Category Archives: Theatre

2024, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized

Wrapping Up

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

The chickens might be coming around, slowly, to laying eggs again. Friday we got five eggs. Three on Saturday, and that’s normal to have more every other day.

Still have three guineas. They sure seem like bullies; they’ll chase roosters away from food. And they don’t even necessarily eat it, just stopping someone else from eating.

No sign of ducks lately. I’m really bummed about that. I’ve been wondering if next year I got mallards, would that help? Would being able to fly help them escape whatever it is that’s been taking ours? Don’t know. But I sure miss having ducks around. I noticed today my pond has sprung another leak and there’s not much water in it. No need to fix it at the moment.

We had a nice quiet Christmas Day. I made cinnamon rolls from scratch the night before. Never made anything with yeast that had to rise before, so that was fun. I’d like to try biscuits, too. Then Kelly made lasagna for supper and it was really good. When we were first dating, lasagna was the first meal she made for me, showing me that she knew how to cook. Well, readily admitting lasagna was the only fancy meal she knew how to cook. What did we eat when younger? A lot of potato chips and dip, I remember that. I don’t remember what else. Maybe we ate out a lot.

I was working on the shop the other day and pounding in some trim nails and caught myself with my tongue out.

I must have been concentrating, but I hate the tongue thing.

The shop is really coming along.

This past week I installed a trim piece along the top to protect the insulation and keep the birds out of it. And with all the rain and warm temps the last few days, I cleaned up some stuff, got the trailer for the scissor lift in the shed, and the four wheeler inside so I can try and get that running again. (I think it needs new fuel. Take off the carburetor, again, and dump out the old fuel, and clean the tank, and try this for a 3rd time).

My friend Doug sent me a photo had had found. He titled it ‘mentors’. The two guys left and middle were his mentors and all three were/are mentors to me.

That’s Donald on the left. He was such a cool guy with a great laugh. And such a craftsman. Besides theater he would fix furniture and make vases out of old fence posts. And he was an actor. One of his roles, he played the butler, ‘Firs’, in Chekov’s play, ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and he had a great death scene. He also told me, “If you think about it long enough, you’ll find an easier way to do something.”

In the middle is Gary. He was at the Civic Theater when I first started to volunteer there in 1983, but then he became the technical director and speech instructor at the Community College. We discovered we were distantly related: his Grandfather and my Grandfather were brothers. He retired from the theater technical director position, but continued to teach speech, and that’s when I got hired as the college TD. We shared an office for a couple years. He was a fantastic designer. And did his best to impress that upon me. Some of it stuck. He passed away the same day as Prince, which is why you didn’t hear about his passing.

On the right is Doug, the man who sent the photo. He is also so creative and such a great designer! I talk with Gary or Doug sometimes when I need inspiration. In the way back days, Doug and his wife Joan created trophies to give out at a theater award banquet. I received ‘Best Director’ for sitting in the booth trying to get actors to stay in their light. (Talking to myself: “Don’t go there! Come over this way! No, not up there! C’mon, one more step!”) I was young. I didn’t know that wasn’t a thing.

WHAT ARE YOU GONNA WRAP UP IN THE LAST TWO DAYS OF 2024?

2024, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized, work

Oh, And One More Thing

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

I got a lot done this past week. Last Saturday I finally got the snowfence up. You know, I can’t figure out why 100’ this year, doesn’t fit the same posts as 100’ did last year? Which didn’t match the posts from the year before that! Sometimes I think I’d like to put wood posts at the ends of the sections, but seriously, it never lines up the same way two years in a row and I just don’t get it. We put in 500’ this year. Plus, another twenty feet in a different location that can drift. I guess I am expecting it to snow this year.

Sunday, I moved a bunch of equipment around; I got the lawnmower cleaned up and put away (I used it to mow a path for the snow fence. It wouldn’t work when I tried a month ago, because the grass was too green and wet. But now it was all brown and dried out and cut much better). Moved the scrap metal tote inside the shed, and stuff like that. And then I finally built a little door for the chickens, so I don’t have to leave the big door open six inches for them. Ready for winter!

On Monday, the contractor showed up and started tearing out trees and reshaping a waterway. It’s not the best timing for dirt work, but by spring either I’m gonna have the gully in the field where it’s been running, or in the waterway where it’s supposed to be. To fix it, they had to tear out a LOT of trees. Tree’s that have come up in the last 60 years. Which meant the area didn’t drain properly. It looks a lot different.

