the past, ad libitum was used to refer to any activity where the performer was free to do whatever they liked for as long as desired, whether the activity be drawing, working math problems, talking, playing music, or acting.

 


Lenient comes from lenis, the Latin word for "soft" or "mild." It was originally applied to something soothing that relieved pain or stress; the related lenitive has the same meaning. Linguists also borrowed lenis to describe speech sounds that are softened—for instance, the "t" sound in gutter.

 


According to German folklore, all living creatures have a spirit double who is invisible but identical to the living individual. These second selves are perceived as being distinct from ghosts (which appear only after death), and sometimes they are described as the spiritual opposite or negative of their human counterparts. German writers coined the word Doppelgänger (from doppel-, meaning "double," and -gänger, meaning "goer") to refer to such specters.

 


As a prefix, arch- appears in a number of titles referring to positions of superiority, such as archduke and archbishop; it can also mean "chief" (as in archnemesis) or "extreme" (archconservative). It comes from the Greek verb archein, meaning "to begin or to rule."

 


Loss of the sound of "r" after a vowel and before a consonant in the middle of a word is common in spoken English. This linguistic idiosyncrasy has given the language a few new words, including cuss from curse, bust from burst, and passel from parcel.

Zen the dog, one of my two writing partners. Eli, Zen's brother, is the other one, he prefers to work from under my desk.


 

Art for the Blog of It: Dance like no one is watching

Art for the Blog of It: Dance like no one is watching:   Loie Fuller  was an actress and dancer who was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. She choreographed and pe...

Art for the Blog of It: The Ashmolean Museum

Art for the Blog of It: The Ashmolean Museum:     The Ashmolean Museum at Britain’s Oxford University was heavily guarded. Regardless at midnight on January 1, 2000, thief got into the...

Anne Perry killed her girlfriends mother.

   

Anne Perry, the English author of historical detective fiction, best known for her Thomas Pitt and William Monk series, was convicted in 1954 in the murder of her friend's mother, Honora Rieper. Perry, whose real name is Juliet Hulme, was 15 at the time. She changed her name after serving a five-year sentence for Rieper's murder.

The Parker–Hulme murder case took place in the city of Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand, on June 22, 1954, when Honorah Rieper was killed by her teenage daughter, Pauline Parker, and Perry.  The murder has inspired plays, novels, non-fiction books, and several films.

As their friendship developed, Parker and Hulme formed an elaborate fantasy life together. They wrote plays and books and also invented their own personal religion, with their own ideas on morality. They rejected Christianity and worshipped their own saints, envisioning a parallel dimension called The Fourth World, essentially, their version of Heaven

They became obsessed with one another, to the point that Parker's parents became concerned that the girls were engaged in a sexual relationship. (Considered a serious mental illness at the time)

The parents eventually separated them so one afternoon Parker and Hulme went for a walk with Parker's mother and bludgeoned her to death with half of a brick enclosed in an old stocking.

The girls, covered in blood, fled but were met by Agnes and Kenneth Ritchie, owners of the tea shop, and told them that Rieper had fallen and hit her head. Of course the plan failed, the girls were tried in a sensational court drama filled with the speculation about the girls' possible lesbianism and insanity. They were both convicted, and too young to be considered for the death penalty were jailed but only for five years before they were released.



Charlie had issues

 Charles Dickens enjoyed looking at dead bodies and frequently visited the Paris morgue to

 view corpses, the worst the damage to the body, the more he seemed to enjoy the view.




Dig her back up, I changed my mind.


 The artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti had a wife named Elizabeth, She died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862, possibly a suicide, shortly after giving birth to a stillborn (Another) child.

Rossetti had the bulk of his unpublished poems buried with her at Highgate Cemetery.

Then he became wildly popular and started making a lot of money from his poetry so he had poor Elizabeth dug up, fetched the poems, and reburied her.  

 

He idealized her image as Dante’s Beatrice in a number of paintings 



I could rewrite as a romantic novel, that might work, or, I can just go outside and bark at a leaf for no reason.


 

Well said Herman, well said.


