WRITERS - 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS & FILMMAKERS

PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS HIS OWN HAM-HANDED PLAY:
Storyline: The tragic tragedian is unable to transcend his unstable beginnings, and winds up the victim of his inability to write a satisfactory second act for himself.
Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams III) (1911-1983) - American playwright. Outer: Mother was the puritanical daughter of an Episcopal rector, filled with a sense of lost gentility, and was the domineering and overprotective force in her young son’s life, who retreated into himself as a sickly boy. Father was a violent and aggressive, heavy-drinking traveling salesman and legendary poker player, who called his son, “Miss Nancy.” 2nd child. Unhappy marriage twixt his parents, who were often openly hostile to one another. Extremely phobic as a child, with a great fear of going to sleep, totally mistrusting his unconscious. While he was housebound for 18 months from diphtheria and Bright’s disease, his mother would read to him from the classics. The singular bright spot from his childhood was an extended stay with his maternal grandparents at 8 when his mother became ill. Attended several schools, became interested in playwrighting and finally graduated from the Univ. of Iowa in his late 20s. His only romantic interest in a woman happened in college, which his father threatened to break up. Went to work for a shoe company, and was involved in little theater groups, but suffered a nervous breakdown in between writing all night and hefting shoe cartons all day. Had his first sexual encounter with a man at 28, and was nauseated by it, although soon was picking up two a night if he could, occasionally getting beaten up for his efforts. Changed his name to Tennessee while living in New Orleans, and went through years of grinding poverty before creating a string of well-received plays, beginning in 1944, a year after his sister was lobotomized. Continually his family for material, while fearing that the madness that had consumed his sister would do the same to him. Scored his first big success with his semi-autobiographical, The Glass Menagerie, and then won 2 Pulitzer Prizes in 1948 and 1955 for A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. After his initial creative spurt, and riches and fame, he descended into alcohol and pills and ill-health, becoming portly and seedy and eventually suffering a nervous breakdown in his late 50s, as he retranslated his life into an ongoing tragedy. A promiscuous homophile, he, nevertheless, harbored a continuous sense of self- abnegation about himself, finding little to love when he stared into his narcotized mirror. His later work was all poorly received, rehashing old themes in an increasingly eccentric style. Died by accidentally choking on the top of a pill bottle. Inner: Greatly divided character, between puritanism and hedonism, and spirit and flesh. Extremely self-destructive, with a doomed sense of success about himself. Saw creativity as a self-immolating fire, to which he was drawn in most mothlike fashion, exploring themes of loneliness, desperation, pain and death through the burden of his heart. At the same time, also felt it counterbalanced his overweening darkness within. Strong poetic sensibilities and a great love of language. Preferred writing in altered states, before permanently altering his own creative state. Burnt moth lifetime of ultimately frittering away a major talent, after an extraordinary early run, through his failure to integrate his deeply emotional soul with his penetrating theatrical intellect. Alexandre Dumas (fils) (1824-1895) - French novelist and playwright. Outer: Illegitimate son of well-known writer Alexandre Dumas (Charlie Chaplin). Mother was an uneducated dressmaker with whom his flamboyant father lived for about 4 years. Although his sire contributed to family support, he rarely saw him. Adored his mother, but resented his father’s abandonment of family. His progenitor officially recognized him when he was 7 and took the reluctant boy from his mother, despite her legal attempts at keeping him. Sent to boarding school by the court, where he was ostracized and ridiculed by the sons of the rich. Became extremely melancholy as well as suspicious of those around him, which was a lifelong internal theme of his. Learned to love his father, who was his exact opposite in nature. Left school at 17, had an affair with a married woman and began to pile up debts. Tall, handsome and elegant, he frequented fashionable centers and entered an obsessive relationship with Marie Duplessis (Jean Seberg) a consumptive young woman who died a year later. Rewrote the dynamic of his inability to maintain her, and it became the inspiration for his best remembered work, La Dame aux Camellias, which enjoyed a huge success as a play before he reached 30, after first taking novel form. Paid off his debts and installed his mother in far better living quarters. Wrote 5 more successful plays, and had a liaison with a married Russian princess, Nadejda Naryschkine, but her husband refused to divorce her. Had a daughter from this union, and finally married the princess 11 years later. Had a daughter from this union, and finally married the princess 11 years later. His later plays were far less successful, causing depression and ill health. A second daughter was born, and 7 years later, he was elected to the French Academy, an honor that had been denied his father. Although in comfortable circumstances, his creative gifts had largely left him, and he concentrated on writing moral pamphlets on the social and political issues of the day. Became obsessed in particular about prostitution, suggesting all mattressbacks be deported to the colonies, and all unmarried women taught a trade so as to save them from the streets. Hurt by critics who said his father had genius, but he only had talent. Had successes with two more comedies of manners, but wrote nothing of worth afterwards. Awarded the Legion d'Honneur when he was seventy, and his wife died the following year. Married a divorcee a few months later and then passed on of an embolism shortly afterwards, following a case of meningitis. Inner: Highly obsessive with an acid wit, although subject to poor health and fits of depression and self-pity. Unintegrated lifetime of carrying the weight of an irregular childhood throughout his life and suffering mightily for it, despite the sops of wealth, honor, prestige and power to counterbalance it. Claude Crebillon (1707-1777) - French novelist and playwright. Outer: Son of playwright Prosper Crebillon and an apothecary’s daughter whom his father married in haste two weeks before his birth. Extremely close with his sire his entire life. His friends paid his tuition at a Jesuit school in Paris, and he showed precocious literary talents, which intrigued the Jesuit fathers, but he wished for a public career of letters. Wrote for the Comedie Francais and then an Italian troupe, penning numerous works in quick succession in their mode, often witty but usually superficial. Lived in semi-squalor with his father, surrounded by animals. Sent to prison because of the satiric portraits in his first successful novel, assuring him notoriety and popularity. Co-founded a dinner group of wits that lasted for fifteen years, while dividing his time between society women and social groups of literati. Considered a leader in the satiric traditions of the day. In his early 40s, he married Henrietta Stafford, his longtime mistress, then both she and their son died. Became a royal literary censor through the connections of Mme de Pompadour (Raisa Gorbachev) in 1750, and after the death of his father in his mid-50s, little is known of the rest of his life, as he probably sank into reclusive depression and profound melancholia. Wrote numerous short stories, often of an erotic nature in a stilted artificial style about the perversities of the upper class. Also excelled at limning women in high society and libertine love. Inner: Caustically witty sensualist, libertine and literary leader. Bonding lifetime of close familial association, coupled with a free license to engage in both licentiousness and the literary limning of it, before sinking into his usual sad final act. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) - English playwright. Outer: Son of a shoemaker, who was literate, a rarity of the time, as well as litigious and debt-ridden. Early education was through scholarships, and he ultimately got a degree from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was a scholarship student, and given a strong sense of social inequities, thanks to his lowly status among the children of the well-to-do. Continued to reside there, but only after the Privy Council interceded for him in pursuit of his M.A. degree, claiming he had taken a secret mission abroad. Probably intended to take holy orders, but his frequent absences, thwarted any further degrees. Went to London in his early 20s, and began writing for the theater, becoming, in the process, the first great Elizabethan dramatist. Briefly imprisoned for sword-fighting, he learned about counterfeiting coins, which led to another arrest in the Netherlands, and a prompt escort back to London and to serve another brief term in prison. Frequenter of literary and low society, he often got into fights, carrying a rapier, with which he was quick on the draw. Contrarian to the core, with a bleak, negative view of the world around him. Respected by his contemporaries for his literary abilities, which were considerable both as a poet and playwright. Room/mate of Thomas Kyd (Arthur Miller), who said the blasphemous, atheistic material found in their lodgings was his flatmate’s. Orders were subsequently issued for his arrest by the Privy Council, but he was fatally stabbed through the eye shortly afterwards, in what was officially heralded as a bar room brawl over a tavern bill, although he probably was the victim of political intrigue, since the queen, Elizabeth I (Mae West), gave his assassin a swift pardon afterwards. Left 6 known plays, including his best known work, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, a reworking of the Germanic Faust legend. Well-respected for his literary gifts during his brief run. Inner: Violent and disreputable, with a wonderful sense of theater about himself. Rebellious, sardonic, hot-tempered, all-around bad boy. Probably a homophile, although much of him was hidden. In-your-face lifetime of giving uninhibited vent to his own outrageousness both on stage and off, before succumbing to the first in a long series of unhappy final acts. Aristophanes (c450-388BZ) - Greek playwright. Outer: Little known of his life. His parents were property-owning Athenians, and he began his career quite young, probably in his early 20s. Married and had 3 sons, all of whom became comic poets. The only writer of classic Old Greek Comedy whose works, some 40 of which, have survived. Probably penned celebrations for the mad lustful god, Dionysus, showing a gleeful lack of restraint in his early period, and somewhat more caution as he grew older. Wrote on topical subjects and used real types in absurd situations to underline his own sense of glorification of the past and excoriation of the present. Highly inventive, with a gift for satire and a brilliant sense of language. Best remembered for The Birds, The Frogs, and Lysistrata. Inner: Highly conservative, competitive and judgmental, despite his many gifts, with far more of an emotional lilt to his musings, than cold rationality. Excellent parodist and pan spirit, with a soaring sense of theatricality, as well as a distinct lyrical gift. Privileged lifetime of being given free creative license to lampoon whoever and whatever he wished, while becoming a theatrical immortal of the ages, before embarking on far more conflicted go-rounds in the millennia to come.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS SERIOUS MORALIST:
Storyline: The unrelenting realist serves as a voice of social justice, while rising from rags to richly wrought dramas, and world renown, despite a delimiting black’n’white view of things.
Arthur Miller (1915-2005) - American playwright. Outer: Second son and the middle of 3 children of a prosperous immigrant Austrian Jewish clothing manufacturer, who could barely read. Mother was a writer. Had a comfortable middle-class childhood, although his sire’s women’s coat business failed during the Depression, financially devastating the family. Electrified as a teenager by a production of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, little realizing he was plugging back into an earlier self of his. Later called the American Ibsen, as a further affirmation of the connection. Worked in an auto-parts warehouse for two years for tuition for the Univ. of Michigan to study journalism, despite low grades in high school. During the 1930s, he was interested in Marxism, and attended meetings, but didn’t like the doctrines. Won an award for his first play, Honors at Dawn, graduated in 1938, and married Mary Slattery two years later, son and a daughter from the union, with the former, Robert, becoming a producer. Worked a variety of jobs, including mouse attendant in a laboratory, while doing radio dramas and writing a novel. Almost gave up playwrighting before he had his first critical success with All My Sons in 1947, although was made so uneasy by its acceptance that he signed up for manual labor afterwards. His masterwork was the Pulitzer Prize winning tragedy of a small man’s sad end, Death of a Salesman, in 1949, which he later directed in various theaters around the world, including Stockholm and Beijing. At century’s end, it went on to enjoy a 50th anniversary reprise. Composed several more theatrical classics, although his later plays were less well-received, due to changing audience tastes, despite his five decade run as a major American theatrical voice. Wrote The Crucible, in 1953 about the Salem witch trials in response to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and was soon denied his passport by the same group. Called before them in 1956, he was cited for contempt of Congress, which was reversed on appeal. Divorced the same year, he married actress Marilyn Monroe, amidst much public tumult over their Owl and Pussycat polarities, and wound up leaving her in 1961, during the shooting of her last movie, The Misfits, which he also wrote. Penned After the Fall, one of his worst-received works, afterwards about their mismatch. Had a lasting relationship with his third wife, Austrian photographer Ingeborg Morath, whom he married in 1962. A well-loved daughter from the union, Rebecca, married actor Daniel Day-Lewis, and became a filmmaker. The pair had another son, as well, Daniel, who suffered from Down syndrome, and was institutionalized at birth, and never acknowledged or even visited by his father, in a curious and profound act of denial by someone whose life and career were built on social empathy and a willingness to look in everyone else’s dark corners. Morath, however, maintained a lifelong contact with her son. Wrote several travel books with his wife, and was actively involved in the 1960s anti-war movement, with a continuous interest and involvement in world affairs. Always intent on limning his own special moral vision, as well as evincing a strong need to “mix with those at the bottom,” despite his 350 acre Connecticut estate. Morath died of lymphoma in 2002. Managed to ensnare a 33 year old girlfriend afterwards, while his attitude towards his son over his last decade melted a bit, particularly in the light of Daniel putting together a cohesive life for himself against all odds. Continued writing and producing pieces into his 8th decade, with his sense of moral vision undimmed, although by then he thoroughly deplored the state of the American theater. Died of congestive heart failure at home, surrounded by family and friends, and just beforehand, included his long-denied son in a will dividing his estate equally among his four children. Inner: Highly moral and moralistic, with a tendency to see things in starkly contrasting terms, and an eagle-like intensity. Always had an extremely serious view of the theater, and yet lived long enough to see its demise as an important venue of ideas. An accomplished carpenter, loved to build things. Master of situational drama, continuing in his own Ibsen tradition. Saw the Depression as his defining his/storical event, but despite his psychological insights, dealt poorly with his own emotions. Weighty lifetime of giving articulate voice to his own ideals through his longtime association with the medium that continually suits his vision best, while dealing well with fame, acclaim, and the desire to make a profound difference through his pen, despite being far less effective with his own personal dramas. Henrik Ibsen (1838-1906) - Norwegian playwright. Outer: Father was a merchant, mother was from a distinguished German family, and was an avid painter, as well as a . Oldest of five children. When he was 8, his sire suffered severe business reversals and the family had to move to a ramshackle farmhouse, where they were shunned by former friends. His progenitor descended into tyranny, his mother into melancholia, and he had an unhappy and lonely childhood, retreating into a little play theater he had created. At 15, he was removed from school, and the following year left home. Had no more contact with his family, save through letters much later on in life. Spent 5 years as an apprentice apothecary, writing his first play during this period, while failing to pass his university entrance exams, ruining his hoped-for chance of becoming a doctor. In 1846, he fathered an illegitimate child with a servant maid, whom he rejected. Moved to Oslo, called Christiana then, and continued his schooling, but saw his true vocation was the theater, and divided his time between Bergen and Copenhagen, the two theater centers of Scandinavia. Met his future wife at a literary gathering when he was in his mid-20s, married Suzannah Thoresen, in what would be a largely joyless union, which produced one son, Sigurd, who became prime minister of Norway. Continued to remain in dire financial straits, with his work ill-received. Moved back to Oslo and became director of the Norwegian theater, which went bankrupt 5 years later. After several more frustrating years, he moved with his family to Rome in his mid-30s, which stimulated him greatly, and produced his first success, the poem Brand, which finally ended his cycle of poverty and neglect. His next work was Peer Gynt, based on a Norwegian folk-tale, which was little understood, giving him the impetus to turn to realistic social dramas, in which his lasting fame would reside. Moved to Germany to escape the French invasion of Italy in 1868, returning a decade later, now a well-known playwright. Completed one of his masterworks, A Doll’s House, the following year, about a woman who refuses to obey her husband and walks out on her perfect doll house marriage, which brought him universal acclaim. Over the next decade each of his plays were greeted with furor, controversy and scandalous success, as he continued to explore themes of social emancipation and the struggle between idealism and human limitations, with a particular ability to limn the inner life of women against their outer constraints. After being lionized in Scandinavia, he decided to return to his homeland following a quarter-century absence. Came back in 1891, by this time white-bearded and severe, with his every word quoted in print. His last set of plays dealt with protagonists looking over their lives with remorse and regret, perhaps in testimony to himself. Suffered aphasia and mental decline brought about by an apoplectic stroke and was accorded a state funeral at his death. Viewed, along with August Strindberg (Ingmar Bergen) as one of the two giants of Scandinavian drama. Inner: Melancholic, uncompromising, intellectually rebellious. Ponderous lifetime of dramatizing the restrictions of tradition, after directly experiencing them himself in a life built around themes of rejection and turning unhappiness into art, while once again rising from a childhood built on insecure foundations. Denis Fonvizin (1744-1792) - Russian playwright. Outer: Descendant of a Livonian knight, he was raised in Moscow, and attended the university there. Had a wide range of interests, although his literary ambitions ultimately prevailed. Entered government service in 1762 and fell in with the freethinkers of the city, before gaining employ 7 years later as secretary to one of the most liberal politicians of the time, and becoming his close friend and confidant. Wrote satiric sketches about the autocratic courtiers, and helped his mentor pen a constitutionalist manifesto which raised the ire of the Empress, Catherine the Great (Indira Gandhi). Withdrew from government service on the death of his employer and traveled abroad in his late 30s. Although he wrote political broadsides and satiric poems, his fame as a writer rests on two comedies in prose, which were written in the French tradition of sentimental dramaturgy and are considered precursors of Russian realism, particularly in his use of accurate dialogue and his ability to create common characters. The humor behind his work was derisive and filled with moral outrage and revulsion. Visited France several times, before finally returning to Russia. Suffered a paralytic stroke that deprived him of use of his tongue, and was reduced to a helpless invalid, although continued working on his autobiography, which was filled with Christian repentance, a popular mode of self-analysis at the time. Inner: Sardonic and highly moralistic master of literary language, whose inner outrage finally undid him. His symbolic muted end-life was a personalization of his predicament as a powerless voice in a corrupt age. Indignant and frustrating lifetime of venturing into the realm of comedy, however bitter and lacerating, after so many existences of seriously exploring the moral side of humanity through the innate tragedy of the human condition. Jean de La Bruyere (1645-1696) - French moralist. Outer: From a family of the lesser bourgeoisie. Father was a comptroller. Received a humanistic education and studied law in Orleans. Licensed in 1665, and although admitted as a lawyer to the Parliament, he never practiced. When his uncle and godfather died, he received a legacy and was able, in 1673, to buy the post of Treasurer of France and General of Finance of Caen, although he continued to reside in Paris. The following year he became tutor to his sister’s daughters, while leading a largely reclusive existence, reading and thinking. Eventually sold his office in 1686, without ever living in Caen. Two years beforehand, he got a position with the royal Conde family, through his close friend Jacques Bossuet, and worked as a tutor to them, which gave him access to the court. Thanks to his ungainly figure, and middle-class origins, he was the subject of much ridicule, which probably fed into his countervailing trenchant observations and critiques of his tormentors. In 1688, he published The Characters of Theophrastus, which was well-received and made him famous, but because of personal allusions in it, his election to the French Academy was held up until 1693. Great stylist, with an excellent facility for pithily expressing himself, although was unoriginal in his ideas. An active participant in the Parisian literary scene, he eventually withdrew to Chantilly in semi-retirement, while still busying himself in the theological disputes of the day. Died of apoplexy. Inner: Great independence of mind, with a deep respect for tradition. Well-informed, generous, honorable, morose and prideful, with a biting satiric tongue. Unlucky in love, but well-liked and respected by his fellow literateurs. A disillusioned moralist, he was deeply offended by the abuses of the institutions of his time. Believer in goodness and heroism. Highly moral lifetime of having access to the highest circles of French society, and despite their mockery of him, gave far more than he received through his own well-wrought observations. Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) - English playwright. Outer: Son of a scrivener, educated in London, and probably worked for some time at his father’s profession. More than likely in the service of a noble, when he began writing for the theater. Wrote the first revenge tragedy, The Spanish Tragedie, which was published anonymously in 1592, and proved an enduring work on the Elizabethan stage. Other works attributed to him are questionable, including a pre-Shakespearean rendition of Hamlet. Shared lodgings with Christopher Marlowe (Tennessee Williams), and was arrested, and then tortured for treasonable activity, for professing atheism, because of literature found in their rooms. Stated it was Marlowe’s, who was killed just before he was to be arrested. Died in poverty the next year. Inner: Largely hidden character, both his works and life are filled with probabilities and possibilities. Victimized lifetime of acting the turncoat, which probably inspired him in his Miller life to stand up to similar governmental oppression, and pass heavy judgement on those who did not, including his secret past self. Sophocles (c496-406BZ) - Greek playwright. Outer: Son of a wealthy armour manufacturer, who gave him the best education possible. Handsome, musically inclined and athletic. Chosen for his dancing skills at 16 to lead a celebratory chorus. Defeated his older rival Aeschylus (Ingmar Bergman) in a drama festival, and went on to a remarkable career, producing 123 dramas. Had one son through marriage, and one via a concubine. Never finished lower than second in any drama festival he entered. Innovative in his structures, while evincing dramatic irony and a mastery over dialogue. Created projected ideals in his characters, using traditional myths as the basis for his works. City treasurer, and twice a commander. Always active in Athenian affairs, and always appreciated for his dual skills as dramatist and influential citizen. Inner: Gracious, well-loved, a picture of intellectual and athletic perfection. Honored lifetime of drawing all his skills together in one package for a ninety year run of uninterrupted praise and glory. Probably broke himself down and divided his considerable skills in future lives in order to explore the darker sides of himself so as to be a chronicler of the equally tragic weaknesses of society-at-large.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS REDOUBTABLE THOMAS:
Storyline: The prodigiously prolific prodigal finally gets it together after many a flame-out as a doubting ‘Thomas’ of his own abilities to survive as an artist.
Sam Shepard (Samuel Shepard Rogers VII) (1943) - American playwright and actor. Outer: Father was a pilot during WW II, and he was raised on various military bases until his family eventually settled in California, where he grew up on an avocado ranch on the edge of the Mojave desert. 2 sisters. His sire never could find his place in peacetime, despite being a teacher and Fulbright scholar, thanks to an excessive taste for the grape, and a violent temperament. Would often disappear for long periods, then suddenly return, and his son later would base numerous characters on aspects of him. Had a physical upbringing, working with horses, and was also an orange-picker and sheep-shearer. 6’1 1/2”. Studied agricultural science for a year, then became a touring actor. Moved to New York, where he waited tables while working off-off Broadway, doing experimental theater and polishing his craft as a playwright. Continually explored the face of myth and how it meets reality in his work. Lived with punk rocker Patti Smith, while establishing himself as an extremely prolific award-winning playwright, until grants in the late 1960s gave him the freedom to write fulltime. Eventually won a Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child in 1979. Lived in England for four years in the early 1970s, then settled in California, where he became playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. In 1969, he married actress O-Lan Jones, one child from union, duo divorced in 1984. His later career saw him as actor, and occasional screenwriter for films, developing into a leading man by the 1980s with his lanky good looks and ability to project a pleasing masculinity. Took up with actress Jessica Lange in 1982 after working with her in Frances, two children from close union, although duo never married. An avid polo player and horseman, he eventually settled on a farm in his wife’s homestate, Minnesota, before eventually moving to Kentucky, while continuing his own easy ride into a far more integrated version of himself than recent lives past. Has gradually begun to address the present in his works, thanks to the 21st century America’s flair for the dramatic, and voted in a presidential election in 2004, for the very first time. Inner: Virile, softspoken and social with an excellent sense of myth-making and the dramatic. Apolitical, taciturn about himself, albeit open about his writing. Right combination lifetime of finally working through his inner belief system that only a suffering artist can produce lasting works. Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) - American writer. Outer: Youngest of 8 children of a stonecutter. Parents were opposites, father was grandiose, sensuous and given to drink, as well as being a prodigious reader. Mother, his 3rd wife, was flinty, acquisitive and repressed. Eventually used both polar parents as characters in his works. His mother acquired a boardinghouse when he was 5, which he richly resented, although it became a literal and figurative landmark in his works, and ultimately burned the day Modern Library announced its list of the top 100 novels of the century, excluding his own oeuvre. Nearly 6’5”, with prodigious appetites as well. Usually disheveled, with a rich North Carolina accent. Always wanted to be a writer. Privately educated, he then attended the Univ. of North Carolina, where he both wrote and acted in several one act plays, while editing the school newspaper. Enrolled at Harvard for postgraduate work, to take advantage of a workshop and pursue a career as a playwright, then taught at NYU, making NYC his base, while beginning his masterwork Look Howard, Angel, with the character of Eugene Gant as his autobiographical alter ego. Traveled to Europe, and on returning in 1925, met Aline Bernstein, a rich, beautiful theatrical designer, who was also married and who later appear as a character in his novels. She helped him realize the printed page was his medium, not the theater, when he joined her in England the following year. Giving him both encouragement and financial support, and a place in which to both work and write, he completed a 1000 page manuscript of Angel in 1928. After judicious editing, which pared it down by a 1/3, the book was published the following year, causing a furor in his hometown. With an advance and a grant, he was able to gave up teaching, and returned to Europe, with AB threatening suicide in her pursuit of him via cables and letters. Returned and isolated himself in Brooklyn, and nearly drove himself mad with an attempt at repeating his first success. His second book, another enormous manuscript, was re-edited as Time and the River. Lionized, and made into cult figure, while AB threatened him with legal action. Sued for libel in 1936, which was settled out of court, before handing in an eight-foot high pile of manuscript which became two novels. Fell ill with pneumonia, that induced tuberculosis of the lungs, which, in turn, led to fatal TB of the brain. Died after an operation. Inner: Highly ambitious, with a burning desire to be read and adulated, but totally undisciplined. Inability to deal with criticism, difficulty with relationships, intensely loyal to his family. Had a prodigious appetite for experience, while showing excess in both his inner and outer life, with his voluminous works and addiction to adjectives always in need of editing down. Excessive lifetime of acting out the grandiose visionary who wanted to capture the world on paper, and didn’t care how many pages it took him to do so. Thomas Beddoes (1803-1849) - English poet. Outer: Father was a distinguished surgeon and physicist, who died when his son was 3. His mother, who was the youngest sister of writer Marie Edgeworth, died the following year. Obsessed with death his entire life. Probably influenced by his father’s dissections and ruminations on the soul. Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he enjoyed an eccentric reputation, and wrote a story based on a murder committed by an undergraduate, as well as several other works, including 3 Gothic tales that he tried to suppress. Made his first suicide attempt in his mid-20s. Went to Germany to study medicine and anatomy, and also read German literature. Spent considerable energy on Death’s Jest-Book, a revenge drama in both verse and prose that touched on several cultural traditions, but he was unable to finish it because of criticisms by friends and his own considerable obsessions. Earned an MD from the Univ. of Wurzberg in 1831, but got in trouble with university officials in Germany as an agitator, and moved to another city where he became involved in radical politics. Deported from Germany, he went to Switzerland, which he also fled for political reasons, and wandered after that, never settling long in one place. Opened an artery in his leg and was hospitalized, later took poison and committed suicide. Inner: Obsessive, haunted, absolutely possessed by a death-drive. Humble, reticent, thought himself unlikable. Always the eccentric outsider. Morbid lifetime of living out his death obsession and taking it to its obvious conclusion. Thomas Otway (1652-1685) - English dramatist and poet. Outer: Son of a clergyman. Attended Christ Church, Oxford, but left without a degree, in order to try to make a living as an actor and poet. Acted in one play, but was so overcome with stage fright, he never appeared before the lights again. Entranced by actress Elizabeth Barry (Ingrid Bergman), who was in an unsuccessful play of his, but she remained uninterested in him. Obsessed with her his whole life. his subsequent plays proved more successful, despite being largely sentimental drama that avoided the usual heroics of the age. Still suffering financial embarrassment, he volunteered for an English regiment serving in the Netherlands in 1678, then returned to London a year later to continue his stage career. Challenged the future Duke of Marlborough (JFK) to a duel for abusing a woman, and defeated him. Wrote several more works for Elizabeth Barry, and died destitute in his early 30s in an alehouse, despite his stage successes. Inner: Psychologically acute, except where his own self was concerned. Inability to integrate his artistic interior with his less attractive exterior. Self-defeating lifetime of pursuing his ongoing obsession with the artist as suffering and rejected wretch, despite successes to the contrary.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS HIGHLY POLITICIZED HEALER:
Storyline: The wounded doctor turned revolutionary ultimately heals himself through his own considerable artistic sensibilities and self-acceptance.
