Simon SEEZ: And I And Silence at the Signature Theatre (though 09/14/14)

Monday, September 29, 2014

And I And Silence at the Signature Theatre (though 09/14/14)

Left - Right: Samantha Soule and Right Rachel Nicks (Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy)

It is my hope that anyone who is not already familiar with playwright Naomi Wallace (One Flea Spare, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Things of Dry Hours) will make it a point to discover this imaginative multi award-winning writer. In And I And Silence being produced as part of the Signature Theater Residency One series, two young women, one black, one white, meet in prison. They bond in an extraordinary and even humorous manner, and cultivate an impassioned closeness that they discover is all that they have left to rely on with the extreme hardship and despair that follows them after their release from prison.

I suspect that you will also be in awe (as I was) of the sheer beauty of the text , in part poetic and lyrical and in part salty, earthy prose. This tough, tender and tragic story is set in the decade spanning the 1950s in a city in the US. Commendably it satisfies more than one's need to be simply captivated by a good story and good acting. To read the complete review originally posted 08/26/14 please go to http://curtainup.com/andiandsilenceny14.html

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About Simon

Born, raised, and educated in New Jersey, Simon has remained true to his home state. Recently a widower, he continues to live there where he contributes theater reviews and features to CurtainUp, the print publication US 1 Newspaper, Princeton and his blog SimonSeez. He was married for fifty years to LucyAnn Saltzman, Professor of Speech and Public Speaking in the Theater Department of Drew University.

With a short bow to practicality, Simon studied accounting and business law at Pace College, his heart always belonged to the theater. Even as he attempted to master the laws of debits and credits, he also studied acting and performed at the famed The New York Dramatic Workshop. During a stint of working for producer Saint Subber and passing the SEC/NASD exam he saw his name on a marquee for the first time, as associate producer of Gore Vidal's Weekend at the Broadhurst Theater in 1968. A year later he produced an Off-Broadway show under his own aegis — Frank Gagliano's City Scene starring Raul Julia, Michael Douglas and Lenny Baker. Finding his talents better suited to journalism than producing, Simon began writing theater criticism and features for numerous publications, a calling he pursues expertly and enthusiastically to this day.

Simon is the former President of the Outer Critics Circle. The theater bug has also bitten one of the Saltzman's two married children. Daughter Alice is the Associate Head of Acting Program for NYU students at the Stella Adler Studio. Alice's teenage son Ben has caught the acting/dancing bug with his eye on a theater career. Son James is Manager of Digital Media Service, University of N. Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill.