Universality

One thing I found interesting while working with Charlie Varon at The Marsh was that he was a Jewish man helping me develop A Christmas Carol. When I remarked on this, he didn’t find it so unusual because of the universality of the Dickens classic. He really likes the story and having one religion or another doesn’t come into play. Naturally, even if you are Jewish in the USA, you could never escape the uber-commercialization of Christmas (or just about any holiday, for that matter) and therefore there’s holiday cheer wherever you go.

One of my lovely actress friends, Karen Leland, is also Jewish and asked me to play Hanukkah Harry at their celebration last December. Having never been to a Hanukkah celebration before, I think I learned more about it that evening that in my life up to that point. I think that the Jewish friends I’ve had in the past just know that I’m not and therefore don’t invite non-Jews to such celebrations. It was really cool for Karen and her husband John to share that with their friends. I met Karen at the grocery store the other day and she asked how the rehearsals were going. Then she said (in her best Michael Myers impersonation), “We’re going to bring all the Jews in Marin to your show!”

Heh..cool.