Tony Kushner (1956) - American playwright. Outer: Parents were both Jewish classical musicians who moved from NYC to Lake Charles, Louisiana after his birth. Mother was a bassoonist who recorded with Igor Stravinsky, and was also a gifted amateur actress, as well as a voluble speaker, who passed down a similar love of language to her son. Father was a clarinetist and conductor. Encouraged, along with his siblings, to explore literature and the arts, he fell in love with the theater while watching his mother perform in local productions. Knew he was a homophile from the age of 6 onwards, although initially struggled against it. Champion high school debater. Kept his sexuality a secret throughout his youth and education at Columbia Univ. in NYC, where he studied literature, and toyed with being a nurse or lawyer, before settling on his natural metier. Went to a psychotherapist who wisely told him psychotherapy would not change his sexual orientation, and was able to reconcile his predilections, and then proudly claim himself for who he really was. 5’11”. Sported an ample girth when he was younger, probably as self-protection, later able to shed it. His early works did not touch upon sexual themes, while his first play explored pre-Nazi Germany, in an unconscious tapping into his previous life in this series. His first success was in 1988, with an adaptation of Pierre Corneille (Saul Bellow), then he established himself as a major playwright with the three-part, Angels of America, a look at sexual and social mores during the AIDS plague of the mid-1980s, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Did some adaptations and short pieces afterwards, as well as several aborted projects while becoming a prolific essayist, before tackling his next big piece. Struggled with being a public figure, before becoming more comfortable with the role, and has been able to support himself comfortably through his endeavors, as well, no mean feat for a contemporary political playwright. Wrote Homebody/Kabul, a drama on Afghanistan, before the 2001 bombing of the World Trade Center in NYC, showing himself to be eerily prescient, as it opened in the wake of the tragedy, and followed that with Caroline, or Change, tackling the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. Brilliant dramatist with an innate feel for the stage, which he sees as a forum for ideas and ideals, rather than a vehicle for entertainment. Performed a commitment ceremony of marriage with an editor for Entertainment Weekly magazine, Mark Harris, in 2003, while continuing as one of the most vigorous voices of his generation upon the stage. In 2008, he became the inaugural recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, a $200,000 prize that would be one of the largest ever given in the name of the arts.Inner: Harbors a strong desire for dramatic integrity, with the ability to present ideas in a very palpable human form. Compulsive reviser, and self-admitted highly political playwright, seeing art and politics as inter-twinable. Very attuned to time epochs in his work, where the tide of his/story dictates story and character. Claims to work best when panicking behind missed deadlines. Rapid talker, exuding anxiety, with a strong sense of empathy for the disenfranchised. Intense, impassioned, and voluminous in his speech. Healing lifetime of focusing his powerful theatrical sensibilities on his same-sex identity, while using his art to further integrate himself, after earlier playing a similar role of societal Other, and winding up disintegrating around it. Ernst Toller (1893-1939) - German playwright and poet. Outer: Of Jewish descent. One of three children, with a sister and brother. Father was a successful wholesale grain merchant, who died when his son was 16. Sent to boarding school at 12, which he felt was anti-Semitic, overmilitarized and underinspiring, although he remained imbued with a martial Prussian sensibility. Wrote poetry and wandered through Denmark and France, where he studied at the Univ. of Grenoble, then just barely got out of the country in 1914. Patriotically enlisted in the German army at the outbreak of WW I, but once again felt persecuted as a Jew, and asked to be sent to the front. Horrified at what he saw there, he suffered a breakdown and was invalided out after 13 months, as unfit for active service, while losing all his earlier gory patriotic fervor. Enrolled at Heidelberg Univ., and picked up his pen again, although now saw it in service of his larger political views rather than an instrument of pure art for art’s sake. As a socialist and pacifist he organized a student peace group, then fled to Munich to avoid arrest. Along with Kurt Eisner, he helped organize a strike of munitions workers, and was thrown in jail for his efforts, then released in May of 1918 and ordered back into the German army, where he was once more diagnosed as unfit for service and discharged. Became a confirmed communist, while engaging in and supporting revolutionary activity, and following Eisner’s assassination was elected first president of the Central Ruling Committee of the short-lived Bavarian Socialist Republic, which fell in 1919. Thought he’d be sentenced to death at his subsequent trial for treason, although his celebrated friends, the philosopher Max Weber and the writer Thomas Mann, gave evidence to his honorable character, and he wound up receiving 5 years. While incarcerated he wrote both poetry and plays which were performed all over Germany, insuring his reputation by the time of his release in 1924. Earlier he had refused a pardon, following the success of “Transformation,” in order to remain in solidarity with his fellow prisoners. Moved to Berlin, then traveled to the USSR and gave a lecture tour in the US, although he was detained at Ellis Island until fellow writers intervened. Remained in Munich until the Nazis came to power, and they subsequently confiscated his property and exiled him in 1933, after incarcerating him in a concentration camp and forcing him to literally eat one of his novels. Ultimately wound up in NYC, after living in London, where he penned his autobiography, “I Was A German.” Lectured widely in Europe and the U.S. and wrote plays of social protest. Given a contract by MGM to write film scripts, he soon found they were uninterested in his political propaganda, and so badly mangled his one filmed effort, he disowned it, while criticizing Hollywood for its maudlin meaningless. Unhappily married an actress a quarter century his junior, when he was in his early 40s, and the duo separated four years later. A stranger in a strange land, he became more and more despairing over the successful spread of fascism, while sinking into poverty and disconnection. After learning both his siblings had been sent to concentration camps, he ultimately hanged himself in his hotel bathroom, in an unconscious statement of despair around communication (the squeezed throat) and survival. Inner: Passionate, uncompromising, and self-dooming. Had burning eyes, and the soul of a rebel, allowing himself to give unstintingly to revolutionary causes. Blazing inkwells lifetime of testing whether a total identification with causes as a communicatory spur, would be too all-consuming to ultimately bear. Georg Buchner (1813-1837) - German playwright. Outer: Father was an army doctor, mother was the daughter of a Hessian official. Family was imbued with French revolutionary ideals,and he was later sent to study medicine in Strasbourg, a place of liberal refuge, where his sire hoped he could gain familiarity with French customs. Engaged to the daughter of a preacher in whose house he stayed. Two years later, he entered the Univ of Giessen, and became involved in underground political activity, organizing a secret society against the repressive Hessian government. Wrote a brilliant pamphlet to arouse the peasants and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Escaped and secretly spent time at his parents’ home reading philosophy and his/story. Wrote his first drama, based on the French Revolution and then fled to Strasbourg to continue his studies, turning from medicine to biology. Maneuvered to gain a teaching position at the Univ. of Zurich, and was awarded his degree in absentia, before being allowed to go to Switzerland. Proved to be an outstanding lecturer, with a vivid ability to demonstrate his subject of anatomical dissection. Despite the promise of a brilliant career, and marriage to his betrothed, Minna Jaegle, he died months later of typhus at the age of 23. His literary works did not surface until after his death, including his masterpiece, Wozzeck, a powerful anti-war drama, which was put together from barely legible scraps of paper. Inner: Efficient, incisive, rebellious, idealistic. Flickering candle lifetime of family-encouraged rebellion, terminated, perhaps, because of the promise of a conventional life and career after an exciting and creatively-productive storm and stress youth. Friederich Schiller (Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller) (1759-1805) - German playwright and poet. Outer: Son of a kindly barber and surgeon, who became an army captain and finally the overseer of a royal ducal estate. Mother was an innkeeper’s daughter who was poetic and cheerful, and both parents were deeply religious. Wished to be a clergyman, but the family’s ducal lord insisted he enter military school. Studied law there, then medicine, chaffing under the restrictions placed on him, while pursuing his own interests in literature. Began practice as a regimental physician, which he also hated, before producing his first drama in his early 20s, an attack on political tyranny which received a wildly enthusiastic reception but outraged the duke. After being prohibited by him to write anything other than medical treatises, he deserted the army in disguise in 1782 and suffered great deprivation before an earlier baronial patron made him official dramatist of Mannheim. Fell madly in love with the wife of a French officer, and turned his passion into Don Carlos, his first great classical play, establishing his literary pattern of drama of the nobility of the spirit set against political and his/storical backgrounds. After failing to get his contract renewed, he turned to journalism, but was continually beset by financial worries. Gained support from an admirer, and after developing a profound interest in his/storical inevitability, he was made a professor in Jena at age 30 through the help of polymath Johann Goethe (Thomas Mann). Financially secure at last, he happily married Charlotte von Lengenefeld, a gifted writer, but within a year fell seriously ill with pneumonia and spent the rest of his life struggling against chronic ill health. Unable to teach, he received a 3 year pension, and continued his academic explorations, imbuing his philosophic musings with a deft lyrical grace. Moved to Weimar at 40, and worked in tandem with Goethe in conjunction with the theater there, producing his finest work at the rate of a play a year until his death at 45. Second only to Goethe in his effect on subsequent German literature, and one of the most beloved of all German poets and playwrights. Inner: Noble idealist with high ethical standards, but betrayed by a body badly in need of healing, which was symbolic, perhaps, of his society-at-large. Wished to see art supersede religion, with beautiful souls as the ultimate expression of his humanistic views. Principled lifetime of rebelling against a surrogate militaristic father, after a supportive childhood, in order to express his own mature voice without fear of reprisal, only to be ultimately undone by his own unhealed forces from within. Aeschylus (c525-c456BZ) - Greek playwright. Outer: Of noble heritage, father was a tragic poet. Fought against the Persians, and was wounded at Marathon, where his brother expired heroically. Also involved in the ongoing struggle a decade later at Salamis. Began his career as dramatist in his early 30s, often taking leading roles in his plays, as was the custom of the time. In addition, he produced and designed his own works, recreating Grecian tragedy into an engrossing verbal and visual spectacle. Won competitions as a dramatist, and was singularly responsible for raising Greek tragedy to fully developed drama, with dialogue and action rather than stiff recitation, becoming the most popular tragedian of his day. Wrote some 90 plays, of which seven survive. Legend had it, he was killed when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head, which symbolized his high arcing vision caught in a restricted body that did not match his inner vision, a continual theme of his. Inner: Master of the stage, bringing all his resource to giving Western civilization a basis for its theatrical traditions. Celebrator of rationality, highly conscious of the extremes of civilization. Invested all his works with great moral and religious significance. Visionary lifetime of virtually inventing active drama, and with it, his own unique role in its evolution as both a powerful voice and the political embodiment of the ongoing theater of his times.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS SOMBER SCRIBE OF MISERY:
Storyline: The sad sailor is battered about on his own turbulent inner seas, looking for a lifeboat that will save him for himself.
Eugene O’Neill (Eugene Gladstone O’Neill) (1888-1953) - American playwright. Outer: Third son of actor James O’Neill (Jason Robards), whom he used to accompany on tours as a child. Born in a hotel room. His father blew his career on repeated portrayals of The Count of Monte Cristo, and disintegrated into alcoholism. His older brother also became an alcoholic, as well as a failed father, actor and husband. Mother was the daughter of a successful businessman, but became a morphine addict after the death of her second child from measles, and did not want a third child. Grew up in a profoundly unhappy, dysfunctional household, with diametrically opposed parents, a materialistic father and a mystical mother. Abandoned the Roman Catholicism of his upbringing at 14 when he realized the latter was an addict. Went to boarding schools, then Princeton for a drunken year, but threw a rock through a stationmaster’s window, ending his stay there. At 20, he secretly married Kathleen Jenkins, who he had impregnated but did not love. The same named son from the union, a noted Greek scholar, committed suicide three years before his father’s demise. Immediately left for the Honduran goldfields, where he became ill, and was shipped home. Worked for a while as an assistant stage manager, then shipped out and adventured extensively, gaining firsthand knowledge of waterfront dives, which would figure in several of his succeeding works. His marriage ended three years later. Sympathetic to the radical, anarchical ideas of the pre-WW I era, he began writing satiric political poetry. Worked as reporter for the New London Telegraph, then in 1912, at 24, he made a half-hearted attempt at suicide by swallowing Veronal, a barbiturate. Later that year, he contracted tuberculosis and went into a sanitarium, but recovered and decided he was destined to live. Following his discharge, he became interested in writing for the stage. Took a course in playwrighting at Harvard and after living in NYC for a year, he moved to Provincetown, Mass, to join a recently organized little theater group, the Provincetown Players, who performed one of his one-act plays that year, which was later successfully produced in NYC. Won three Pulitzer Prizes during the 1920s, in 1920 for Beyond the Horizon, in 1922 for Anna Christie, and in 1928 for Strange Interlude, and became America’s foremost tragedian, exploring the disintegration of the family unit, a favorite theme of his. At 30, he married Agnes Bolton, a short-story writer, two children from union, whom he later disowned. His dissolute son was another suicide, and daughter Oona married Charlie Chaplin, her father’s contemporary, at the age of 18, much to his outrage, and he never spoke to her again. Left his wife at 40, and made his final marriage to Carlotta Monterey, an actress, who appeared in his The Hairy Ape. In his early 40s at the time, she would be part-mother, part-secretary and total protecter of him, jealousy guarding him against the outside world. In the mid-1930s, he won a Nobel Prize, the second American to do so, and the only dramatist ever to win the award. From then until after WW II he lived in California, but withheld all his writings from production or publication. Returned to Broadway following the war and the year afterwards, was stricken with Parkinson’s disease, a sign of profound rigidity, making it physically impossible for him to write. Died in a hotel room, and lamented, “Born in a hotel room and, goddamn it, died in a hotel room,” while being thousands of dollars in debt. At his death of bronchial pneumonia, three plays were in manuscript form, including his autobiographical Long Day’s Journey into Night, which limned his family’s dysfunction. That and The Iceman Cometh, his two greatest works of the 49 plays he wrote, were both set in 1912, the year of his epiphany about continuing his existence. Many of his works were extremely overlong, making great demands on the audience. Inner: Pathologically shy, shunned all publicity. High-strung, nervous, often perplexed, with a mystical affinity for the sea. Despised his father’s hypocritical Catholicism, and felt locked in battle all his life with an unjust God, although always wrote about his conception of man and God. Gloom’n’doom lifetime of giving expression to his unhappy interior through the use of the public stage, while disappearing into himself in all other forms of expression. Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872) - Austrian playwright and poet. Outer: Father was an unsuccessful lawyer, who died in financial straits when son was 18. Mother was musically-inclined and imaginative, but also moody and depressed, ultimately killing herself. Inherited his father’s stern unsentimental personality, and his mother’s depressiveness, making for a very unhappy person, who was part poet and part cold, hard, obstinate depressive. Had an irregular education, then studied law at the Univ. of Vienna, but had no desire to pursue it as a profession. Worked as a tutor in the homes of wealthy families to support his own family, then accepted a civil service appointment in 1813, although continued acting as a tutor. Held back in his governmental career by inadvertently offending the conservative court in a poem. Other than several trips to the continent and England, led a largely uneventful outer life, despite his tormented inner one. Had several love affairs and one long engagement to a woman he called his “eternal fiance” but was unable to bring himself to marry her. Attracted early to the theater, and was successful in his early tragedies, written in a classical manner, using both Greek myth and his own country’s his/story. After his only comedy was hissed from the stage, he ceased to write for the theater altogether. In the latter part of his working life, he held the minor post of Director of the Imperial Archives, retiring after a nearly quarter century in 1856 in that position. Afterwards, he lived a solitary life studying Spanish drama, and repeatedly tasting his own bitterness. Recognized late in life, but felt the honors at the end were too late for him to appreciate them. Now considered Austria’s finest dramatist. Inner: Brooding, melancholic, and resentful. Head in hands lifetime of unrelenting negativity, which he was able to partially transform into brilliant tragedy, and partially swallow as the acrid aftertaste of his own inability to appreciate his gifts. Cyril Tourneur (c1575-1626) - English playwright. Outer: Little is really known of his life. Probably the son of a water-bailiff, who became a lieutenant-governor in the Netherlands, where he served as well. Studied Greek and had a strong desire to Hellenize the English language. Two tragedies are ascribed to him, that he may or may not have written, and both were filled with gloominess, violence and great poetic beauty. Also wrote an allegorical lament on the political conditions of the day, the corruption of the Catholic Church and the dangerous situation in Ireland, which was his first published work. Employed in the Netherlands and served as an admiral’s secretary in the unsuccessful Cadiz expedition. Disembarked along with the sick in Ireland and died there. Left his wife penniless at his death. Inner: Seasick lifetime of giving voice to his great violent gloom, while keeping himself largely hidden from his/storical view.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS SENTIMENTAL CROWD-PLEASER:
Storyline: The populist optimist weaves a cloud of deception around his actual pessimistic nature through the magic of his formulaic fantasies, thanks to a longtime facility for tapping into ordinary experience and turning it into commercial gold.
Frank Capra (1897-1991) - Sicilian/American filmmaker. Outer: Born in Sicily to illiterate peasants, but emigrated to the U.S. with his family in steerage when was 6. Father was a laborer and farmhand. Youngest of 7 children. Spent his life escaping from his background and family, thoroughly denying them. Worked from childhood on, selling newspapers and battling other boys for choice sites. Read voraciously and through loans and odd jobs, he graduated from the Throop College of Technology. Enlisted in the army afterwards and taught math. Short, wiry, with a square jaw and glistening teeth. Unable to get engineering work, he became a vagabond for several years, doing menial jobs and selling books. Began a second career as a gag writer for films, and directed his first movie in his late 20s. Went to work for Columbia Pictures for a dozen years, becoming the studio’s most successful director, with hack-work action-adventure dramas. Began collaborating on populist comedies with a liberal democrat playwright, which proved highly successful, following the formula of ordinary citizens standing up to the rich and powerful. His true sentiments were quite the opposite, since he was a lifelong Republican who admired European dictators. Collaborated with his screenwriters, to get an overlapping natural sense to his dialogue, and produced, as well as directed all his later films. Won three Oscars for his efforts in the 30s, for It Happened One Night in 1934, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town in 1936, and You Can’t Take With You in 1938, making ‘Capraesque’ part of the language, and also getting him the presidency of the Director’s Guild. Created propaganda films for the army during WW II as a colonel, winning a best documentary Oscar in 1942. Married twice, the first time in his mid-20s to Helen Howell, divorced 4 years later. Remarried Lucille Reyburn in his mid-30s, 4 children from the union, with one dying young and a same-named son who became a producer. Formed his own production company, Liberty Films after the war, with some colleagues, but was forced to sell it because of financing and tax troubles. The high-point of Liberty was his favorite film, It’s A Wonderful Life, which has since become a TV Christmastime classic, despite mixed reviews at the time. His career gradually declined when he was unable to change his formulas with the changing times, while he also demanded more credit for himself. As work became scarce and his popularity waned, he suffered from massive headaches and suicidal feelings. In recompense, in 1982, he was given the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Finally retired, and wrote a distorted ‘Capraesque’ autobiography, “The Name Above the Title.” Lost his wife in 1984 and experienced a devastating series of strokes at life’s end, before his heart finally gave out, and he died in his sleep. Inner: Host of contradictions, totally unintegrated in his actual beliefs and the fantasies he projected, while denying his roots and real political sentiments. Sentimental, yet contemptuous of the masses to whom he pandered. Effervescent, soft-spoken and highly competitive. Good communicator, spoke five languages and was able to draw excellent performances from his stars. Deceptive lifetime of portraying himself outwardly in total opposition to who he was inwardly, and suffering for it through his dishonest career’s ultimate decline and fall. Eugene Labiche (1815-1888) - French playwright. Outer: Father was a wealthy industrialist. Studied at Bourbon College in preparation for a career in the law, but had a far greater preference for literature, inspired by a great love of the works of Moliere (Charlie Chaplin). Obtained his legal license, but never practiced. Began writing interpretive essays, and by his mid-20s, he had written his first play and novel. The rest of his life was dedicated to his career, which proved to be extremely prolific and highly successful, with farcical comedies and burlesques as his metier. Used the same formula, of middle-class protagonists who create comedies of errors through misunderstandings. Always moral, with a sly wit, and a desire to offend no one, but rather reflect the commonplace of his audiences. Worked in collaboration with lesser lights, more for companionship than any need on his part for their assistance. In 1842, he married the daughter of a stuffy family, who demanded he give up his career in favor of something more respectable. After seeing the unhappiness this mandate caused, his wife relieved him of it within a year, and he went happily back to his lifework. Son from union. Defeated in a run for the Constitutional Assembly, following the Revolution of 1848, and considered retiring, but needed to continue writing in order to buy a country property on which to do so, and knocked out 44 plays within a span of 4 years. Bought a chateau and spent part of each year thenceforth farming the land, and part in Paris. When his later works were less well-received, he decided to retire in 1874, in order to leave the public with the memory of his best works, rather than his declining powers. After editing 57 of his 162 published plays, he was rediscovered by the official critics, and enjoyed a renascence. Elected to the French Academy in 1880 on his renewed reputation, despite opposition from more serious quarters, and has continued to play well, in his ability to reflect ordinary life in an amusing manner. Ultimately wrote 173 plays, of which 166 were penned with forty-six different collaborators. Inner: Work-oriented, with a desire to please, and to find the humorous in the ordinary. Undemanding lifetime of playing to his audience, and reaping the rewards of keeping them entertained, while keeping his own personal conflicts down to an absolute minimum. Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) - Italian playwright. Outer: Father was a physician, mother was his father’s older stepsister. Fond connection to his parents, who indulged him, despite their financial straits. Educated at a Jesuit seminary and a Dominican school. Read comedies in his father’s library, and ran away from school to join a group of strolling players. Returned through a scholarship to the Papal College at Pavia, and read classic plays, learning French to read Moliere (Charlie Chaplin). Expelled from school for writing a satire, he reluctantly began his law studies, when his real heart was in theater. Practiced law half-heartedly and held diplomatic appointments, then began his true vocation of writing for the stage. At first, stuck with old forms, but abandoned them and began writing comedies of manners, which was where his dramatic would lie. In his mid-20s, he began a long happy marriage to Maria Connio, the daughter of a bank notary, later adopted a nephew. Served briefly as Genoese consul in Venice, got caught in the Austrian invasion of Italy, and had to ford a stream with his wife on his back. Engaged in bitter rivalries, called the War of the Theaters, before leaving Italy for Paris, where he directed the Comedie-Italienne. Then rewrote all his French plays for Venetian audiences. Retired in his late 50s to teach Italian to the French princesses at Versailles, and received a royal pension, which was canceled after the French Revolution. Died in poverty, with his pension ironically restored the day after his death. Credited with founding modern Italian comedy, with a sure hand for detailing the day-to-day life of his cultural epic. Inner: Genial celebrator of life he viewed around him, thanks to a solid early foundation. Highly prolific and proficient in two languages, with the ability to give his audiences what they wanted. Complete circle lifetime of being well-loved by his intimates, while arcing his way from privilege and success to poverty, a cycle he would reverse on his later go-round, by pretending to be someone he wasn’t, only to suffer the same impoverishment on the inner level.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS INDEPENDENT FREETHINKER:
Storyline: The maverick matron confronts the world with her own spirited brand of truth, although is considerably less forthright when it comes to her own writerly self.
Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) - American playwright and memoirists. Outer: Only child of a family of successful southern German-Jewish merchants. Kept a journal from an early age, and was determined to be a writer. After a business reversal, her father moved to NYC to become a salesman. Dearly loved him, but later felt betrayed by his infidelities. Spent her childhood shuttling between NYC and a boardinghouse kept by two maiden aunts in New Orleans, while finding refuge from both places in books. Attended NYU and studied journalism at Columbia, before going to work for the Horace Liveright publishing company. Also reviewed books for the NY Herald Tribune and acted as a press agent. 5’4”, 125 lbs., with reddish hair and an aquiline nose. At 20, she married Arthur Kober, a novelist/playwright, the duo had an amicable divorce 7 years later. Went out west to California and worked as a script reader for MGM for two years, before returning to NYC and collaborating on an unproduced farce, while drinking away her frequent discontent. During this period, she established a three decade relationship with writer Dashiell Hammett, who served as both mentor and inspiration, despite his nonproductivity, and infidelity on both their parts, while she nursed him through decades of alcoholism. Although not an alcoholic herself, she was a generous imbiber as well as a lifelong chain smoker, which eventually lined her face and gave her a raspy voice. On his suggestion to use a 19th century Scottish law case, in which two teachers were falsely accused of a lesbian affair by a vindictive student, she wrote her first success, “The Children’s Hour,” which ran for a year and a half on Broadway, beginning in 1934, after being banned in Boston and several other cities. Later turned it into a film about jealousy, called These Three, with the homoerotic element totally transmuted per the film industry’s far more Puritanical demands, and it proved a success, as well. Traveled to the Soviet Union and Europe in the mid-1930s, and after visiting Spain, campaigned actively for the leftist Loyalists. Her next well-received work about the greed and materialism of a Southern family, "Little Foxes," became a successful film as well. Bought an estate in Westchester County, NY, and turned it into a working farm for herself over the next 13 years, while actively engaged in the cultural life of NYC. A Communist sympathizer, she was attacked as a Red, although she claimed never to have joined the party. During WW II, she took strong political stands against fascism, which was the subject of her next work, “Watch on the Rhine,” and towards the end of the war she was invited to Moscow on a cultural mission, with the Russian production of two of her plays. While there, she formed a close friendship with filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. After the war, she continued her playwrighting career, and in the early 1950s was subpoenaed to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Made the well-known statement, “I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions.” Subsequently blacklisted, she had to struggle for nearly a decade, including working as a salesclerk under an assumed name, and writing several adaptations for the stage, before resuming her successful career, with another Southern gothic piece, “Toys in the Attic,” which won her a second Drama Critic’s Award, and would be her last, and perhaps finest, play. The same year, 1960, Hammett died. Unlike others on the left, she never attacked the excesses of Stalinism. Wrote a trio of memoirs, which were later questioned for their veracity, and also taught writing classes and lectured. Towards the end of her life, she got into highly public feuds with critic Diana Trilling and novelist Mary McCarthy, who accused her of acute dishonesty. Became totally obsessed with the charge and its legal ramifications, but she died of cardiac arrest before a lawsuit between the two of them could be settled. Inner: Headstrong, arrogant, and highly opinionated, with an absolute refusal to look at any argument that contradicted her own viewpoint. Maintained a tough-talking, masculine aura. Confrontational and unafraid to speak her mind. Tough exterior, yet romantic and sensual at heart. Also venal, hypocritical and angrier and more unloving as she grew older. Had an innate knack for drawing chilling portraits of evil, as well as inspiring controversy from conservatives and liberals alike, although fairly hamhanded as a dramatist. Confrontational lifetime of serving as a dramatic conscience of America, while continually reinventing herself as an icon of unwavering truth. George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819-1880) - English writer. Outer: Youngest surviving daughter of a conservative estate agent. Mother was his 2nd wife, and she became his housekeeper at the latter’s death. Educated at boarding school in languages and to be pious. In 1841, after moving with her father, a freethinker influenced her to abandon her evangelical religiosity. Shocked her family by refusing to go to Church, then became a humanistic agnostic. Forced to compromise and put on a social show at church at her sire’s insistence, although she held onto her newfound beliefs. Lived with her father until his death when she was 30. Stayed with different families, then went to London to become a freelance writer. Forced to leave homes twice over jealousy of other women. Served as the sub-editor of a periodical and mixed with intellectual society. Lived openly with writer G. Henry Lewes (Dashiell Hammett) as man and wife, after the former’s spouse bore two children by another, although the two had a literary, rather than passionate or romantic relationship. The duo went to Germany together in 1854, and she began writing short fiction on her return, which proved successful. Expanded into the novel, where her reputation would lie, although she feared her noncomformity would affect sales, which it did, once it became known. The twosome bought a house, and held noted Sunday afternoon literary teas, as she continued augmenting her reputation. After over 25 years together, in which he handled all her financial affairs, Lewes died. Following a period of deep mourning, at 60, she married her accountant, who was 20 years her junior and gave her both sympathy and practical advice, as well as her first satisfying sexual union. Her brother, who had not spoken to her nearly a quarter century, resumed communication with her, as signal of her born-again conventionality. Her new husband, however, made a leaping suicide attempt on their honeymoon, and she died soon afterwards of kidney stones. Best-remembered for Middlemarch and Silas Marner. Inner: Psychologically acute, and unafraid of challenging convention. Melancholic, calm, pessimistic. Attracted to unloving and unloved people in her works. Doing-it-my way lifetime of independently reinventing herself, with a great burst of energy in mid-life, allowing her to make her powerful will manifest the rest of the way through. Frances Sheridan (Frances Anne Chamberlain) (1724-1766) - English playwright. Outer: Youngest of 5, her mother died soon after her birth. Lame for life from a childhood accident. Got her brothers to teach her, after her father grudgingly allowed her to learn to read. Tended her sire while his mind faded, and was freed by his death. Still had never seen a play by her late teens, although she had written a romance. Unattractive, although in her early 20s, she married Thomas Sheridan, an actor/manager who ruled the Dublin theater for a decade. Had six children including playwright/politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan (George Bernard Shaw). Two sons died in infancy. Most of the family moved to London when she was 30, because of a theater riot in Ireland. Socialized with the literary lights of the day, also wrote 3 prose romances and 3 plays, with her first, “The Discovery,” introduced in 1763, and was highly successful in revivals afterwards. Despite success with her second play as well later that year, she was forced to flee to France in order to escape creditors. Continued writing, but her health began deteriorating there, and she succumbed two years later after a short illness. Exerted a strong influence on her son Richard in his subsequent output. Inner: Highly ambitious, with a strong spirit, and an equal facility, along with her spouse, for attracting trouble. Hard knocks lifetime of struggling to make a unique figure of herself, only to succumb to the overwhelming pressures of health and ill fortune, as part of a partnership, before striking out on her creative own in lives to come.