 

Playwrights opportunities

NYCPlaywrights

Sat 10/30/2021 5:04 PM
  •  NYCPlaywrights
Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
When the Light Goes Out: Spirits, Souls & Spooky Tales
October 30th at 6 PM
Dr. Ronald McNair Park, Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238
October 31st at 6 PM
Cuyler Gore Park, Fulton St &, Greene Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238
How do we connect with those no longer with us? What lurks in the shadows? What scares us? These are the questions the ensemble explores in When the Light Goes Out--all while giving you a good Halloween scare. This show has a suggested rating of PG-13. 
Celebrate legacy and a tradition of ghost stories in When the Light Goes Out: Spirits, Souls, and Spooky Tales, created by the Ensemble. Performances are October 29th-31st at South Oxford Park, Ronald McNair Park, and Cuyler Gore Park (respectively). To reserve a free spot, visit https://tinyurl.com/lightgoesout.
Performances presented free of charge. To RSVP, visit https://tinyurl.com/lightgoesout
*** PRIMARY STAGES ESPA ***
NOW ENROLLING: FAST FIRST DRAFT at Primary Stages ESPA! 
Start a First Draft and finish it FAST! Take FAST FIRST DRAFT with LIA ROMEO (4-time Kilroys List Writer) online through Primary Stages ESPA. Propelled forward by page-generating exercises and unencumbered by extensive critique, you will start to develop a new play—either a one-act or a full-length—and have another project ready for continued writing and future development. Class begins November 15 and run Mondays from 6:30 – 9:30 PM ET. Flexible, artist-friendly payment plans available. 
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College
The arts are among the areas that computational sciences has transformed, not only through its impact on modes of production of artwork, but also as a formative influence on its themes and motivations, notably in the fields of speculative fiction as well as the dramatic arts. To that end, the Neukom Institute is proud to announce this prize for creative work in the arts.
Full-length plays and other full length works for theater addressing the question “What does it mean to be a human in a computerized world?”
***
The SETC/Stage Rights Ready to Publish Award is a program dedicated to developing, publishing, and licensing new works. The winning play and playwright will be announced in January. The author of the winning piece must attend the following SETC Annual Convention where a panel reading of the play will be held.
***
Rockford New Words 2022 is seeking new 10 minute works to be chosen and presented in a staged performance Feb 4th & 5th, 2021. Writers can choose to perform their own works (Live or on Zoom), or have them presented by professional performers. Writers each receive $200.
THEME: WORDS ON WOMAN
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** GHOST LIGHT ***
The superstitious have many justifications for the ghost light in relation to the supernatural. A popular theatrical superstition holds that every theatre has a ghost. Some theatres have traditions to appease ghosts that reach far back into their history. The Palace Theatre, London keeps two seats in their balcony permanently bolted open to provide seating for the theatre ghosts. The ghosts of the  theatre are not necessarily malevolent spirits; it is considered good luck for a production if the famous Man in Grey makes an appearance during rehearsal at the Drury Lane theatre. 
More...
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Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre, thronged with more than 1,700 people nightly to see the hit musical Aladdin, is home to one of the theatre world’s most active ghosts. And it’s been a busy couple of years for her, according to Dana Amendola, vice president of operations for Disney Theatrical Group.
Olive Thomas, a onetime Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl who has been haunting the 42nd Street playhouse since she committed suicide in 1920, is by far the most active ghost on Broadway. She manifests so frequently that Amendola has placed photographs of her at every entrance to the theatre so workers can greet her when they arrive for work each day (which is believed to keep her mischief to a minimum). Most are visible only to Disney employees, who have a ritual of blowing a kiss or touching the picture frame as they enter and leave. But audiences who enter through the main entrance on 42nd Street can see one, too; Olive Thomas is the last photo on the right side as you enter.
But her spirit made a recent appearance, too.
Amendola said a group of Disney staffers were sitting in an office discussing the Oscar-winning film The Artist, set in the silent film era. They were wondering how many Follies girls became film stars, and they mentioned that Olive Thomas was one, but somebody said the REAL star of the silent era was Mary Pickford (Olive’s sister-in-law). “Now, maybe Olive got a little upset about that because when someone said, ‘I wonder what Olive Thomas would think of The Artist,’ a stack of 13 or 14 DVDs on the table next to them flew into the air and crashed across the room. They all sat in stunned silence. That stack had been there for a long time, and there was no obvious way they could have fallen, let alone flew across the room. They didn’t fall straight down as CDs would have done; they went flying about three feet across the room and hit a wall. This was witnessed by several people. They didn’t even make the connection to Olive right away. But when they told me about it, I did.”
Amendola said ushers and overnight security people report feeling a touch on the back, like someone sneaking up on them and playing a practical joke. But when they turn around, no one is there.
More...
***
7 Times Someone Said ‘Macbeth’ And Things Went Wrong
