My Friend Ron
A small tangent.
Today Miriam and I went to Queens Theatre in the Park to see "The Lost Boy" by Ronald Gabriel Paolillo (also known as Ron Palillo -- yes, Horseshack), who is an acquaintance of mine from when he performed in a reading of "F2F" a few years back. First and foremost, the play was wonderful! The performances were superb and the writing and characterizations were meticulously rich in every way. A lot of care went into this script, and I give Ron a lot of admiration and respect for it.
But what made the experience special for me was Ron himself. As I'd hoped, he was at the performance. When I saw him I asked "Please say you remember me," because even though we've spoken and E-mailed each other a number of times since the "F2F" reading, that was the only time we actually met F2F. He admitted that the face was familiar but he was having trouble placing it, but when I reminded him about F2F his face lit up and he gave me a great big hug. Then he proceeded to gush about my work!
Back when he did the reading, he tried to get agent and producer interest in "F2F." It never happened, but neither of us ever really gave up on it.
Anyway, during the intermission we saw him again, but this time he introduced me to one of the producers from Shotgun Productions, who was on board as one of the producers, as well as the company who started the development of "The Lost Boy." Again, he gushed about my work. Fancy that -- he's the Man of the Hour yet he's gushing about MY work!
After the play I made a point of telling him how much I loved his play and asked how it felt -- sort of "playwright to playwright." He confessed the worry and labor that goes into fitting your play to the stage, which I understood completely. But what struck ME most about the whole thing was that I got to slip into my Playwright hat for a few minutes. Though I wear many hats in my everyday life -- some fitting better than others, and some I don't particularly like very much -- it's the Playwright's hat that is most comfortable, and the one I wear the least. For that afternoon again, even though it was not my day nor my play, I was a Playwright and Ron was a peer.
I really do need to add how gracious, kind, polite and professional Ron is. Total strangers came up to him to congratulate him, and he treated each and every one like he knew and cared about the personally. I wish him such tremendous success with this play and I still hope to work with him (again) someday. I plan on inviting him to come see "When Hell Freezes Over" and any other piece I have in the future.
Oh -- and being that I am an enormous geek, I had to get him to sign my program!
Today Miriam and I went to Queens Theatre in the Park to see "The Lost Boy" by Ronald Gabriel Paolillo (also known as Ron Palillo -- yes, Horseshack), who is an acquaintance of mine from when he performed in a reading of "F2F" a few years back. First and foremost, the play was wonderful! The performances were superb and the writing and characterizations were meticulously rich in every way. A lot of care went into this script, and I give Ron a lot of admiration and respect for it.But what made the experience special for me was Ron himself. As I'd hoped, he was at the performance. When I saw him I asked "Please say you remember me," because even though we've spoken and E-mailed each other a number of times since the "F2F" reading, that was the only time we actually met F2F. He admitted that the face was familiar but he was having trouble placing it, but when I reminded him about F2F his face lit up and he gave me a great big hug. Then he proceeded to gush about my work!
Back when he did the reading, he tried to get agent and producer interest in "F2F." It never happened, but neither of us ever really gave up on it.
Anyway, during the intermission we saw him again, but this time he introduced me to one of the producers from Shotgun Productions, who was on board as one of the producers, as well as the company who started the development of "The Lost Boy." Again, he gushed about my work. Fancy that -- he's the Man of the Hour yet he's gushing about MY work!
After the play I made a point of telling him how much I loved his play and asked how it felt -- sort of "playwright to playwright." He confessed the worry and labor that goes into fitting your play to the stage, which I understood completely. But what struck ME most about the whole thing was that I got to slip into my Playwright hat for a few minutes. Though I wear many hats in my everyday life -- some fitting better than others, and some I don't particularly like very much -- it's the Playwright's hat that is most comfortable, and the one I wear the least. For that afternoon again, even though it was not my day nor my play, I was a Playwright and Ron was a peer.I really do need to add how gracious, kind, polite and professional Ron is. Total strangers came up to him to congratulate him, and he treated each and every one like he knew and cared about the personally. I wish him such tremendous success with this play and I still hope to work with him (again) someday. I plan on inviting him to come see "When Hell Freezes Over" and any other piece I have in the future.
Oh -- and being that I am an enormous geek, I had to get him to sign my program!
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