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PATHWAY OF THE POET AS ALTERNATE SKEPTIC, SAINT AND CYNIC:
Storyline: The skeptical storyteller masters each of his art-forms while revealing various sides of his complex personality in his ongoing desire to either wake up or save the world from his own imagined excesses.
Billy Wilder (Samuel Wilder) (1906-2002) - Austrian/American film/maker. Outer: Parents were German-speaking Jews. His mother, who was stylish and amusing, had lived in NYC as a child, and felt America was the destiny for her 2nd son, calling him Billie, after Buffalo Bill Cody (Clint Eastwood). Her family had owned a resort hotel. His father ran a cafe at a railway station in Vienna. Grew up during the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and learned, through hardship and anti-Semitism, how to be street-smart and world-wise, with the desire to ultimately be rich. Stole cars and motorbikes, hustled pool and worked as a cafe dance partner for lonely women. Although his mother wanted him to study law, he preferred journalism. Learned English in part by listening to jazz records, spent a year at the Univ. of Vienna, then became a reporter for a leading Viennese newspaper, before an interview with American bandleader Paul Whiteman led him to Berlin. Collaborated on a semi-documentary in 1929, then worked on the scripts of numerous German films, before fleeing to Paris when Hitler came to power in 1933, immediately recognizing his endangered position. Co-directed his first film in Paris, then came to America via Mexico, while his mother and other family members perished in the Nazi concentration camps. Knew little English and had no money when he came to Hollywood. Lived with émigré actor Peter Lorre (Steve Buscemi) and eked out an existence collaborating on scripts. In 1936, he married Judith Iribe, the daughter of the head of Columbia Artists, twins from union, with one dying in infancy. Not into domesticity at all, surviving son ultimately became estranged from him, while his wife divorced him in 1947. Hooked up with screenwriter Charles Brackett in 1938, and the duo proved a classic-producing combo over the next 12 years, initially writing sophisticated comedies. Became a director, while Brackett produced and co-wrote their scripts, culminating in Sunset Boulevard in 1950, a cynical paean to the old Hollywood, for which they shared a screenwriting Oscar. Afterwards, he dropped Brackett, much to the latter’s bewilderment and hurt. During 1945, he returned to Germany as head of the Army’s psychological Warfare Division. Won an Academy Reward for Best Director the same year, for Lost Weekend, a sobering look at an alcoholic. Two years after divorcing, he wed Audrey Young, an actress, in 1949. After splitting with the sophisticated Brackett, he became his own producer, and showed his true cynical nature, particular with his prisoner-of-war drama, Stalag 17, whose self-serving lead was a virtual stand-in for himself. Later he formed another successful collaborating partnership with I. A. L. Diamond, which produced his seminal cross-dressing comedy Some Like It Hot, as well as another Academy Reward for Best Director and Best Picture for The Apartment in 1960, yet another bitter view of social mores, and his favorite deadly sin, greed. Continued his highly successfully active career into the early 1980s, ultimately serving as writer/director on 25 features, while feeling a necessity to remain on top of things despite the infirmities of extreme age, which saw him going daily to his office well into his 90s. In 1986, he was given the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. An avid art collector, although never visually oriented in any of his works, always letting the dialogue do the work for him. Died of complications from pneumonia. Inner: Skeptical, cocksure and highly ambitious, with an askew view of life, and a bittersweet sense of the vicissitudes of fate. Pool shark lifetime of being forced to hustle on his own from a young age, and bringing that sensibility to his art and storytelling abilities in order to further ground his hidden high esthetics in the vulgarities of popular culture, after many a go-round as a far more removed Olympian, operating from the heights rather than the depths of creative self-expression. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) - Russian writer and playwright. Outer: Grandfather had been a serf who bought his way to freedom. Mother was the daughter of a prosperous merchant. Father had been born a serf, and became a struggling grocer, serving as a pious disciplinarian for his son, making him work in his store and sing in the church choir he conducted. One of 6 children, closely tied to his family his entire life. Despite the kindness of his mother, he had an unhappy childhood, thanks to frequent beatings by his sire, who often awoke his family at 3 A.M. in order to sing matins in his choir. Enrolled in a classical Gymnasium, where he proved a popular student because of his storytelling abilities and his gifts at mimicry and improvisation. Also developed a love of the theater while there, sneaking in whenever he could, since students were forbidden to go. When his father’s business failed, and his sire fled to Moscow to escape creditors, he took to tutoring to help pay his way, and in 1879, entered the medical facility at Moscow Univ., while writing for newspapers and periodicals, and selling jokes to support himself. By the time he received his diploma in 1884, he had established a name for himself as a contributor to humor magazines, under the pseudonym Antosha Chekhonte. Began suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis in 1885, which would plunge him into melancholy, followed by bursts of vitality for the rest of his foreshortened life. By 1886, while also practicing medicine, he was committed to his literary career, having written his only novel, as well as 2 collections of stories, and the following year, his first play was produced. Irked by criticisms of his being apolitical and uncommitted to any philosophical view of life, he traveled in southern Russia, then in 1889, after the death of an older brother from TB, which deeply depressed him, he spent several months at a Russian penal colony, where he studied then wrote about the treatment of prisoners. The journey was also fodder for more short stories. In recompense for what he had seen, he devoted himself to a variety of philanthropies in the towns where he lived. Made several trips to western Europe, and in 1892, bought a farm near Moscow for health reasons, using his previous training during 2 cholera epidemics there immediately afterwards, giving thousands of peasants free medical treatment. Also helped build village schools, and wrote passionately about saving Russia’s forests from decimation. Took an active part in the Dreyfus affair, while turning out his 4 dramatic masterpieces, The Sea Gull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, the last decade of his life. After suffering a lung hemorrhage in 1897, he sold his estate and built a villa in Yalta, spending his winters there and on the French Riviera as a semi-invalid. Elected in 1900 to the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the first group of writers ever to be awarded that honor. Later resigned in protest when Maxim Gorky’s (Sergei Sakin) inclusion was invalidated by the tsar. In 1901, he married Olga Knipper, an actress, which was a happy union, although they spent little real time together. In 1904, he was sent by his doctors to a resort in Germany for his health, and a month later, he died there of tuberculosis. His short stories remain classics of that genre, and have been enormously influential, in their deceptive simplicity, ability to plumb the depths of characters and artful use of both given and missing information to limn his intentions. Inner: Moody, introspective and self-centered like his characters, although capable of saintly acts of charity. Seen as a pessimist during his life, but his later letters reveal a far wittier and livelier personality. Accused of misogyny by some critics, although a genuine humanitarian in his concerns, with an unusual depth of understanding of human nature. Steppingstone lifetime of learning to operate from a humbler background as well as an unwell body, while retaining his acute storytelling sensibilities, and working off some self-involved karma through healing and kind deeds, so as to allow his baser nature freer reign the next time around in this series. Christophe Wieland (1733-1813) - German poet and writer. Outer: Father was a learned Lutheran minister. At odds with his pietistic household, he preferred nature and a healthy sense of skepticism to the religiosity of his sire. Although intended for the same career as his father, he pleaded a delicate constitution and studied for the law, instead, while following his true vocation, that of the pen, beginning with a love poem for his fiancee, Sophie von Guterman, who would later go on to her own novelistic career. Ingratiated himself into the literary circle around Johann Bodmer by writing a religious epic as well as defending pietistic poetry, before breaking with this symbolic father figure to carve his own way in his 30s. Became a tutor to various patrician houses in Zurich in order to establish his independence, and having won it, returned to his home town as a town clerk. After several unsuccessful affairs, he married a simple woman, and proved to be a good husband and father until his later years. Through the influence of his former fiance, he joined the circle around a retired diplomat, and helped turn his estate into a cultural court, playing the role of sly entertainer with his erotic tales that were reflective of French, rather than German traditions. Well-grounded in pan-European literary traditions, he used his satirical wit to establish himself as a novelist, and then began translating Shakespeare, bringing him to German audiences. Wrote a ground-breaking novel, Die Geschichte Agathous, touching on Greek Hellenistic tradition of the interplay between mind and body. Enjoyed the reputation of being the foremost poet in German letters before the rise of Johann Goethe (Thomas Mann), and resisted mightily the coming Sturm und Drang school of romanticism that rose in the latter’s powerful wake, although Goethe always maintained the highest respect for his genuine humanism. Taught philosophy at Erfut for 3 years, and then at 40, was appointed tutor to Prince Karl August in Weimar, although would have much preferred serving in the same role to the young HRE. Not a particularly effective teacher. Despite failing in his mission, he founded an important literary journal, and produced some of his most important work, before withdrawing from poetry and spending his old age doing translations from the ancient Romans. His end-life saw him the butt of the young Turks of the romantic movement and he was ultimately viewed as a shallow virtuoso, although his reputation was ultimately resurrected a century and a half later, as a true pan-European with a desire to integrate German letters, rather than isolate them as his nationalistic successors so fervently wished to do. Inner: Serenely skeptical, humanist to the core, with a great love of traditional letters and the ability to re-render them into the German medium. Humanistic lifetime of being revered and then reviled, which probably necessitated a change in cultures, in his ongoing desire to touch on a universality in his works that speak to the sense of story in all of us. Marcus Varro (Marcus Terentius Varro) (116BZ-27BZ) - Roman polymath and satirist. Outer: Origins unclear. Received an excellent education from prominent scholars, and gained a thorough background in Grecian philosophy, particularly the Platonic, Stoic and Pythagorean schools. Although not attracted to politics, he pursued a public career, ultimately becoming a praetor. Served in Spain under Pompey (Henry Luce) in 76, and also elsewhere under him, winning an award for bravery. Campaigned disastrously against Julius Caesar (Charles de Gaulle), then wrote a political pamphlet on the 1st triumvirate of Pompey, Caesar and Marcus Crassus (John D. Rockefeller), and sided with the former in Spain in 49, but was pardoned by the victorious Caesar 2 years later, and was appointed librarian by him. Viewed as the most learned Roman of his day. An extremely prolific writer, he wrote at warp speed, showing little regard for stylistics or grammar, preferring to put his intellectual coin in the sheer output of information. Wrote some 620 books in all, although only his last works on agriculture survive in full. Ranged from satires to literary his/story, to portraiture, to constitutional practice, as well as the sciences, the disciplines of languages, human affairs and religion, the last of which, Antiquates, were considered his masterpiece. Under the 2nd triumvirate, he was proscribed and outlawed by Mark Antony (Marquis de Lafayette), and had his books burned, but his library was restored under Augustus Caesar (Franklin D. Roosevelt). Inner: Difficult individual, traditionalist, with a sharp wit and a love of learning. Preferred the simple life, and was a stoic in his beliefs. Polymath lifetime of information-gathering and dispensing, while suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous political fortune, as well as his own aggrandized view of himself as being above normal social intercourse because of his rarified intellect.