One of the most well-known myths for thespians involves uttering the name “Macbeth” inside the theatre. If you are currently in a production, sitting in a theatre and for some reason reading this article out loud, please relocate.
As the legend goes, when this name is spoken inside a theatre, it can curse the production. Lights can fall, people can literally break their legs and the whole of a production may become a disaster within minutes. Once spoken, a curse reversal needs to occur, or things may just keep going terribly wrong.  
We know what some of you may be thinking: This is just a silly superstition. But just before you utter this in a theatre to prove us wrong, see if these seven stories from our Theatre Nerds about how the Scottish play nearly ruined a production will change your mind:
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Rumored to house more than 100 ghosts, the Palace is surely the most renowned of Broadway’s haunted haunts. Among the many apparitions that regularly appear to theatre personnel include a female musician, clad in a white gown playing cello in the pit; a gloomy little girl who hides out in the balcony; a supposed former manager, dressed in a brown suit, who stalks the manager’s office; a young boy who rolls toy trucks in the hallway behind the mezzanine, and even the ghost of Judy Garland herself, known to appear at the rear of the orchestra pit, near a door built specifically for her to enter and exit from during her much-lauded Palace concerts. According to lore, faint melodies from a Steinway piano are also occasionally heard late at night.
More...
***
"Break a leg" is one piece of performer lingo that has leaked into the mainstream. Originally, it was used by actors and musicians to wish their colleagues good luck before going on stage. Today, even people outside the entertainment world know the meaning of the idiom, but few people probably know where it comes from.
The common story behind "break a leg" is that it began as a replacement for "good luck"—a phrase that's actually considered bad luck if spoken out loud in theater. The superstition is real, but it doesn't explain why actors started wishing each other bodily harm instead.
According to Grammarist, the saying in its modern form originated as an in-joke in theaters in the 1920s. This theory states that rookie performers waiting in the wings teased the well-seasoned pros by telling them to "break a leg," which would have allowed the understudies to take their place.
Another theory traces the idiom even further back in time. In Old English, breaking a leg could have described someone bending a leg, as in a curtsy or bow. Instead of jokingly wishing someone to get too injured to perform, this version of the phrase could have been a way to encourage actors to make it to the end of a successful show.
More...
***
This storied theater in New Zealand’s capital has a long history of presenting all sorts of culture, including operas, ballets, and movies. It also happens to be lousy with supernatural phenomena. A friendly ghost named Yuri, a Russian dancer who fell to his death onstage, has been responsible for strange electrical occurrences—and, supposedly, for twice saving the life of one of the St. James’s projectionists. Less benevolent is "The Wailing Woman," the spirit of a failed actress who has been known to weep in the dressing rooms and is blamed for unfortunate circumstances that have befallen other female performers at the theater.
More...
***
A woman lies on a tomb in a deathlike slumber, rose petals scattered all around. A balding, bearded man is attempting to remove the stopper of a poison bottle with his teeth. The tomb begins to wobble alarmingly. As the poison hits home, the man collapses on to the woman, then slides to the floor. She lets out a muffled yelp.
This is the death scene from Romeo and Juliet, but not – hopefully – as you’ve previously experienced it. The actors at this rehearsal are the specialist clown troupe Spymonkey, being directed by maverick theatre-maker Tim Crouch. The show, called The Complete Deaths, aims to re-enact every onstage fatality in the Shakespearean canon: stabbings, smotherings, poisonings, bear attack, being turned into baked goods, the lot. If this scene is any clue, it will be the funniest piece of Shakespearean theatre since Mel Gibson played the Dane, except that here the laughs are intentional.
The majority of this year’s Shakespeare celebrations have minimised the fact that, technically, we’re marking four centuries since the playwright shuffled off this mortal coil. But for Crouch and Toby Park, Spymonkey’s managing artistic director, death is very much the point. The concept of The Complete Deaths is straightforward and aptly Shakespearean: we watch what is in effect a play within a play, with Spymonkey’s four members performing loose versions of themselves.
More...

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The rule of three (the second time, or two out of three)

 



A few days ago, I wrote about the Rule of three for writers. (The use of three characters or 

situations to enhance or balance a story…..The Three Pigs, the three (picky) bears in Goldie

 Locks etc.  

I like to think the writer Ray Bradbury hit it directly when he create Spock, Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy. 

Sock is almost devoid of any emotion. McCoy is made up of too much emotion which is why he and Spock can never get along. In the middle, we have Captain Kirk, the balance. He can show great passion (You won’t take my ship!) or a cold command (I’ve given you an order, Scotie)  

Here’s a better example with a life lesson tossed in.

Life is about balance. Be kind but don’t be a pushover. Trust others but don’t get conned. Be content but never stop improving yourself.

 

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