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PATHWAY OF THE SHORT STORY WRITER AS CULTURAL ICON:
Storyline: The storyteller supreme tries to reign in his twilight zone personality only to continually undermine himself through his ongoing propensity for third raillery.
Rod Serling (1924-1975) - American television writer. Outer: Father was a wholesale butcher. Younger of 2 sons, with his sibling, Robert, a writer as well. Gregarious and outgoing, he loved being on center stage. President of his class in high school. Enlisted in the army afterwards and became a paratrooper and demolition specialist during WW II. Won 17 of 18 fights as an amateur boxer in the army. 5’4”, compact and athletic. Later, he was severely wounded in the wrist and knee in the Philippines, and for the rest of his life, would suffer from nightmares of the conflict. After the war, he went to Antioch on the G.I bill, where he took over the radio station and met his wife, Carolyn Kramer, 2 daughters from the union. Modeled his writing style after Ernest Hemingway’s terseness. Although raised Jewish, he would later convert and become a Unitarian. Worked for a midwest radio station, and won $500 and a trip to NYC for a radio play. Had his first 40 telescripts rejected before he finally sold one to television in 1951, and entered that new-found medium with fists flying. Became an extremely prolific teleplaywright, winning awards for his dramas, which were well-suited for the small screen. Also wrote for the movies, adapting several of his teleplays, as well as narrating documentaries. Eventually grew tired of network censorhip, and turned to fantasy, adding to the national lexicon with his creation of the long-running hit sci-fi and supernatural series, “The Twilight Zone,” in 1959, which he also hosted in clipped, memorable tones. A decade later, he launched a second series, more Gothic in tone, “Night Gallery,” also playing host, and scriptwriter, although he quit in dissatisfaction after three seasons, badmouthing the relatively pallid effort. In 1974, he returned to radio with another series, “The Zero Hours,” which never found its audience. Taught at Ithaca College, and also continued doing voice-overs and documentary narration. A chain smoker, he died at 50 of heart failure during open-heart surgery, after intending to retire at 55 and devoting the rest of his life to resting and playing. Garnered 6 Emmys for his efforts, and was posthumously inducted into the TV Hall of Fame in 1985. Inner: Intense, driven, hard-working and pugnacious. Feisty lifetime of finally integrating his imaginative talent with his professional life, without the struggle, criminality or suffering of earlier existences in this series, only to exit before realizing his final act dream of rest and relaxation. O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) (1862-1910) - American short-story writer. Outer: Son of a physician and inventor who married above his social class, as his own father had done. His mother died when he was 3, and his sire, a heavy drinker, spent more time on inventing perpetual motion machines than his practice, largely ignoring his young sons. Attended a school taught by a maiden aunt, who encouraged the Southern practice of oral storytelling, but left at 15 to become a clerk in his uncle’s pharmacy, and in 1881, got a state license to practice. Stocky and blonde. Ill health sent him west, where he worked on a Texas ranch for two years, then was a draughtsman in the state land office for 4 more. Married Athol Estes, a teenager, whom he had earlier helped with her homework, in his mid-20s, one daughter from the union, which lasted a decade before his wife succumbed to TB, just as the other important women in his life would. Got a job as a teller in an Austin bank, and bought a magazine called The Iconoclast which he renamed Rolling Stone before selling it back to its original owner. Became a columnist, but was indicted for bank embezzlement in 1896 and fled the country to Honduras, South America and Mexico, leaving his wife behind. Heard of her failing health, returned, and after she died of TB, surrendered and was convicted and sentenced to five years in an Ohio penitentiary. As a night pharmacist in prison, he began writing short stories with odd twists, beginning in 1899, which would make him famous. Had three published while still an inmate, and wrote some of his best known there. Released after three years and three months for good behavior, and went to Pittsburgh to be with his daughter, but hated the city and moved to NYC in 1902, where he found a wealth of material for his tales with a twist. A highly prolific writer, he penned nearly 400 tales, more than enough to have several volumes published posthumously, thanks to the demands of doing a weekly piece for the NY World’s Sunday edition. Served as the champion of the little person with his collection "The Four Million," the then population of NYC, which he limned with both artistry and a telling eye for striking beginnings and sharp endings. Unhappily, albeit briefly, remarried Sara Lindsey Coleman, a childhood love, in 1907, before separating the following year. Despite being both famous and rich, he still struggled financially and took to heavy drinking. His health soon deteriorated and he died of tuberculosis, while suffering from cirrhosis, diabetes and a large heart. Inner: Driven, acquisitive, dramatic, and a bit of a dandy. Rolling stone lifetime of making his name synonymous with short stories with a twist, much like his life itself. Fitz-James O’Brien (c1828-1862) - American journalist, playwright and author. Outer: Son of an Irish lawyer. Educated at the Univ. of Dublin, where he showed an aptitude for verse and may have been a soldier in the service of Britain. Quickly ran through his £8000 inheritance in London, and began working as a journalist, reinventing himself in the process. Of middle height, with an athletic build and a boyish sprightliness. Brown-haired, blue-eyed, with a melodious voice and the possessor of numerous scars from fighting. Penniless, he moved to NYC in 1852 as a result of the Irish potato famine, and became part of the bohemian literary life of the city, writing highly imaginative short stories, as well as for the theater, enjoying several successful runs. Lived the life of luxury when he had funds, otherwise dodged creditors and camped in rooms of friends, while continually borrowing money. An inveterate hanger-out in bar rooms, and an entertaining figure at dinners, he cut a florid swath through the theater community, while writing for all the prominent magazines of the day. Also quite pugnacious, getting into fights at the slightest excuse, employing aggressive quarreling as a means of defining friendships, and almost always embracing his opponents afterwards as worthy companions. Unsatisfied with the lack of recognition and money he thought he merited, he volunteered for the Union during Civil War. Shot by a Confederate soldier while on a scouting mission, he dispatched his assailant, but died of tetanus two months later from improper medical care. Wrote realistically of the unreal, an incipient twilight zoner. Inner: Undisciplined, fiery facile, rollicking and a spirited talent without the maturity to bring it to complete fruition. Extremely impulsive, highly generous, and quite careless in all he did. Incomplete lifetime of self-created frustrations, which he used to expand his considerable imagination, while failing to integrate it into his larger life.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS PROLIFIC JOKESMITH:
Storyline: The comedic chronicler probes everyday life for his material, using himself as his amusing muse, while proving to be the most successful commercial dramatist ever to put pen to blank page.
Neil Simon (1927) - American playwright. Outer: Father was a NYC garment salesman who periodically abandoned his family, until his parents finally separated and divorced. Called ‘Doc” because of his ability to imitate the family doctor. Shy and introverted as a child, he finally found a stronger persona as a writer. His brother Danny, who was 8 years older, was his mentor and protector, and together the duo used humor to compensate for their less than ideal upbringing. Served in the U.S. Army Air Force at the end of WW II. Studied at NYU, before becoming a comedy writer for various television shows, beginning by joining his sibling, with whom he also wrote for radio. In 1954, the duo decided to go their separate ways, although he would go on to use his brother as a character prototype in many of his works. His first play, Come Blow Your Horn, was largely autobiographical and was a huge hit. Extremely prolific and popular in everything that followed, while dealing with middle-class life and the comedy of everyday situations. Primarily a joke writer, pacing his plays for laughs rather than revelations. Also wrote the screenplays for all of his works that were translated to film. Commercially, the most successful playwright in theater his/story. In his mid-20s, he married a dancer, Joan Baim, two daughters from union, which ended when his wife died of cancer two decades later. In his mid-40s, he married actress Marsha Mason, proposing to her two weeks after meeting and then divorcing her a decade later. His third marriage at 60 was to a woman he met while she was passing out perfume samples, and it also ended in divorce, despite his claims he needed to be married. Reconciled, remarried in 1990, then separated, reconciled and finally divorced. Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for Lost in Yonkers. Married actress Elaine Joyce in 1993. Able to produce a play a season for over thirty-five years, as a productive laugh machine with an unerring commercial sense, although the 1990s saw that sense lessening with several failures. Also has written 2 unrevealing volumes of memoirs, since his plays have been a more detailed reconstruction of his life. Received a kidney from his agent in 2004. Inner: Low-key, more the humorist than the dramatist, although with good theatrical instincts. Basically a writer of French boulevard comedy, as a throwback to his foundation in that tradition. Divided between his role as writer and his sense of being a person. Continually mining his life and friends for his material. Well-received lifetime of creating a powerfully entertaining stage voice, while struggling to integrate the far quieter persona behind it. Victorien Sardou (1831-1908) - French playwright. Outer: Father was a schoolmaster, son received his education by following him from post to post. Studied medicine briefly but quit to devote himself to writing. Tutored and wrote articles to support himself. In his late 20s, he married an actress, Mlle. de Brercourt, who had earlier helped him establish himself, but died 7 years into the union. His first play was a success, as were his succeeding comedies, establishing him as a social as well as cultural figure. Claimed to have invented the prompter’s box to avoid drafts. His second marriage to Anne Soulie, took place at the Royal Chapel at Versaille in his early 40s, 4 children from the union. Became wealthy from the popularity of his plays, of which he wrote over a hundred, and served as mayor of Marly-le-Roi, where he had a chateau. Always had excellent actors and actresses in his productions, which were largely lifeless, although well-constructed. Elected president of the Societe des Auteurs and was a member of the French Academy as well as a commander of the Legion d'Honneur. Actively defended Alfred Dreyfus in his railroaded espionage trials. His works were derisively characterized by George Bernard Shaw as Sardoodledom, while other critics carped they were too assembly-line. Audiences both in France and abroad, however, loved them, and he was the second most performed French playwright in New York up until WW II. Inner: Lively, expressive face and personality, with an instinct for public, if not critical, tastes. Well-received lifetime of good fortune in everything he did, which may have accounted for the lack of depth or reflection in his work, an ongoing theme of his. Pierre Marivaux (1688-1763) - French playwright, essayist and novelist. Outer: Son of the director of the mint at Riom, where he spent part of his childhood. Entered into fashionable cultural circles and in his late 20s married a woman who died 6 years later, after bearing a daughter. Wife had been quite devoted to him. Ruined by the John Law (Joseph Kennedy, Sr.) financial debacle in France, but had a supportive circle of friends. Began his writing career doing essays on people in everyday activities, creating satirical but sympathetic portraits of them. Wrote 34 plays, most of which were performed by the Italian Theater in Paris, who worked in the fixed tradition of the commedia dell’arte, which gave him the formula through which he could work, as well as the standard attributes he could give to its set stable of characters. Explored the theme of love and courtship in many of his works, expressed in a style that became known as marivaudage. Wrote several novels as well, which were probably superior to his plays. His works anticipated the middle-class dramas that would postsede him. Although the public liked his plays, the critics hated them, and he often had to deal with failure, eventually outliving his popularity. Elected to the French Academy in 1742, despite the intelligentsia’s opposition. The last part of his life was much calmer, in part through his second marriage to a rich spinster. Involved himself in the politics of his time, and left an enduring legacy, thanks, in part, to the struggles he had to undergo. Inner: Observant, reflective, charming and serious. Up-and-down lifetime of working out of very set traditions, while establishing his own theatrical pattern of exploring the words, thoughts and deeds of the middle-class, which he would continue to do in his succeeding, successful creative lives, eschewing the failures of this go-round in favor of unadulterated success.

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PATHWAY OF THE POET AS OBSESSIVE REALIST:
Storyline: The perennial pessimist uses conflicted childhood foundations to try to find some sort of balance between his dark view of life as an ongoing American tragedy, and his thwarted desire to ultimately transcend his unhappy interior.
Paul Schrader (1946) - American filmmaker. Outer: Son of strict Dutch Calvinists of Dutch descent. Father had dropped out of seminary school, but wanted his two sons to enter the ministry, mother was equally imbued with the same oppressive sense of rigid religiosity, and both forbid their progeny to engage in worldly amusements. The two went on to rebel strenuously against their roots, with his older brother Leonard becoming a screenwriter. As a youngster, his mother would prick him with a pin as a preview of what awaited him down below in the afterlife if he wandered from the narrow and straight. Was not allowed to view any film while growing up, and did not see his first movie until he was 18. Sent off to study divinity at Calvin College seminary, he quickly made up for his paradise-lost childhood by watching movies constantly. Took a summer film course at Columbia Univ. in NYC and decided on cinema as a career, in part, as personal therapy for the emptiness with which his upbringing had filled him. After graduating seminary school in his early 20s, he enrolled at UCLA’s graduate film program, and became both a film critic for the Los Angeles Free Press and editor of Cinema magazine. Also wrote a book of serious film critique. Tried screenwriting and sold his first film, The Yakuza, in 1975, but went through a period of depression punctuated by heavy drinking, and a suicidal sense of self-loathing afterwards. After his marriage to a designer ended in divorce, he began drifting and fell into debt, feeling totally purposeless while obsessing about guns and pornography. His second screenplay was for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, a tale of urban madness, maleness and violence which was written while he was convalescing for two weeks in a hospital, and served as a reclaiming of himself, allowing him to pursue a successful Hollywood career. The latter would embody an ongoing exorcism of his own personal demons splayed large across the screen in order to release himself of them, while playing endless variations on the theme of the Earth as another plane of Hell, with little salvation for its inhabitants. Began directing in his early 30s, excoriating his upbringing in his second film, Hardcore, which pits a Calvinist father against the pornography industry. A continued fascination with sex, violence and alienation permeates much of his work, in an attempt to unravel his own repressed interior. In 1983, he left Hollywood and a cocaine habit, and went to Japan and then NY, before marrying actress Mary Beth Hurt. One daughter from union, later divorced. A screenwriter and director for most of his own films, occasionally in conjunction with his brother, as well as a writer for other directors, particularly Scorsese, for whom he penned Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ. Following Mishima in 1985, he and his brother had a huge falling out and barely spoke over the next 15 years. Has only had one commercial hit, American Gigolo, in 1980, thanks in large part to his adversity to happy endings. Married and divorced twice more, the third time to art director Jeannine Claudia Oppewall. In 2004, he shot a prequel for The Exorcist, although he was taken off the finished film, amidst much acrimony, and it was re-shot in part to make it more dramatically tenable. In 2006, his brother Leonard died of heart failure, without fully resolving their differences to his satisfaction. Inner: Obsessive, introspective, angry, with a focus in all his works on humanity’s existential loneliness in a largely godless universe. Soft-spoken chain-smoker, with the feeling that a pane of glass continually exists between himself and the world, thanks to his dissociative upbringing. Pessimistic lifetime of using film for the purpose of self-revelation, while shedding the shackles of an inordinately oppressive childhood geared specifically to direct him towards that which was earlier denied him. Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) - American novelist. Outer: Father was a Catholic German immigrant weaver, who eventually became supervisor of a woolen mill. Mother was a Mennonite who converted to please her husband. 9th of 10 children, including his brother Paul (Jerry Garcia), who became a well-known, albeit self-destructive, songwriter. His sire suffered a severe head injury from a fire at the mill, and became an embittered, ineffectual and religiously fanatic cripple, while his mother took in washing, because the former was frequently out of work. Attended parochial and public schools, the family split up, and he left home at 16, as his brother Paul had earlier done. 6’1’, buck-toothed, with one good eye. Worked in a warehouse, before briefly going to the Univ. of Indiana, then had a succession of newspaper jobs in various cities before finally settling in NYC at 23. Lived in flophouses, and, after 5 years of vacillation, he married Sara White, who acted as his editor and literary adviser. The duo later separated in 1909 over his infidelities and refusal to have children, although they never divorced. Through his upbringing and the social philosophy of the time, he viewed humanity as a helpless victim of indifferent collective forces. Encouraged by writer Frank Norris (John Steinbeck), he published his first naturalistic novel, Carrie, although its frank sexual content caused its publisher to limit it to 1000 editions. Suffered a nervous breakdown and suicidal impulses over its less-than-enthusiastic initial reception. Subsequently earned a living for several years as the successful editor of conventional magazines for women. His second novel about an amoral woman was well-received when he was 30, so that his first novel was reissued, and his career as a writer was established. In the mid-1920s, he published his most memorable work, An American Tragedy, based on an actual incident in which a young social climber raised in poverty kills a poor young woman he had impregnated in order to continue his rise unfettered. In the novel, he blames the social conditions of his protagonist far more than his moral intransigence. Having spun out his creative gold by that time, he produced nothing of merit his last 20 years. Traveled to Russia and wrote pro-Russian articles, becoming a shrill enthusiast for Communism, and joined the party the last months of his life. An isolationist during WW II, when he married a second time. Died of a heart attack in Hollywood after war’s end. Clumsy writer, often given to preachments in his huge, sprawling works, where ideas loomed over style. Inner: Neurasthenic, awkward, sexually obsessive and candid. Had a lifelong dread of poverty from childhood on. Outsider, anti-Semitic, forever alienated. Strong identification with his characters, worked on his inner conflicts through his novels. Pessimistic lifetime of an impoverished upbringing, drawing him deeply into the real world as he saw it, but never allowing him to appreciate the richness of his interior. Johann Herder (1744-1803) - German writer and divine. Outer: Father was a cantor, sexton and schoolmaster. Both parents were extremely religious Pietists. One of 3 children, he had an impoverished upbringing. Initially educated by his sire, then studied under a pedantic pedagogue, mastering Latin and graduating at the top of his class. Taken into the service of his father’s religious superior as a secretary, where he completed his education in the library of his benefactor. Of medium height. Enrolled at the Univ. of Konigsberg as a medical student, but fainted at his first dissection, and swiftly became a theology student afterwards. Wrote and published some verse, while befriending some future heavy philosophical hitters, including Emmanuel Kant (Edmund Husserl). In 1764, he was made assistant master at the Cathedral School in Riga, and proved himself an effective teacher and preacher in his role as an assistant pastor. Began his career as a critic of literature and philosophy, publishing his first works while laying the foundations for his theoretical contributions to letters, including viewing each his/storical age as a unique self-sufficient contribution to the ongoing evolution of aesthetics. Defined poetry as a spontaneous expression and gift of everyone, not just the educated elite, and critics as supportive of the genius of each culture. His ideas, particularly concerning the flaws of German literature, were met with hostility, and he decided to travel. Went to Paris, accepted a position as traveling tutor to a melancholic young prince, and survived a shipwreck on the way, spending his time reading, while the rest of his company was in dire panic. Returned to Germany, he met his future bride, and resigned from the petty company of the prince, and underwent an operation on a fistula on his eye, which had bothered him since childhood. While recovering from the unsuccessful operation he met and worked closely for several months with future German literary titan Johan Goethe (Thomas Mann), who was strongly effected by his ideas. Took the position of court preacher in Strasbourg, and in 1773, married married Caroline Flachsland, although was plagued by overwork and debts. His wife would subsequently prove to be jealous and over-protective, 7 children from union. Seen as the champion of the Sturm und Drang movement via his writings, breaking with classicism to become an inspiration for the younger writers of his generation, placing an emphasis on the emotional, rather than the rational content of German letters. After the death of his benefactress, he obtained the post of general superintendent and court chaplain at Weimar, thanks to Goethe’s influence, a position he held for the rest of his life. Despite a dislike for the atmosphere of Weimar and a desire to leave because of his growing loss of influence, he stayed because he was a popular teacher and preacher. Relations with Goethe became extremely strained, and he lost many close friends in his last years through his theological speculations. Suffered a loss of prestige after his death, but is looked upon as a key figure in the development of the romantic movement in German letters. Inner: Depressive, extremely sensitive, plagued by ill health but an attractive character and a stirring teacher. Champion of spontaneity, and the emotional power of language well writ. Cerebral lifetime of laying the intellectual foundation of his ongoing aesthetic before coming down from his ivory tower into the hard-scrabble world of the realistic storyteller to suffer the inevitable slings and arrows of his own tormented abilities at saidsame, thanks in large part to father figures denying him his ordinary emotional birthright.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS MANLY SOCIAL COMMENTATOR:
Storyline: The macho maverick speaks loudly and carries a big stick, while rewriting contemporary his/story according to his own violent vision of it.
Oliver Stone (William Oliver Stone) (1946) - American filmmaker. Outer: Only child of a Jewish American stockbroker, mother was French Catholic. Had a privileged upbringing, and was raised by a nanny, as his parents, who were blatantly unfaithful to each other, divorced when he was in his mid-teens. 6’, with a manly physique. Went to boarding schools, then Yale, which he found stifling. Dropped out, joined the merchant marine with dreams of being another Joseph Conrad (Jerzy Kosinski), then lived in Mexico, working on an autobiography before returning to Yale. Dropped out again and enlisted in the army, where he was wounded twice in Vietnam, winning a Purple Heart as well as a Bronze Star for valor. Arrested for marijuana after his release, which he claimed politicized him. Returned to NYC after a brief sentence and enrolled in film school. A heavy drug experimenter at the time, as well as extremely angry, he did odd jobs, married Najwa Sarkis, a Lebanese woman, in 1971, divorced after 5 years, and moved to Los Angeles, where he had success as screenwriter. Married his assistant, Elizabeth Stone in 1981, two sons from the union, including actor Sean Stone. Continued his reputation as a wild man, repeatedly driving everyone he worked with to their edge. Developed a cocaine habit, kicked it in France, and began building a reputation as a director of heavy-handed morality tales, focusing on Vietnam, and the natural born violence of America, with his own peculiar take on contemporary his/story and its primary characters, including JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon and Commandante, a documentary on Fidel Castro. In the same freshman class at Yale as George W. Bush, although his W would be the weakest of his filmic rewriting of events as they unfolded during his lifetime, in what would be a mixed-bag effort at best, released just before the 2008 presidential election. Had a daughter by a Korean model, Sung jung-Jung, whom he married in 1996, while his continual brushes with the law around his drug use and disregard for convention, have fed into his public image as an unrepentant maverick, hell bent on pushing his private vision for public consumption. Inner: Alternately abusive and loving workaholic, with a dominating personality, and a penchant for pushing social buttons. Swaggering lifetime of foisting his own particular version of things on an enthusiastic public, while giving uninhibited emotional expression to his angry interior on both the silver screen and the social world it mirrors. Owen Wister (1860-1938) - American writer. Outer: From a wealthy Philadelphia Main Line family, father was a physician, mother was related to actress/writer Fanny Kemble (Katherine Hepburn). Grew up in an intellectual household, spoke French from childhood on and wrote it fluently. Educated in Switzerland and England, as well as New England, and in 1882, he graduated Harvard, where he was an editor of the Lampoon, and a close friend of future Pres. Theodore Roosevelt (Kathleen Kennedy), sharing the same rugged, macho sensibilities. Thought of a music career and studied at a Paris conservatory for two years, before returning to the U.S. because of ill health. Well-built, and dignified-looking. Worked for a bank, then got his law degree from Harvard Law in 1888, before joining a Philadelphia firm, although had little real interest in the profession. In his late 30s, he married his second cousin, Mary Channing, 6 children from the union. His wife died 15 years later during childbirth and was noted for helping the needy children of Philadelphia. After penning several sketches which were well-received, he decided to pursue a literary career full time, while spending his summers in the west, which always held a strong fascination for him. His reputation rests with "The Virginian," published in 1902, a story of cowboy life in Wyoming, which brought him widespread fame. Also wrote books for children, as well as biographies and a trilogy on tensions in Europe. Grew increasingly disillusioned with the direction of America, and the rise of mediocrity and the mass mind, and his later fiction was seen as out of touch with the times. Opposed Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and died at home of a cerebral hemorrhage. Inner: Rugged, macho, a confirmed Tory and Anglophile who idealized manliness. Known for his wit, and was devoted to the gentleman’s code of the day - family, education, tradition and social order. Virile lifetime of exploring the power of the pen against an active life, while continually feeling compelled to publish his patrician take on society-at-large. Royall Tyler (William Clark Tyler) (1757-1826) - American playwright, novelist and soldier. Outer: Father was a merchant and member of the King’s Council. Christened William but later changed his name to Royall, in celebration of his own high-born sense of himself. Graduated Harvard, joined the army and became a general’s aide. After the Revolutionary war, he practiced law. Worked in the office of John Adams (Martin Sheen), and became engaged to his daughter, but Adams broke the engagement by sending her to Europe. Decided to write for the stage, and his first play, The Contrast, in 1787, was unusually successful, although he never matched its quality again. Rejoined the army and played a significant role in the suppression of Shay’s Rebellion. His mother, however, cut his military career short for fear of danger to him. Settled in Vermont, and pursued a dual career as lawyer and writer. With a partner, he became the first American columnist. Served as State’s Attorney and was Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Vermont. In his mid-30s, he happily married Mary Palmer, a childhood friend in direct opposition to his mother’s wishes. Suffered cancer of the face that ultimately caused blindness. Inner: Highly enthusiastic and energetic with a charismatic personality. Virile lifetime of manly adventure and creativity while doing battle with a domineering mother that ultimately rendered him unable to see himself, and was symbol, perhaps, of his own unintegrated feminine in his ongoing hyper-male acting out of his sense of rugged individualism.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS SELF-INVOLVED S.O.B.:
Storyline: The facile farceur brings a light touch to his work, while viewing himself with an opposing heavy hand.
Blake Edwards (1922) - American playwright. Outer: Grandson of a silent screen director, and son of a stage director. Born with clinical depression, and subsequently subject to chronic fatigue. Mother remarried a movie production manager when he was 3, and family moved to Hollywood. Good athlete, achieved black belt status in Hai Karate. Spent his childhood on film sets. Began his career in the movies as an actor at the age of 20. By his mid-20s, he was doing screenplays, then worked for a while in radio before making his debut as a film director in his early 30s, establishing a reputation for farce and flamboyance in his work, as well as evincing a dark temper, which earned him the sobriquet, ‘Blackie.’ Had an equally successful career in television at the same time, creating several stylized detective shows in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Also a talented painter and sculptor. Married actress Patricia Walker in his early 30s, their daughter Jennifer became an actress while their son Geoffrey became a director. Quit smoking and drinking at 40, after directing Days of Wine and Roses, a devastating look at alcoholism, although sport’s injuries briefly turned him into a morphine addict. Showed his divergent talent throughout the first half of the 1960s, with both serious drama and farce, including his best-known work, the Pink Panther series, starring Peter Sellers (Sacha Baron Cohen) as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. After reaching a peak, he had a decade-long slide which included battles with his studios over extravagant budgets and cutting rights. In his mid-40s, he married singer/actress Julie Andrews, who appeared in several of his films, and the couple adopted two Vietnamese girls. Went into self-imposed exile to England in the mid-1970s, and re-established himself with several Pink Panther sequels, before returning to Hollywood with a hit, and then a vicious autobiographical satire of the movie industry called S.O.B. Re-entered a period of decline, following one more award-winning hit. Spent decades in analysis, suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for years and was also subject to paralyzing depressions and suicidal feelings. His last Pink Panther movie was a dismal failure. Revived his hit movie Victor/Victoria as a Broadway play, marking his wife’s return to that venue after 30 years, while questioning his own waning abilities, and still trying to prove himself to himself. Inner: Feisty, combative, macho S.O.B., with an enormous ego. Sensitive, mercurial, and very physical, into both judo and yoga. Dualistic lifetime of total self-involvement with bringing his fantasies to life, while dealing with his own unintegrated interior and realities in less successful fashion. Georges Feydeau (1862-1921) - French playwright. Outer: Father was an archaeologist and writer, best remembered for the tale, Fanny. Charming, albeit lazy his entire life, began writing plays after his very first visit to the theater as a youth. Wrote when he didn’t feel like studying. Began his career as a lawyer’s clerk. His first play was produced at 20, and he had first hit 4 years later, written while he was in the military service. Both an actor and director, with a sure sense of the stage. Became an expert at farces, often using misunderstandings between unfaithful husbands or wives as the lynchpin for his plots. Gained both fame and fortune, which lessened his desire to write, preferring instead to enjoy his gains. Married Marianne Carolus-Duran, the daughter of a well-known portrait painter, in his mid-20s, several children from the union, which ended in separation after 15 years, and was officially over in 1916. Gained both fame and fortune, which lessened his desire to write, preferring instead to enjoy his gains, via gambling and high living, although stock market losses forced him back to writing again. Penned 39 comedies over a period of 3 1/2 decades, using characters who shouldn’t meet but do anyway, while exploring the comic effects of their subsequent entanglements. Suffered declining mental health due to syphilis after his mid-50s, and was eventually committed to a sanitarium by his family, where he died insane two years later. Inner: Witty, facile writer, with the ability to comically explore eccentric interrelationships. Brilliant conversationalist, but few close friends, thanks to his unintegrated personality. Sybaritic lifetime of bringing the farce to theatrical respectability, while doing battle with his own dual proclivities for procrastination and pleasure.

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PATHWAY OF THE ARTIST AS VERBAL AND VISUAL SATIRIST:
Storyline: The urban observer sprays his unique graffiti across the cultural landscape with a variety of pens and brushes, while maintaining his liberal eye for the foibles of his various times.
Jules Feiffer (1929) - American cartoonist and playwright. Outer: Of Jewish descent. Mother was a fashion designer, and a fearsome figure, for whom her son would hold a lifelong abhorrence, even after her demise. Father held a variety of jobs, from dental technician to salesman. Lived in constant fear as a child, as victim of his mother’s anger, and his father’s equal dread of her. Attended art school, then began working as a cartoonist as a teen, assisting legendary comics-meister Will Eisner for five years, writing scripts for The Spirit. Tall and thin. Held various art related jobs, before serving in the military for 2 years, working in a cartoon animation unit, and picking up a lifelong contempt for abusive authority. After failing with a strip called "Clifford," in 1956, he began producing "Sick, Sick, Sick," a series of psychologically-oriented cartoon panels in NYC’s Village Voice, creating a host of simply-sketched, self-involved characters filled with the angst and comic self-analysis of his fellow city-dwellers. Immortalized the first woman who ever spent the night with him, an interpretive dancer, as his amusing muse in his strips, allowing her a 40 year run for briefly gracing his bed. Changed the title of the strip to his last name once it went into syndication, in keeping with a longheld desire for fame, if not fortune. In 1960, he won an Academy Reward for his animated cartoon, Munro, about a four year old drafted into the army, and along the way also penned several filmscripts, including Popeye and Carnal Knowledge. Enjoyed a multi-decade career as a liberal satirist, publishing numerous collections of his works, while maintaining a veiled sense of outrage at the inherent contradictions that lay at the heart of the 2nd half of 20th century American life. One of the very few cartoonists to appear in the good, grey NY Times, which usually frowns upon that medium. More the commentator than the artist, with a unique, deceptive style that perfectly counterpointed the intense emotions behind his creations. In his early 30s, he married Judith Sheftel, a picture editor for “Playboy” magazine, one daughter from the union, which ended in divorce in 1983. Remarried journalist Jennifer Allen soon afterwards, 2 daughters from the 2nd union. A novelist and playwright as well, most noted for "Little Murders," he also won a Pulitzer prize in 1986 for editorial cartooning. Consistently able to limn the urban, political and cultural sensibilities of his times, with an acute ear for the inherent inconsistencies of everyday life and the skewed political philosophies behind them. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995. Eventually grew weary of politics, and in 2000, discontinued his strip after four decades in order to concentrate on teaching, lecturing and writing children’s books, as well as drawing for other periodicals, without a weekly deadline staring at him. Published his memoirs, “Backing into Forward,” in 2010, in which he admitted his unabated desire for becoming a well-known name as a primary motivation in his life. Inner: Wry, witty, political and competitive. Unrepentant liberal whose sense of dismay has mellowed slightly with age, but never lost its bite. Sharply-observed lifetime of adapting his keen sense of perception surrounding the social foibles of urban America. Henri Monnier (1799-1877) - French cartoonist and playwright. Outer: Father was a government employee. Lived his entire life in Paris. Entered a notary’s office at 16, his education uncompleted. Next worked for a minister of justice, but took lessons from several well-known artists, although he was forced to leave one atelier because of his penchant for practical jokes. Began his career as a book illustrator, as well as doing lithographs and caricatures. His gift was as a keen observer, rather than an accomplished artist, preferring to limn social types in all their vainglory, rather than making them esthetically pleasing. Created the character of Joseph Prudhomme, a prosperous bourgeois who bespoke his social ignorance with a loud voice and an extended stomach. Spent 20 years developing him, eventually writing his purported memoirs. Collaborated on comedies and acted in vaudevilles, but his chief interest was caricaturing bourgeois life. Did numerous comic sketches, creating a variety of characters, revealing the close-mindedness and cupidity of his age. Enjoyed a highly prolific and successful artistic life, and became well-known for his creations. Inner: Wry, witty and political. Sharply-observed lifetime, as always, of adapting his keen sense of perception to his urban milieu, as a public purveyor of the social and political foibles of his time.

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PATHWAY OF THE FILMMAKER AS AUTEUR OF ALTERNATING HEART STANCES:
Storyline: The former pioneer silent screener uses her witty sense of romantic fantasy to create an endearing body of work, with considerable drama left over for own private life and its equally resonant reality theater of love lost and love gained.
Nora Ephron (1941) - American filmmaker and journalist. Outer: Of German/Jewish descent. Both her parents, Harry and Phoebe Ephron, were a screenwriting pair, who based some of their material on her, and she, in turn, would use intimates as fodder for her own output. The eldest of four daughters, with her younger sisters, Delia, Amy and Hallie, all writers as well. Grew up in Beverly Hills, where her family moved when she was three, in an atmosphere redolent with show business and self-expression, leading to the entire brood taking up pen in hand, once they came of age, through the storytelling skills they developed around the dinner table. Used her wit to compensate for her plain physicality in a school, Beverly Hills High, notorious for its focus on what was on the outside, not the inside. Both her parents were also alcoholics, with her mother ultimately dying of cirrhosis in 1971, and her father suffering from manic-depression, giving them both a day/night duality that all four daughters would have to ultimately deal with. Headed east as soon as she could and graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in Journalism in 1962, which led to a stint with the New York Post. Also served briefly as an intern in the JFK White House during this period. Became one of the New Journalists of the 1970s, with pieces in “Esquire” and “New York” and two collections of them called “Crazy Salad,” and “Wallflower at the Orgy,” while building a reputation by boldly challenging both her subjects and contemporary shibboleths. Married humorist Dan Greenburg, only to find he was having an affair with her best friend, which acrimoniously ended their childless union after six years. Wed investigative reporter Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame in 1976, to become journalism’s power couple of the moment. Became one of a handful of people who knew his source for Watergate, Deep Throat, and though she would continually divulge it was Mark Felt, it would be largely ignored. Two sons from the union which ended in divorce, once again through the former’s infidelity. In order to deal with the humiliation, she penned “Heartburn,” which was later turned into a film, while drawing the wrath of mate #2, and extracting a satisfying pound of flesh revenge from him through it. Became a screenwriter as a means of support for her family, first as a collaborator with Alice Arlen, writing Silkwood in 1983, then turned to romantic comedy as her preferred cinematic bread-and-butter, scoring a huge success with When Harry Met Sally in 1989. Mate #3, journalist and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi turned out to the charm for her, after the two wed in 1987. Became a film director with This Is My Life in 1992, which she co-wrote with her sister Delia, and then had another huge hit with Sleepless in Seattle in 1994. Became a blogger for “The Huffington Post” after the turn of the century, while continuing her filmic output, as either a writer, director or producer, or sometimes all three. Inner: Both cynical and romantic, with a solid resiliency, and a wicked sense of humor. Highly ambitious and driven, her mother’s daughter without the need to secretly lubricate her dual sense of power and powerlessness. Pen-in-hand lifetime of exploring the various vagaries of love and turning her investigations into entertainment and elucidating articles, as well as employing it for self-discovery around her own abilities at recovery and satisfying self-resurrection. June Mathis (June Beulah Hughes) (1889-1927) - American filmmaker and vaudevillian. Outer: An only child, her mother remarried after divorcing her physician father when she was 7. Took her stage name from her stepfather, a widower with three children, while relocating to Salt Lake City, with which she would continue to strongly identify. Sickly as a child, with a heart ailment, which led her to believe in a sense of her own power of self-healing. Began appearing on stage in vaudeville in San Francisco from her early teens onwards, as a mimic and a dancer to popular effect, before joining a traveling company and then working several times with female impressionist Julian Eltinge (Nicolas Cage). Small and plain. Lost her stepfather, and continued working to support herself and her mother, to whom she was very close. Made one screen appearance in 1910, then decided to become a screenwriter. Moved to NYC with her mother in tow, and made her debut effort in celluloid in 1915 with The House of Tears. Helped establish the importance of the script in the silent era, and, after signing with Metro, and moving to Hollywood, she was soon one of the silent screen’s top writers. Emphasized theme in her works and worked closely with directors so that they could maintain her narrative lines. In 1918, she became the industry’s first female executive as head of her studio’s scenario department. Wore an opal ring while writing, believing it gave her added channeling power. Launched the meteoric career of Rudolph Valentino (John Travolta) in 1920, with The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which made everyone involved in it major Hollywood figures. Moved with him to Famous Players-Lasky, and penned another of his big silent hits, Blood and Sand, while he looked on her as a mother figure and continually sought her advice around his career. Despite a close friendship, the duo would have a falling-out in 1924 during his second bigamous marriage, when he and his wife rejected one of her scripts, although they would patch things up just prior to his premature death in 1926. Became an editorial director with Goldwyn, and oversaw Ben Hur only to run into difficulties with its director Charles Brabin (Baz Luhrmann) causing her to sign on with First National, and pen comedies rather than dramas, while her status in Hollywood diminished somewhat from Hur’s initial failed effort. Showed herself to be a talented editor, as well as a redeemer of failed scripts and canny casting director, in addition to her other skills. After several affairs with fellow directors, in 1924, she married Italian cinematographer and director Sylvano Balboni. Received some bad raps for her editing of Erich von Stroheim’s monumental Greed, which originally ran some 10 hours, although others were involved in its ultimate considerably reduced size, while she only pared away a distractive subplot. Became one of the founding members of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, while also serving as the highest paid woman executive in Tinsel Town, and number three on its list of female powerhouses behind Mary Pickford and Norma Talmadge (Gwyneth Paltrow). Died unexpectedly of a heart attack, just as the silent era was ending, while attending a play in NY, “The Squall,” with her mother, uttering as her final sentiment, “Mother, I’m dying.” Succumbed in an alley after being carried out of the theater, and wound up buried to the left of Valentino, in a crypt she had loaned him. Deeply in debt at the end, her husband sued her 84 year old grandmother over an inheritance intended for her, before returning to Italy. Although largely a forgotten figure afterwards, she remains a true pioneer of early Hollywood, creating all sort of precedents for the women who followed her in the production and storytelling end of the industry. Inner: Serious, focused and driven. Strong believer in spiritualism, the Book of Revelation and reincarnation, as well as pure self will. Pioneer lifetime of allowing her sense of story and organization to give structure to early film, while breaking down gender barriers through a powerful sense of will that was unfortunately housed in a body whose own heart was far more vulnerable than she realized.

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PATHWAY OF THE POET AS CHRONICLER OF FAMILIAR MILIEUS:
Storyline: The sage saga-spinner comes into a more engaging social setting to allow himself to open up more, and lose the detachment that had marked his previous go-round as a keen critical eye, but protected heart, which, in turn, had lessened him as both an artist and social observer.
Barry Levinson (1942) - American filmmaker. Outer: Father was a Jewish businessman who started Baltimore’s first discount appliance warehouse. Raised in a Jewish neighborhood where his immigrant grandparents settled. Older of 2 brothers. Warm, close family life, which he would later limn on film. Worked in sales while attending a local junior college, then transferred to American Univ. in Washington, D.C., where he majored in broadcast journalism. Spent 7 years without getting a degree, before coming to Los Angeles to try to become an actor. Worked for the Oxford Company, studying improv, acting and production. Became a stand-up comic writer, which led to network work as a writer/performer for “The Carol Burnett Show” in 1967, and he garnered two Emmys in 3 years for his efforts. In 1975, he married actress Valerie Curtin, daughter Michelle Levinson became an actress. Curtin also collaborated on some of his subsequent scripts. Did collaborative work with Mel Brooks, appearing in two of his films, Silent Movie and High Anxiety in 1976 and 1977. Made his directorial debut in 1982 with Diner, limning a set of friends in 1950s Baltimore, and would subsequently return often to his native city, to become a filmic chronicler of sorts of its past. Divorced the same year, and later married an artist and teacher, and fellow Baltimorean, Diana Mena. She had two children, and they had two more together, including actor Sam Levinson. After several successful comedies, he reached his first plateau in 1988 with Rain Man, about an autistic idiot savant and his exploitative brother, which won Academy Rewards all the way around, including best director and best picture. Alternated afterwards with personal and commercial fare to varying effect, and in 1990 formed Baltimore Productions with a partner, and later in the decade became part owner of the Baltimore Orioles. Also went into TV production in the 1990s with “Homicide: Life on the Street,” once more set in his native city. Bicoastal, with homes in Northern California and Maryland. Inner: Warm, relaxed, with a good sense of humor. Self-styled, “the most uncranky writer I know.” Loosening up lifetime of coming into a more expressive cultural milieu, while still retaining the desire to act as chronicler of his surroundings, but with an added heart to his work to complement his unerring eye for social foibles. John Galsworthy (1867-1933) - English writer. Outer: From Devonshire farming stock, who made their fortune in the 19th century. 2nd of 4 children and elder son of a wealthy solicitor and businessman of the same name. Mother was the daughter of a needle maker. Educated at Harrow, where he showed himself to be a good athlete, then at New College, Oxford, for a career at the bar. Decided initially to specialize in marine law. Following Lincoln’s Inn, he was called to the bar in 1890. Handsome, dignified and fastidious. Independently wealthy, he traveled extensively around the world, looking after his sire’s business interest, and met the writer Joseph Conrad (Jerzy Kosinski) at sea, who became a lifelong friend. Bored with the law, he began writing instead at 30, and, under the pseudonym, John Sinjohn, published a volume of stories and several novels. Married Ada Nemesis Pearson, the divorced wife of his first cousin in 1905, with whom he had been secretly intimate for a decade, although the relationship was purposefully kept hidden from his father. She helped him considerably in his work, no children from union. Initially, he built his reputation with his stagework, playing with social and moral themes, beginning in 1906, with “The Silver Box,” and added essays, as well as short stories, to his body of work, although he would be best remembered for a series of trilogies, The Forsythe Saga, a 40 year chronicle of a wealthy industrial Victorian upper middle-class family, A Modern Comedy, which was written in the 1920s and explored that era, and End of the Chapter, the least successful of the three, which was published posthumously. An extremely straightforward writer, who was popular with the public, but never received the high critical acclaim he felt was his due. Refused a knighthood in 1918. Won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1932, as well as numerous honors. Died at his home of a brain tumor the following year. Left cottages at his Sussex retreat to his amazed tenants, in his will. Inner: Held no political convictions, despite being liberal in his stance, and was criticized for being too detached, so that his satires and critiques of the inequities of the English class system, were not viewed as coming from the heart, but rather the head. Sensitive and exact observer of life. Reserved, with a strong sense of propriety, little evident humor, and love, beauty and justice, as his guiding trinity. An activist and do-gooder, he was involved in a number of causes. Well-received lifetime of combining an excellent eye for social dynamics, and an equally adroit ear for speech, while limiting his own private drama to clandestine love, in a life otherwise largely free of conflict, as well as emotional resonance.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS GRITTY REALIST:
Storyline: The unmellow melodramatist brings his gritty vision of problematical America to the stage and small screen and is richly rewarded for his efforts.
Steven Bochco (1943) - American television producer and writer. Outer: Of Russian descent. Father was a child prodigy who became a concert violinist, then played in an orchestra, and finally opened up a failed furniture shop. Mother was a Lithuanian artist and designer. Sister Joanna Franks became an actress. Grew up in Manhattan, wanting to be a writer and a millionaire, although was not that much of a reader. First story rejected at 17. More into tabloid realities than literature, as reflection of his own inner view. An undistinguished student, he won a scholarship to NYU, and a year later, studied playwrighting at Carnegie Tech, but left school for Hollywood where he talked his way into a job reading scripts. Finished college on an M.C.A. writing fellowship and became an apprentice writer for Universal Television. Married Gabrielle Levin in 1964, divorced 5 years later, then in 1970, he wed actress Barbara Bossom, two children from the union, with their son Jesse becoming a producer. The couple eventually separated after nearly 3 decades together. Established himself as a force in TV with the innovative Hill Street Blues, and then went on to produce several memorable series, including L.A. Law. In most of his shows, crisp storylines, complex characters, strong visuals and an avid viewership combined to give depth and resonance to fictional purveyors of law and criminality. Received death threats because of opening up TV to nudity and crude language on NYPD Blue, which went on to be a huge success. In 2000, he married producer Dayna Kalins. Although several innovative ideas failed to find their audience, he continues to be an imaginative resource for network television. In 2003, he published his first novel, “Death by Hollywood,” and 2 years later, he created the precedent-setting, “Over There” for TV, the first ever military show focusing on an ongoing conflict, the Iraq Insurgency, although it only lasted one season. Went on to take over for the ongoing “Commander In Chief,” only to be bounced from that position as well, leaving him in 2006, without a show on the air for the first time since 1981. Two years later, he returned to cable TV with “Raising the Bar,” a lawyer drama, which proved popular in its truncated-first season run. Inner: Intense, driven and highly materialistic. Writes on the fly, using short breaks to pen scenes of dialogue. Airwaves lifetime of continuing his desire to present vivid drama to the American public, and be well rewarded for his efforts, using the intimacy of television, rather than the stage as in existences previous in this series. David Belasco (1853-1931) - American playwright and producer. Outer: Parents were of Portuguese-Jewish ancesty, family name was originally Velasco. Father had played in London pantomimes as a harlequin, while his brother Walter became an actor. Ran away from home and made his acting debut, eventually switching to the role of dramatist and producer. Married Cecilia Loverish in 1873, 2 daughters from the lifelong union. Became stage manager and resident dramatist with Maguire’s theater in San Francisco in 1874, before basing himself in NYC in 1882. Extremely concerned with realism on stage, once showing a restaurant that actually made coffee and pancakes. Wrote sentimental and superficial dramas, while his role as a producer overshadowed his own written work, since it was geared primarily for escapism. Brilliant manager, and highly innovative mechanically, particularly with use of lighting. Worked with several companies and then built his own theater in his early 50s. Usually wrote for his leading lady, and became both rich and famous through his endeavors, thanks for his unthreatening facility for pure entertainment. Fought against Actor’s Equity strikes in 1919 and 1924. Died after a mild heart attack. Inner: Highly calculated individual, with a very strong control ethic. Staged his own temper tantrums by stamping on cheap watches he bought for that precise display. Known as the ‘Bishop of Broadway,’ because of his conservative dress and the clerical collars he wore, despite a private fascination with pornography. Focused lifetime of bringing his private sense of theatrics to a very public audience and enhancing the ongoing development of the theater through his vivid melodramas, while taking great care not to offend or elevate, only to amuse.

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PATHWAY OF THE POET AS BIPOLAR BARD OF HYPERCOMMERCIAL FARE:
Storyline: The willful wildman eventually does an about face, discarding his basic instinct for self-destruction in favor of the traditional religious values he had long shunned, after being painfully forced to confront his own mortality following a longtime run as a Hollywood animal.
Joe Eszterhas (Josef Eszterhas) (1944) - Hungarian/American writer and filmmaker. Outer: Father was an editor and historical novelist, who aided the pro-Nazi Hungarian government with anti-Semitic screeds. Spent his early childhood in a displaced persons camp near the Austrian-Hungarian border, before actor Jeno Mate sponsored his family’s emigration to Cleveland when he was 6. Grew up in a Hungarian immigrant neighborhood, while his family’s uprootedness unbent his mother, a devout Christian, who was non compos mentos the last decade of her life. Tormented by the possibility that his sire may have committed war crimes. Ran wild in the streets as a juvenile delinquent, on his way to becoming a four pack a day smoker, and a chronic alcoholic, with an aggressively pugnacious personality as reflection of his excesses. A poor student, he, nevertheless, went to Ohio University, although never graduated. Despite English being his second language, he evinced a facility with the written word, and began as a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, while feeling fiction was his true métier. Worked as a senior editor for Rolling Stone magazine, before turning to screenwriting to support himself. In 1972, he married Geraldine Javer, a police reporter. DJ son and photographer daughter from the union, which ended in divorce in 1993. His daughter was adopted at birth, and the two ultimately became estranged, although eventually bridged their divide. Had his first screenplay, F.I.S.T., produced in 1983. Enjoyed several subsequent hits, while continuing to abandon himself to his innate sense of excess in all things sensual. In 1990, he set a record for the time with $3 million for his screenplay, Basic Instinct, which was a sensationalistic hit. As a counterbalance, he won a Razzie for Showgirls in 1995, while his later high-yield efforts failed to reach the screen. Managed to see 17 of his efforts produced, while also becoming a producer himself after the success of Basic Instinct. In 1994, he wed Naomi Baca, an artist and producer, 3 sons from the union. Moved back to Ohio in the late 1990s, and discovered he had throat cancer, thanks to his various indulgences. Lost 4/5 of his larynx in an operation in 2003, while praying for the first time to extend his life for his children. Became a ragged-voiced spokesman against glamorizing cigarette-smoking in movies afterwards, as well as a practicing Catholic. The author of 5 books, including several memoirs, as well as one tome, “Charlie Simpson’s Apocalypse,” which became a nominee for a National Book Award in 1974. His latest, “Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith,” would be a counterfoil to his previous wildman braggadocio, and a testament to his re-embracing long-mocked values of God and family. Inner: High energy, hedonistic, self-involved and a lover of extremes. Candle-at-both-ends lifetime of giving full play to his hell-bent feral nature, before being forced to see the light and embrace its luminescence as a born-again traditionalist, heaven-bent on saving himself. Zane Grey (Pearl Zane Gray) (1872-1939) - American writer. Outer: Born in an Ohio town founded by a paternal ancestor, while his other forebears on both sides had been pioneer homesteaders. Father was a dentist, as well as a preacher and farmer. Mother was extremely supportive of her volatile son, who was an avid reader while growing up. 3rd child with two older sisters and a younger brother. After his birth the family changed the spelling of their cognomen from Gray to Grey. Had an athletic outdoorsy upbringing, replete with many fights, and an equal number of beatings by his progenitor, who was a firm believer in never sparing the rod. Short and wiry. Helped out his father’s practice during a time of family financial crisis due to the former’s ineptitude with investments. 5’8”, 150 lbs., lean-faced and physically trim his entire life. Won a baseball scholarship to the Univ. of Penna, and per his sire’s wishes, graduated in 1896 with a degree in dentistry, although had little liking for the profession. After a solid college career in the field, if not the classroom, where his athleticism far outshone his scholarship, he played semi-pro and amateur baseball for a couple of teams over several seasons, while also settling a paternity suit. His brother Romer also pursued baseball and wound up playing in one major league game. Shy and relatively asocial, he moved to NYC to open a practice, while continuing his interest in writing, despite being a stilted penman initially. Met his future wife, Dolly Roth, while there, and, after a volatile courtship, the duo were wed in 1905. 2 sons and a daughter from the union, with his progeny sharing their father’s love of the great outdoors. Settled in small-town Pennsylvania, and began writing stories about his interests, with his first, on fishing, published in 1902. Soon closed his dental practice, to devote his full-time to writing. After initially suffering numerous rejections, he self-published his first novel, “Betty Zane,” which was based on the lives of his ancestors. Began using the Old West as his thematic backdrop, to far better effect and in 1910, reached bestseller status with “The Heritage of the Desert.” Two years later, he penned his best-known work, “Riders of the Purple Sage.” His wife gave up her teaching career when they wed, and, like a dutiful spouse of that era, supported his long absences from home, as well as ignoring his many marital indiscretions, while making deals with publishers, agents and studios, and scrupulously editing his work, showing an adeptness in both disciplines. Near the end of WW I, he and his family moved to Southern California, where he established the Zane Grey Productions film company, which would soon be absorbed by Paramount Pictures. In 1924, he bought the sailboat Fisherman, and traversed the world’s premier fishing grounds with it, while also maintaining a hunting lodge in Arizona. Spent more and more time away from his family, while weaving his adventures in the wild into serialized stories and magazine articles, as well as his annual best-selling novel. Remained a popular writer throughout his life, despite peaking early and then basically repeating himself. Nevertheless, his reputation, which was not enthusiastically supported by his contemporary critics, allowed him to become the best-selling Western author of all time, offering escapist adventure stories that an eager public lapped up, both in book form, and on radio, TV and the silver screen. Suffered a heart attack in 1937, and died at home of heart failure two years later. Highly prolific, he ultimately penned some 90 books, with 30 westerns, several fishing tomes, and an assortment of juvenilia, baseball stories as well as a trio of works on his ancestors. Well over 100 cinematic westerns based on his works were also shot, both during and after his lifetime. Inner: Extremely self-absorbed, violent and compulsively seductive, with a tendency towards wild mood swings from depression to rage. Probably bipolar, although a romantic at heart. Grey area lifetime of trying to integrate his love for the outdoors with his fascination with the written word, and his quasi-sense of domesticity with his wanderlust, while dealing with his darkness through a tremendous need of continual change of scenery, to sate the never-satisfied beast within.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS EARTHY STORYTELLER:
Storyline: The profane realist uses his fine-tuned eye and ear to recreate his projected world according to his own stickler standards.
David Mamet (1947) - American playwright. Outer: Father was a harsh, demanding Jewish labor lawyer, who bluffed his way into law school, and then became a topknotch attorney. His sister became a screenwriter, and his brother an actor. His parents divorced when he was young, and his stepfather was violent and an unloving figure, giving him the material for much of his later obscenity-laced dialogue. Appeared on a radio show for Jewish children on Sunday mornings, and was an amateur actor as a child. Became interested in playwrighting as a teenager, and was also an athlete in high school, and sports editor of the school paper. Later attended, but did not graduate, Goddard College, although continued developing his interest in stagecraft through the campus theater. Did numerous odd jobs, including cooking on a merchant ship in the Great Lakes, while honing his writing skills. Made his auspicious debut at 27 with American Buffalo, whose street-talk and brutal language established him as a unique voice in the American theater, and got him an invite to teach at Yale. Won a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critic’s Circle award for Glengarry Glen Ross in 1984, based on his own experience as a real estate salesman. Began writing for the movies in the late 1970s, and then started to direct his own projects, including House of Games. When he was 30, he married actress Lindsay Crouse, who appeared in the latter. The duo divorced thirteen years later, 2 children from the union. In 1991, he married actress/ singer/songwriter Rebecca Pigeon, 2 children. Settled in rural Vermont in an old farmhouse, although the focus of most of his dramas are urban. Stopped giving interviews to the press for a while, while maintaining his prolific output and his status as the dark staccato voice of America’s visceral urban psyche. Trains with an expert in knife combat on occasion just to stay in shape, and also regularly practices jujitsu. After several failures, he finally landed a successful series, “The Unit,” on TV in 2006, which was based on a Delta Force soldier’s memoirs. Extremely prolific in a variety of media, with two dozen screenplays, 10 films, and 11 non-fiction books to his credit, as well as three novels, in addition to his many plays. One of a handful of people who are simultaneous members of the highly liberal ACLU and equally conservative National Rifle Assoc. Inner: Earthy, well-read, strongly opinionated with a leftward bent. Acutely attuned to the language of his times. Distinctly masculine overview, albeit polite and literate in person. Demands his actors follow his scripts to the letter, allowing for no deviations. Man’s man lifetime of theatrically mirroring male sensibilities and the inherent violence in the communication between the sexes through his fine ear for the rough language of everyday life, written from an unstable springboard which would force him to artistically redress the world. Sidney Howard (1891-1939) - American playwright. Outer: Father was a steamship company executive, mother was a professional organist and pianist. Family was from pioneer stock. Took several childhood trips to Europe, and spent time in a Swiss sanitarium for TB in his late teens. Graduated from Berkeley and then studied at the Harvard 47 workshop. Served with the American ambulance corps during WW I before ultimately becoming a captain in the U.S. Air Corps. After his discharge, he joined the editorial staff of the humor magazine, Life, and in his early 30s married actress Clare Eames, the leading lady of his first produced drama. She died nine years later. After becoming a feature writer for a Hearst Publication, he began writing plays. Best known for They Knew What They Wanted, which was later made into a musical. Translated and adapted several European dramas, as well as worked in collaboration with a number of different writers. After the death of his first wife, he married the daughter of a conductor. Very active in theater affairs, president of the Dramatics’ Guild, while continually encouraging younger playwrights. Died in a tractor accident on his rural Massachusetts farm, a symbol of his own earnest earthiness. Inner: Unoriginal but honest. More the storyteller than the lyrical dramatist. Had a keen ear for dialogue and an observant eye for action. Active lifetime of improving his dramatist’s skills through his own works, collaborations and adaptations, before re-emerging as a far more unique figure his next go-round in this series, after having given himself a solid foundation in all aspects of the theater.

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PATHWAY OF THE COMEDIAN AS OFF-THE-WALL ODDBALL:
Storyline: The angst-ridden humorist uses reel life to try to make sense out of his real life, while slowly dealing with the fears that lie at the heart of his unusual sense of the absurd, in order to ultimately see his true self.
Albert Brooks (Albert Lawrence Einstein) (1947) - Outer: Son of a show business couple. Father, Harry Einstein, was a dialect comedian, creating the Greek character Parkyakarkus as a foil for comedian Eddie Cantor on radio and in film, as well as his own radio show. Mother, Thelma Goodman, was an actress and singer. Parents met as contract players for RKO. Named Albert Einstein as a joke, forcing him to create a defensive comic sensibility to compensate for it. Youngest of 4, including an older half-brother who became a well-known sportswriter, while brother Bob became mock-daredevil comic Super Dave Osborne. Father had a weak heart, and son spent his childhood waiting for him to die, which he did in 1958 at a Friar’s roast, then his mother remarried a man in the shoe business, to whom he was very attached. Grew up in a lively household, and was class clown at Beverly Hills High School, enjoying only drama class. Majored in drama at Carnegie Tech, but quit half-way through, deciding against becoming a dramatic actor. Changed his name at the age of 20, to begin his own career. Became a stand-up comic, appearing on TV in the late 1960s, then took a year off in 1974, before returning with a series of short films on TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” in its initial 1975 season, displaying a unique brand of humor dependent on an anxious, baffled point of view rather than jokes-per-se, in an unconscious throwback to his previous existence in Hollywood. Left after a falling-out with the producer. After appearing as an actor in Taxi Driver in 1976, he entered films 3 years later as a tri-hatted actor, director, screenwriter, with Real Life and has continued playing agonized yuppie characters ever since, fashioning a successful screen career out of projections of himself as he has moved from his 20s to his 50s. Worked with longtime female collaborator Mona Johnson on all his films, save one, when the 2 had a falling out over a business dispute. In 1997, he married Kimberly Shain, a Web site designer, 2 children from union. Domesticity, at his relatively late age, proved to be an excellent antidote for his legendary reclusiveness, having previously not allowed even his closest acquaintances access to his house, in an ironic twist on his reel life self-revealing projection fearing to do the same in real life. Inner: Extremely private person, despite a willingness to publicly exploit his own fears and wounds through his films. Often exasperating to friends, who forgive him for his excesses, thanks to his ability to riff endlessly and outrageously on virtually anything. Off-the-wall sense of humor and irony, largely built on defenses against a threatening world. Revered by his fellow comics as thoroughly unique and unpredictable. Neurotic lifetime of slowly coming to grips with himself by focusing on the medium that totally confounded him his previous existence in this series, despite his obvious talent at translating his literary brand of unexpected and anxiety-ridden humor into the visual medium of film. Robert Benchley (1889-1945) - American humorist, journalist, screenwriter and actor. Outer: Father was a mayor’s clerk. His older brother, by 13 years, was killed in the Spanish-American War. Subsequently inherited undue affection from his mother, as well as his sibling’s fiancee, while losing his own sense of self in the process. Had a strict Congregationalist upbringing which gave him a sense of public duty. President of the Lampoon at Harvard, and much in demand for his comic skills while there. After graduating, he did advertising and personnel work before becoming associate editor of the NY Tribune Sunday magazine, and later editor of the Tribune Graphic. In 1914, he married Gertrude Darling, a high school friend, two sons from the union. One, Nathaniel, became a writer, as did his grandson, Peter Benchley, author of Jaws and several other thrillers that became movies. Served as secretary of the federal Aircraft board, and became managing editor of Vanity Fair, then a columnist. During the 1920s, he was drama editor of Life and later theater critic for the New Yorker. Became the most famous member of the Algonquin Round Table circle of wits and the only one of whom that no one had a bad word to say. Extremely close friendship with writer Dorothy Parker, duo were intellectual mates, despite being married to others. A heavy drinker, continually lubricating his subtle wit with alcohol. Beginning in 1928, he starred in a series of Hollywood shorts that brought him fame and fortune, as well as a chronic sense of failure. Considered himself a sellout for doing them, but found the money too enticing. Gave much time to controversial causes and social welfare projects. Always felt he should be a serious writer, but his gift for charming lunacy prevailed. Stopped writing in his last decade, declaring that humorists were no longer funny after 50 and drowned himself in drink. Expert at nonsense humor, a monologuist without punch-lines. His shorts were based on his essays. Also appeared in feature films, usually as a bon vivant or amiable pest. Died of a cerebral hemorrhage and cirrhosis of the liver. Inner: Affable and generous, with a feeling of unworthiness, perhaps from an excess of obsessive love during childhood, and the sense that his brother was the one who truly deserved it. Drowned his inadequacies in alcohol. Sinking ship lifetime of great difficulty in accepting who he was, despite the great delight he brought to everyone around him by being his well-lubricated self.

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PATHWAY OF THE POET AS MASTER STORYTELLER:
Storyline: The wandering bard finally finds inner stability through sheer perseverance towards his goals, and a far more stable foundation out of which to recreate himself.
Lawrence Kasdan (1949) - American filmmaker. Outer: Born in Florida, but raised in West Virginia, where his father managed one of the family’s electronic stores. His writing was encouraged by his parents, although he initially wanted to be a teacher. Got his master’s in education at the Univ. of Michigan. Married Meg Goldman, a fellow student, while in his early 20s, their sons Jake and Jon, both became writers and directors, with the whole family playing off one another, and big fans of each other’s work. Became a copywriter instead of a teacher, creating TV commercials, while penning screenplays in his spare time,which gave him the desire to ultimately be a movie director. After five years of hating his job, in an unconscious repeat of his previous go-round’s dissatisfaction with the same occupation, and numerous rejections, he finally had his first screenplay accepted, although it took 17 years for it to become a movie. Eventually established himself as the co-writer on one of George Lucas’s Star Wars trilogy. Then wrote the equally successful solo screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Given the opportunity to direct his own creation, he came up with the film noir, Body Heat in 1981, followed by an ensemble piece of intertwined stories, The Big Chill. Has had a close working partnership with his wife ever since he became a director. Continues to expand his filmic abilities, working in various genres, while his focus remains on the written word and the solid stories behind them. Accused of slickness in his earlier works, but eventually has won high regard for his abilities. Inner: Walking encyclopedia of filmic lore, with a strong draw towards structured movies of earlier eras. Born storyteller with a sure cinematic eye for situation and character. Actualized lifetime of finding support early on for his ambitions, and after suffering early frustrations around them, evincing a far more integrated character because of them. Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) - American writer. Outer: Father was a day laborer, who was an improvident wanderer and teller of tales. 3rd of 7 children all born in a different Ohio town. Had a scattered education, often leaving school in order to help out the family. Worked as newsboy, house painter, farm hand and racetrack helper. Served in the U.S. Army in the Spanish-American War, then completed his high school education. Heavyset, with a leonine head. Became a Chicago advertising copywriter, then married into a wealthy family via Cornelia Lane in 1904, two sons and a daughter from the union. 3 years later, he started his own building materials business, and became known as the ‘Roof-fix Man.’ Secret scribbler, who would lock himself in a room and write. One day, in 1912, he stopped in the middle of dictating a letter, walked out of his office, and just kept going for four days, in what would be a breakdown act of claiming his true self. Woke up in a Cleveland hospital, seemingly reborn, and left his family to pursue a career as a writer full-time in Chicago, where he was friendly with fellow scriveners Theodore Dreiser (Paul Schrader) and Edgar Lee Masters (John Grisham). Had four marriages all told, with the first three ending in divorce. His second wife, whom he wed in 1916 and divorced 8 years later, Tennessee Mitchell, was a sculptor. Married his third wife, Elizabeth Prall, in 1924. Didn’t publish until after he was 40, but served as an inspiration and patron for many writers. His fame rests with the short stories of Winesburg, Ohio, in which he created self-proclaimed emotionally stunted ‘grotesques’ grappling with ordinary life. Wrote several volumes of short stories, as well as several experimental novels. In 1925, he bought a Virgina farm, then purchased two newspapers which were politically opposed, contributing articles to both of them. Married for the final time in 1933 to Eleanor Copenhaver, with whom he traveled extensively, and became a champion of the workingman. Unhappy at life’s end, despite his success and the deep respect he had won from his fellow literateurs. Died of peritonitis from a broken toothpick, while sailing to South America. Mouths are symbol of childhood neglect, and his ending was redolent with the poisons he felt around his unstable upbringing. Inner: Gloomy, restless and rebellious, but later sentimental. Flamboyant, loved being center of attention, after he became famous, although he was never able to integrate a sense of inner peace around it. Teacher at heart, who supported young talent. Peripatetic lifetime of turning from the American dream of stability and success, which gave him little satisfaction, to his own dream of becoming a masterful delineator of small town America.

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PATHWAY OF THE PERFORMER AS GENIAL PROVOCATEUR:
Storyline: The likable liberal manages to mix politics with entertainment to good effect in both realms, thanks to a projected innocence that hides a far more driven character behind it.
Tim Robbins (1958) - American actor. Outer: Father was Gil Robbins, an actor and member of the folkie group, the Highwaymen. Mother was a publishing exec in the magazine industry. Fourth and youngest child in a devoutly Catholic family. Family moved to Greenwich Village when son was two, where his sire managed the Gaslight cafe. Toured with them promoting Ever Ready Batteries as a 7 year old. Did odd jobs at the Gaslight as a youth, and also labored for seven years, starting at 12, at the Theater for the New City, where his sisters were working. Made his performing debut at 12, alongside his father, singing a protest song. Tall, baby-faced, athletic. Performed street theater throughout NYC, as well as directed plays in high/school and at State Univ. of NY for two years. Enrolled at UCLA and formed the avant-garde The Actor’s’ Gang, maintaining his connection with the group long after he became a movie personality. Began to work in TV dramas and then do bit parts in films, beginning in 1983 with Toy Soldiers. his first big role came at 30, in Bull Durham where he met his partner, Susan Sarandon, who played off his role as a thick-headed young pitcher, two children from the union, although the duo never married. Thanks to its success, he was able to return to NYC, which has been their base ever since. Continued garnering unusual roles, winning the Cannes Film Festival award in 1992 as an ambitious, but morally obtuse, producer in The Player, which also established him as a Hollywood player. Wrote, starred and made his directorial debut in a heavy-handed political satire, Bob Roberts, which announced him as a Hollywood activist of the liberal persuasion, an image augmented by a speech he gave with Sarandon at the 1994 Oscars. Went on to executive produce several films, as well as write, produce and direct, Dead Man Walking, in 1995, in which Sarandon played Sister Helen Prejean, an active foe of the death penalty. Despite his high political profile, he continues to be well-received by an increasingly conservative mainstream America, allowing him both commercial success, and the ability to put on such dramas as “Embedded,” in his ongoing need to tweak corrupt public consciousness. Made some noise on Election Day 2008, when he was denied the right to vote through a clerical mix-up over his official registration, in an ironic, and perhaps subconscious move to bring that issue to public attention. The mix-up was later straightened out, but not before some very angry public acting-out on his part. The following year, after 23 years together, he and Susan Sarandon quietly went their separate ways. Inner: Thoughtful and mischievous, with a decidedly liberal political overview. Earnest lifetime of successfully parlaying a penchant for protest with an equal proclivity to entertain, while playing more intimately off a longtime partner and mate in a far more integrated go-round for both. Sedley Brown (1856-1928) - American playwright, actor, author and director. Outer: Twin brother of actor J. Edwin Brown, who was another manifestation of himself. Also had a sister. Married actress Henriette Crosman (Susan Sarandon), and appeared with her twice on Broadway in 1909, including, “Votes for Women.” The duo were later divorced. Had two of his own works on Broadway as well, in 1912, “ “Cheer Up” and “Mere Man.” Acted in a few silent films, and married actress Carrie Clark Ward, who died 2 years before him. Inner: Probably earnest and political, but never made a strong public impression. Prelude lifetime of exploring his creativity in part with a longtime partner, in preparation for making far more waves doing the same the second time around. J. Edwin Brown (James Edwin Brown) (1856-1933) - American actor. Outer: Twin brother of actor/playwright Sedley Brown. The two were probably one and the same, and came in together to give one another an alternative perspective on basically the same life, with one focusing largely on Broadway, and the other on filmdom. Also had a sister. Appeared in a goodly number of silent films, beginning in 1913, with a career that lasted until 1923. Always played support roles and never made much of an impression on the public. Outlived his sibling by five years. Like his brother, his life would remain ill-recorded. Inner: Known by a goodly number of name variations, as emblematic of his own alternative personality to his more creative sibling. Alternative lifetime of playing with twinship in order to give himself a wider perspective on a creative public life lived largely outside of the limelight.

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PATHWAY OF THE POET/PERFORMER AS FEMINIST MONOLOGUIST:
Storyline: The longtime womanist finds her true voice in the literal body politic of gender identity, and serially rides it as an inventive activist intent on raising both awareness and hackles on a world still stuck in its primeval inability to see all its denizens in an equal light.
Eve Ensler (1953) - American playwright and performer. Outer: Of Jewish descent. 2nd of 3 children of a food industry executive who sexually abused her until she was 10, and then physically maltreated her afterwards, subjecting her to beatings with a belt, and throwing her against the wall. Her mother was unaware of the abuse, and she suppressed memories of her traumatic beginnings until her late 30s. Acted out her rage as both a child and adolescent, appearing alternately sad, defiant and angry. Ran away from home regularly as a teen, staying with friends, while keeping a journal of her internal angst, which helped her immensely in dealing with it, and gave her her future pathway of transliterating pain into prose in order to transform and heal it. Turned to both alcohol and drugs to numb herself, while still a teen, and was known as a militant feminist in college. Received a B.A. in English literature from Middlebury College in 1975. Her draw towards self-obliteration continued into her 20s, until she met bartender Richard McDermott, who gave her a place to stay and got her into rehab. In turn, she helped him get sober, and the duo married in 1978. Subsequently adopted his son, actor Dylan McDermott, who was less than a decade her junior. During this period, she spent her time waitressing, protesting and writing. After the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, she helped organize CANDU - Chelsea Against Nuclear Destruction Unlimited, and also used the incident as inspiration for The Depot, a one woman play about nuclear disarmament. Her marriage ended in divorce in 1988, after she went on to discover her bisexuality. Hooked up two years later with Ariel Orr Jordan, an Israeli psychotherapist of the same gender, who furthered her ongoing self-healing. Wrote Ladies in 1989, on homelessness after interviewing about 50 women she had met while volunteering at a shelter. Used the same technique in 1996 for creating her classic of sorts with The Vagina Monologues, which was the result of several hundred interviews and began as an off-off-Broadway production, with herself as its singular performer, delivering a series of monologues on a variety of subjects that centered round the female sex organ, as an emblem of gender empowerment. The original set pieces won an Obie in 1996 for ‘Best New Play,’ before taking on a whole life of its own, with additional monologues and a multitude of big-name performers, as well as a worldwide venue in over one hundred countries in a host of languages. Each year a new monologue would be added to reflect current and universal concerns, while the work would inspire a host of parodies, as well as much criticism in the feminist community for its vitriol against men and lack of balance in its various sexual views. Launched V-Day in 1998, as a replacement for Valentine’s Day, dedicated to raising both money and awareness about violence against women around the world, in her self-appointed role as a high profile activist in the realm of female empowerment. At the same time, she began a women’s writing workshop at a correctional facility, and the following year, she won a Guggenheim Fellowship for playwriting. Became a Buddhist and after the turn of the century, began repairing her relationship with her mother, following the death of her father in the early 1990s, as part of her own lessons of forgiveness. Continued exploring corporal issues, with a work on transgendered women, and another on bodily obsessions and the need for women to reshape themselves to appeal to others. An author as well, she has written "Insecure At Last," a treatise on the deceptive need to be self-protective at all times. Has also used her celebrity on the international stage, throwing her support to the sore oppressed women of Afghanistan, a county she visited in order to organize programs of self-expression for its female population, as well as the Congo, whose brutalized women have also elicited transformative work on her part on their behalf. Maintains homes in NYC and Paris. Inner: Prone at times in her earlier life to both depression and bingeing, before finding her true voice, and a place, the stage, to transmute her anger into highly identifiable one-sided conversations with other women. Transformative lifetime of suffering degradation and abject humiliation early on, giving voice to great anger afterwards, and finally learning to transmute hers and the experiences of others into elevating theater. Elizabeth Robins (1862-1952) - American/English actress, novelist, playwright and reformer. Outer: Mother was the cousin of her husband, an insurance broker and banker with a progressive outlook. Oldest daughter, in a family beset by tragedy early on. A half-brother died in his teens, one of her other four brothers died in infancy, as did a sister, while her only other sister passed on at the age of 20. Extremely close with her youngest sibling, Raymond, whose birth presaged a decline into mental illness on the part of her mother. Her parents eventually separated and she went to live with her paternal grandmother in Ohio, who gave her the nurturance and support that her earlier homelife could not. In her early 20s her mother disintegrated to the point of being institutionalized, and she finally died in an asylum in 1901. Educated at a seminary for young women, where she got her first taste of the theater. Joined her father, who had become a financial agent in a Colorado mining camp, before decamping for NYC at the age of 19, where she hoped to launch a stage career, despite no training, no financial support and no connections. Through dint of her considerable will, and the help of a wealthy relative, she parlayed her intelligence and beauty into a modest career with the Boston Museum Company, acting under the name of Claire Raymond. Met and married an unstable and depressive actor, George Richmond Parks, in 1885, who subsequently drowned himself in 1887, over his inability to compete with his wife’s stage triumphs. Threw herself into her work in order to assuage her guilt over his demise, and wound up accompanying the widow and daughter of the late Norwegian violinist Ole Bull to Norway, before stopping in London on her way home. The great city captivated her, and she decided to stay. After several years of struggle, she found her true calling in the strongly feminist plays of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (Arthur Miller), and she soon came to be identified with the title role in Hedda Gabler, which she helped produce in 1891. Became involved with William Archer, a translator of Ibsen’s works, and continued both appearing in and stage-managing his works to great acclaim. Didn’t want to be limited to just one playwright’s roles, so she deliberately expanded her repertoire, while also anonymously co-penning a play with a female partner, Alan’s Wife, which was about infanticide. Continued both acting and writing into the new century, with her best known work Votes for Women, which inaugurated suffrage drama on the English stage. Also used the novel form for her polemics, while becoming evermore the activist in the women’s suffrage movement, as her sense of feminism grew and deepened. Retired from the stage in 1902 and became a full-time writer, while also serving as the first president of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League. Had her biggest novelistic success in re-imagining her adventures in the Klondike in “The Magnetic North”,” when she went to Alaska to find her brothers Saxton and Raymond. The latter would become a prominent human right’s activist as well. Never afraid to tackle difficult social subjects in her fiction, she was also extremely active socially, eventually settled in a fifteenth century house in Sussex. Her last companion over her final four decades was Dr. Octavia Wilberforce, with whom she had a mother-daughter relationship, giving her the emotional and financial support that the latter’s family refused, while also allowing her surrogate to act out the professional life her own father had originally envisioned for her. Served as one of the directors of the feminist periodical “Time and Tide,” in her career coda, and was an active writer up until the end of her long life. Despite her many-decade residency in England, she retained her American citizenship, and came back to the U.S. during World War II, before returning to England at life’s end, where she would be cremated and buried. Kept a detailed diary for the last 70 years of her life. Inner: Adventurous, highly independent and socially aware. Activist lifetime of largely being her father’s daughter and transmuting his progressive sensibilities into art and action, before returning to use the opposite side of paternal energy for equally dramatic and transformative effect.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT/PERFORMER AS FEY WIT:
Storyline: The four-eyed funnywoman juggles a multiplicity of hats, including performer, writer and producer with domestic goddess, in an attempt to extend her previous attempt at the first trio into a full-length career, after earlier being stymied by both her times and the limited roles demanded of women in them.
Tina Fey (Elizabeth Stamatina Fey) (1970) - American writer, actress and producer. Outer: Of German-Scottish ancestry on her paternal side, and Greek on her maternal.Father was a college grant writer and mother was a former brokerage employee, and both were conservative Republicans. Mysteriously attacked as a child in her frontyard, which left her with a small scar on her left cheek. One older brother who became a computer programmer. Grew up in a working-class neighborhood in a good-humored home, and was funny from life’s beginning, drawing a picture at 7 of two people holding hands and carrying wedges of Swiss cheese saying, “What a friend we have in cheeses.” A self-proclaimed nerd in high school, she wrote for the school paper. 5’4 1/2”, slim and bespectacled. Studied playwriting and acting at the Univ. of Virginia, getting a B.A. in Theater Arts, then moved to Chicago to learn improv at Second City, while working at the YMCA. Joined the troupe as a performer in 1994, before becoming a writer for TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” in 1997. Two years later, she became the show’s first female head writer. At century’s turn, she began appearing in sketches, and the following year, anchored its “Weekend Update” section. At the same time, she married composer Jeff Richmond, who would work with her on her various creations. One daughter from the union. Made her filmic debut as a writer and costar with the high school dramedy Mean Girls in 2004, after first appearing in a bit part two years earlier in Martin & Orloff. Ultimately turned her experiences at SNL into “30 Rock,” an Emmy award winning situation comedy she created in 2006, which she produces, writes and costars in as Liz Lemon, the head writer of a fictional sketch comedy series. The show took a year to find its audience, but since then has won Emmys in several categories. In addition, she has also taken home a Golden Globe for her acting work on it. Added Baby Mama to her growing list of credits soon afterwards, while filling her hours to the limit with both her domestic and professional duties. During the last two months of the 2008 presidential campaign, she returned to SNL to do a dead-on impression of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, not only capturing her unique speech patterns, but her looks as well. The two briefly met when Palin appeared on the show, although reputedly largely avoided one another. The ongoing impression would be both a TV and viral video sensation, although of limited interest to her beyond the election. Inner: Thoughtful, caustic and good-humored, with a literal fey wit. Liberal environmentalist and workaholic, with a great desire to have it all, career, motherhood and a spot in the spotlight for the full length of her working life. Act two lifetime of consciously and unconsciously extending the possibilities of both her career and domestic existences so as to live her life to the fullest, after earlier having it truncated by the vagaries of both fate and the circumscribed circumstances of an earlier less fey age. Florence Turner (1885?-1946) - American writer, actress and producer. Outer: Both her mother and grandmother were local stage actresses in Brooklyn. Father died when she was one. Made her debut at 3 in a walk-on role. At 15, without her mother’s consent, she signed on as an extra in a Brooklyn theater, then went into musical comedy and vaudeville. Appeared as little Eugenie Florence, and made a name for herself as an impressionist of other stage performers, particularly comic actresses. 4’10”, dark and magnetic, with highly expressive eyes. When stage opportunities waned, she joined Vitagraph Studios in 1906 as a wardrobe mistress, seamstress and cashier. Made her film debut the following year in Cast up by the Sea, and quickly became a box office draw, earning the accolade of “motion picture star,” in the local press, the first time that phrase was ever used, after a round of personal appearances in NYC in 1910. Appeared with several matinee idols in the studio’s prestige pieces, while also collaborating on screenplays. Much preferred comedy to romantic parts. As a performer she became known as “the Vitagraph Girl,” as well as “Baby Twinkles,” before feature players had public names. In 1913, she left films to do a vaudeville tour, then moved to London with actor/director Lawrence Trimble and proved a popular music hall performer there, with her ongoing impressions. Organized Turner Films, which churned out more than 30 shorts, many of which she directed, and allowed her to become the first silent screen performer to also serve as a producer. By 1915, she was a full-fledged star, assaying everything from Shakespeare to classic drama, while working in both films and live theater, although the Great War would see her lose all her money in her entertainment enterprise. Returned to a much-changed Hollywood in 1916, and saw that her run as a star was clearly over. Tried her hand at directing comedy, although wasn’t given any opportunity to develop and moved back to England in 1922, where she was still a headliner. Two years later, the film industry began to flag there and she returned to Hollywood to become a stock player for MGM, mostly playing mothers. By the time sound rolled around at decade’s end, her career was largely over, although studio head Louis B. Mayer (Master P) kept her on the payroll as a bit player during the 1930s. Never married and lived with both her mother and grandmother most of her life. Ultimately died of cancer in complete obscurity in a motion picture home, despite being one of the film industry’s most heralded pioneers. Inner: Totally career oriented, with little interest in domesticity. No second act lifetime of putting all her eggs in the basket of her career, only to see it evaporate through the vagaries of her limited times, leaving her with nothing to fall back on, save memories of the past.

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PATHWAY OF THE FILMMAKER AS TWINS TWO TIMES OVER:
Storyline: The bifold directors are rooted in a twin who halved himself in order to double up again so that he could see his two separated parts play out different aspects of his ongoing creative process via a variety of ethnic and racial roots.
Albert Hughes (1972) - American filmmaker and producer. Outer: Of African-Armenian descent. Mother’s family were Iranian Armenians from Tehran, while father was African-American. Older by nine minutes than his sibling, Allen. Parents divorced when the twin sons were two. Raised by their mother, who brought them to southern California when they were 9, and opened a vocational center to support the family. She bought them a camera when they were 12 in order to keep them out of trouble, and they immediately took to it, shooting a story about an alien ship that crashes to Earth, as their first combined cinematic effort. Had a relatively normal childhood replete with karate, little league and music lessons, while the duo spent the latter part of their teens in Claremont, a white middle-class Los Angeles suburb, in order to take advantage of the high school there, although they wound up standing out as ‘others,’ suffering some police harassment. Made a how-to video for school on a class assignment, “How to Be a Burglar,” as a statement of their alienation. After high school, he spent a year at Los Angeles City College taking film classes, which inspired, The Drive By, a short he did with his brother, which was temporarily stopped by the Pomona police over a sawed-off shotgun prop. The film became an underground hit, and got them an agent, which led to work shooting music videos for some of the big names in hip-hop, including Tupac Shakur, who they had to bring to court in 1994 for assaulting them during a shoot. Some of their videos would be thematic around issues involving their peers, including teen pregnancy and police violence. Despite being inundated with offers to continue along the same line, they wanted to do features outside the studio system. Hooked up with screenwriter Tyger Williams to do a story about those who stayed in the inner city, and the result was Menace II Society, an eye-for-an-eye drama of despair, rage and self-destruction that would establish their visceral, violent style. The modest-budgeted affair would enjoy critical acclaim, despite some carping at all the violence, and establish the tandem as a pair to be watched. Both would complement each other perfectly in their divergent interests around filmwork. Far less involved than his sibling in the actual shoot, and far more in the preparations beforehand, while sharing a very similar vision. Their next efforts, Dead Presidents, a crime drama, and American Pimp, a documentary, would be less well-received, although From Hell, a look at the Jack-the-Ripper legend, would once again find its audience, after the turn of the century. Didn’t work in film for the most of the decade afterwards, doing TV instead, until alighting on The Book of Eli, a post-apocalyptic drama concerning the last Bible on Earth. Like his brother, only interested in material that moves him and more than willing to wait until something comes along that does, than working just to keep their name in lights. Although unmarried, the father of a daughter. Inner: Far more cautious than his sibling. Serves as the administrative side of the tandem, working with budgets and the technical side of their shoots, including lighting, sound and scripts. Complementary fraternal lifetime of once more dividing in twain for a double perspective on things, as part of a tandem that continually looks at itself from both outside-in and inside-out, through their unusual mirror perspective. Allen Hughes (1972) - American filmmaker and producer. Outer: Twin brother of Albert Hughes, and younger by 9 minutes. The product of an Armenian Iranian mother and an African-American father, with the former raising them following a divorce when both brothers were two. Grew up in southern California, and managed to avoid both the drug and gang scene, although like his brother, has always been a marijuana enthusiast. Given a camera by the age of 12, and within two years both siblings had considerable practice in editing and scoring their own videos, which they made off of their favorite TV programs, as well as recreating scenes from movies they loved, which were mostly violent crime dramas. Wound up in the mostly white middle-class L.A. suburb of Claremont, and as a reaction to it, used film to document the darker side of Los Angeles, beginning with a documentary about selling crack cocaine, replete with a dealer willing to be on camera, and actual deals going down. Unlike his sibling, he had no formal film training, but joined him in a short he shot, The Drive By, which got both of them an agent, and initial work with Hollywood Records directing music videos, which led to their first feature, at the tender age of 21, Menace II Society, an unremitting look at inner city violence. Written by Tyger Williams, and later fleshed out by the brothers through interviews and their own. experience. Got an independent company to produce it so that they could have full control over it, since most of the major studies wanted to end it with the LA riots. Managed to bring it in on a small $3.4 budget, while both brothers stayed out of each other’s sphere of influence, although the editing process would usually show their slight differences in over-all viewpoint. Worked sparingly over the decade, and in 2001, shot In Hell, a reinterpretation of the Jack-the-Ripper legend. Found nothing to their liking afterwards, until he saw a tale of redemption and salvation that he felt they had to make, and convinced his initially reluctant sibling to do The Book of Eli, the story of the last Bible on the planet. Both brothers would take great pride in their dual heritage. Although unmarried, the sire of a son. Inner: More outgoing than his sibling, serving as the bridge between them and the actors, as well as the on location decision-maker. Has little interest in the administrative side of filmmaking, preferring the give-and-take of the shoot to background work. Complementary fraternal lifetime of once more dividing in twain for a double perspective on things, as part of a tandem that continually looks at itself from both outside-in and inside-out, through their unusual mirror perspective. Philip G. Epstein (1909-1952) - American screenwriter and producer. Outer: Of German/Jewish descent. One of a set of twins with his brother Julius, and slightly larger than him. Their parents owned a prosperous livery stable on the Lower East side of Manhattan, giving them an advantageous upbringing in a largely immigrant neighborhood. Both siblings learned to fight early, and when they went to Penn State, which was a college then, each competed as boxers, with Julius becoming intercollegiate bantamweight beltwearer, while he was an intramural lightweight champ. Their team won the national championships while both were on it. Graduated in 1931 with a BA in Arts & Letters, and identified strongly with his alma mater his entire life. Ultimately buried in a polo shirt with its name on it, while frequently serving as a guest lecturer once he became known in the film world. Began his career as a journalist. His brother was the first to come to Hollywood, arriving in 1933 as a ghostwriter, and working with producer Jerry Wald for Warner Bros. Followed him out to work at RKO, and in 1938, the two formed a writing tandem, and together they ended one of the industry’s enduring practices of having its writers perform like every other nine-to-fiver. When he came down with appendicitis while working on a James Cagney-Rita Hayworth vehicle, both worked at home while he was recuperating, and finished the project in half a time, while the film, The Strawberry Blonde, was a huge hit. Following that triumph, they spent two intense hours a day writing at home, with the rest of their time pursuing their own interests, which including tennis and listening to ballgames. Both remained tormentors of studio head Jack Warner, with their pranks, challenges and smart-alecky responses to him. Neither ever typed a script, preferring to work in longhand, while both were constantly called to elevate mired screenplays by others. Best remembered for co-authoring the romantic classic, Casablanca. In 1943, the two became the only twins ever to win an Oscar for Best Screenplay, along with Howard Koch, for that sublime effort. Other memorable fare they penned included The Man Who Came to Dinner and Arsenic and Old Lace. Through his successes, he was able to buy a large mansion from actress Mary Astor, where he raised his two sons, with his attractive but distant wife, Lillian. The eldest, Leslie Epstein, would go on to become a noted novelist, and sire Theo Epstein, who became general manager of the Boston Red Sox, and the youngest ever to hold that position. His second son would have emotional problems, but would also write small-press novels, while the first recorded their Hollywood-enhanced upbringing in a novel-memoir, “San Remo Drive.” To get back at the brothers, Warner gave their names to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and when asked on a questionnaire whether they belonged to any subversive organizations, they wrote, “Yes. Warner Brothers.” Died almost immediately afterwards of cancer. His sibling would outlive him by nearly 50 years, and serve as a surrogate father with his children, although would never reach the same creative heights as when the two were a team. Inner: Wisecracking, self-involved and pleasure-oriented, with a gift for memorable dialogue. Probably the same person as his brother Julius. Twinship lifetime of working in tandem with his other half, and then exiting early, so that the latter part of himself could see what existence would be like without him for the better part of his life.

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PATHWAY OF THE PLAYWRIGHT AS ONGOING WORK-IN-PROGRESS:
Storyline: The mumblecore muse uses herself as living theater in order to elevate her storytelling talents and personal insights to the next level as an embodiment of her generation’s fascination with interconnections and their dramatic dissections, after earlier giving most of her power away to maintaining the illusion of matrimony.
Greta Gerwig (1983) - American actress and filmmaker. Outer: Grew up in Sacramento, where she took ballet and dance lessons, and appeared in musicals at a local opera house, while also doing local theater from childhood on up. Studied English and philosophy at Barnard College, while acting in college theater in support roles, in hopes of becoming a playwright. Had her works produced at various venues, including the Minor Latham Playhouse. Appeared in Joe Swanberg’s LOL in 2006, and the two would form an artistic partnership, most notably with Nights and Weekends, which she cowrote, co-directed and costarred in. 5’9” and blonde with gray-green eyes and loose limbs. Her naturalistic acting style would make her the most noted player of the grassroots mumblecore movement, a low budget indie trend exploring personal intertwinings with a minimum of structure and a maximum of improvisation. Despite her effortless and matter-of-fact displays, considerable work and observation go into them, and through her various turns, she has become an emblem of her generation’s artistic recreation of itself, replete with unaffected speech patterns and a host of conflicting emotions. Came to mass audience attention in 2010 in Greenberg, playing the much younger love interest of upbershlep Ben Stiller in her first totally scripted role, which suddenly made her a hot commodity, and a potential overground star as well. Inner: Uninhibited, outspoken and open, with an artless grace. Despite her seemingly casual portrayals, carefully studies her subjects, and then uses her well-honed instincts to breathe believable life into them. Improvised lifetime of continuing her exploration of interrelationships from the perspective of freedom rather than constraint, as she mirrors once again, her generation’s view of love without the enforced happy endings of times past. Anita Loos (Corinne Anita Loos) (1888-1981) - American playwright, screenwriter and actress. Outer: Of French descent. Father founded a tabloid, and her mother served as its publisher. The youngest of three siblings, with a sister and a brother who became a physician and founded the Blue Cross health insurance company. When she was four, the family moved to San Francisco, and added a second tabloid to their stable, while she dreamed of being a writer from early on. Close to her alcoholic and inconstant sire, who served as her guide to the seamier aspects of the city, which would feed into her own lifelong literary fascination with similar milieus and personalities. Began her stage career with her sister in a stock production of “Quo Vadis,” but lost the latter right after the turn of the century, as she became the family’s main support. Worked in both a theater company her sire came to manage in San Diego, as well as a more established one, while growing younger, at least officially, by the year, thanks to her diminutive size of 4’11”. At her father’s encouragement, she wrote a piece, “The Ink Well,” which found an audience, while she saw the incipient silent film industry as a potential for her. Earned $25 for her first one-reeler, The New York Hat, which would star the future screen luminaries Lionel Barrymore (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mary Pickford, and be directed by the early cinematic maestro D.W. Griffith. Used her own observational experiences as well as the stories of all the people she knew for her subject matter, and by 1915, had had over 100 scripts produced, without ever stepping inside a film studio. Fled to Hollywood against her mother’s wishes, and married Frank Pallma, Jr., the son of a band leader in a childless union, which would end in divorce four years later, after leaving him within six months and returning home to her ‘I told you so’ mother. Along with the latter, she returned to the film colony, and became a contract writer, although it would take her a while to orient herself towards such a visual medium. Teamed up with filmwriter and director John Emerson, for a successful collaboration, which made Douglas Fairbanks (Robert Downey, Jr.) a superstar of early cinema. Saw her income leap to $500 a week, and then higher, as her tandem with Emerson became romantic on her part, despite his continual inconstancy, thanks to projecting her own father obsessions on him. While collaborating on a pair of how-to books around filmwork, the couple got married in 1919, and moved to NYC, where they wrote for the stage, as well as the screen. Their scripts would be the product of her efforts, while he took credit for them, in an increasingly unsatisfactory union punctuated by his infidelities and her willing compliance to them. Close friend of numerous Hollywood heavyweights. Accepted a contract from MGM, which also signaled her own emancipation. In 1925, she penned her best-known novel, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” which would find its way to the stage, as well as the silver screen, after first appearing in short sketch form in “Harper’s Bazaar,” and causing a sensation in its empowering portrayal of its heroine, Lorelei Lee, on the material make, and in total control of her life. Its success caused much jealousy on the part of Emerson, who almost derailed her career with his imaginary illnesses, particularly around his throat, which he blamed on her, as she continued to try to accommodate him, while pursuing her own social life, most notably as hostess of a group of compromised female friends called the “Tuesday Widows,” who would give her much material later on. Many were kept chorus girls, and through them, Harlem became a favorite hangout, along with her own abiding fascination with African-American culture. Along with his constant efforts to curtail her writing career, Emerson’s investments in the stock market managed to lose most of their money in the subsequent Crash, giving her excuse to continue with her prolific output. The couple eventually separated in 1931, despite her blaming herself for his dissatisfaction with her, even though she finally had the freedom she needed to truly claim herself. Penned a smash hit, Red-Headed Woman, for MGM’s peroxide bombshell Jean Harlow (Aalliyah) in 1932, cementing the latter’s status as a star. Returned to Hollywood with Emerson afterwards, and finally in 1936, she and her brother had him committed to a sanitarium, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Asked for a divorce, although he continued to evade it, and the two would remain officially married until his death in 1956, by which time he was in a complete mental fog. Suffered a period of depression around this turn of events, before once again reclaiming herself. Continued writing for MGM during WW II, before finally declaring herself a free agent. After the war, she returned to NYC, and had a hit on Broadway with Helen Hayes. Helped turn “Gentleman Prefer Blondes,” into a long-running hit, which elevated Carol Channing to permanent stardom. By this time, she was a NY institution herself, with the stage, magazines and the novel as her focus, while traveling, doing adaptations, and living with a permanent companion, Gladys Tipton DeKalb, an African-American to whom she left her estate after four decades together. Proved equally prolific with magazine contributions, particularly the sophisticated trio of “Harper’s Bazaar,” “Vanity Fair,” and “The New Yorker.” Penned three memoirs, “A Girl Like I,” in 1966 and “Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now,” with Helen Hayes, and “Kiss Hollywood Good-by” in 1974. Also penned a tome, “The Talmadge Girls,” on two of the Talmadge sisters, Constance (Christina Ricci) and Norma (Gwyneth Paltrow), whom she knew well. Remained a public figure in NYC deep into old age, as a noted presence at any and all show business events, while her skill as a raconteur made her a continuously popular interview subject. Suffered a lung infection, before finally succumbing as a nonagenarian to natural causes. Inner: Witty, but fairly straitlaced, preferring others to act out for her. Shy and conservative, although tried to make people think otherwise through her anecdotes. Driven to the point of obsession with her writing, feeling a great need to be productive. Diminutive doyenne lifetime of painfully learning independence from her need to be subservient to deeply damaged men, as exemplified by both her father and husband, before finally enjoying the freedom to be herself and thoroughly reveling in it.

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