Before :

After:

There is one GINOURMOUS brush pile!

This photo doesn’t give you any perspective. It’s HUGE This whole project came about when I hired the contractor to bury the ash from an area where I’ve been having brush piles for years and years. And then I asked if he could reshape the waterway, which turned into tearing out trees IN ORDER to redo the waterway.

And I finished the steel inside the shop. It turned out really well. I have a few details to finish yet, and the outside steel, and the electrician will have a lot of work to do, but it really is a functional shop area. I don’t often think about if my Dad would like whatever it is I’m doing. But the shop and the waterway, I really think he would approve of those things. Friday night Padawan, still in shorts, was able to put his car into the shop to work on it. I’m kinda glad I can offer him a place like this. I have been spying on them with the shop camera. My goodness, two teenage boys can be so annoying to be around.

I’m beginning to clean up the shop area. I don’t need the scaffolding anymore, and I need the room, so I dragged that outside and disassembled it. PHOTO

Holiday concerts at the college this week too.

Pretty soon I can get the 40’s station back on my car radio. The one they take off in November to play TWO MONTHS of Christmas music. Bah.

PICK A HISTORICAL FIGURE TO BE ANNOYING WITH. WHAT ARE YOU TWO UP TO?

2024, animals, Farming Update, Nature, Theatre, Uncategorized

And Then???

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Got the corn out on Thursday and I got to ride around in the combine for an hour. It was fun and satisfying and a weight off my shoulders and a bright spot in the day.

The dogs and I observed them finishing a field, then they moved up along the road, and that’s when I got in. I watched them unloading on the go, and it was good to see there wasn’t many ears on the ground. A nice surprise for this year. 

Their combine is only a few years old, so it has a lot of bells and whistles. Like a back up camera when he shifts to reverse, and a warning screen and tone when the grain tank is ¾ full, and another when it’s ‘full’, but they can still go for a while after that. The grain tank is right behind the cab, (keeping it in the center of gravity) and there’s a window behind the operators head that is about the middle of the tank (and it’s always so dirty you can barely see through it) however there is so much corn that can be held above the window, and most guys have tank extensions, so you really can’t see how full it is until it runs over the front and hits the top of the cab, and then you get ‘Cab Corn’. That’s a thing the guys try to avoid. Evidently it’s a rather tongue-in-cheek sign of failure. “Ope! Bop got cab corn!” Hence, the sensors that tell you the tank is full. There’s also a ‘low fuel’ warning and it went off several times before they sent one guy back to get the fuel trailer. Here they are refilling with fuel and DEF. (Diesel Exhaut Fluid – an emissions product).

I’ve mentioned a few times before how much fuel these big machines hold. The combine might hold 300+ gallons. Same with the tractors. And that’s why they pull a fuel trailer to the field rather than running the machine back home or hauling in 5 gallons cans.

They corn yielded better than I predicted. Roughly 180 bushels / acre, which is REALLY impressive for our farm. Imagine what it would have done without all the deer and raccoons out there! I got a little over 7000 bushels. Test weight was good, and moisture was between 16 and 17%. It needs to be dried to 15% for storage, and that will cost a bit, but not as much as drying it from 22%, which has happen as well.

This photo from the coop website showing each load, total bushels, moisture, and testweight. From this total, I had a couple thousand bushels put into storage to sell in a few months. I’m being optimistic the price will come up. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But I can always use the money.

Many nights when daughter and dogs are walking, the dogs pick a fight with a raccoon out in the corn. I expected to find 20’ diameter circles of flat corn from their fights.

I hadn’t seen the ducks in a week and I was hoping maybe they had flown south, vs being eaten. I was very excited to see them out in the yard Thursday afternoon.

I was able to spend a few nights working on the shop.

Course Tuesday was elections so that was a full day.

And now I’m hoping to spend a couple days doing fall tillage and I’m excited about spending time in the tractor.

************************************************************************

We had the last school show on Friday morning. After the show while the kids are waiting to get out, I have a moving light slowly sweeping around the stage and audience. I figured the kids would enjoy that. This audience loved it even more than I had hoped. Every time it hit them they cheered. I was standing by some kids who were getting restless so I was talking to them and telling them about that light. One asked if I could make it purple. I pulled out my phone and showed them how I could control it through my phone. Well. Game on. “Make it red!” “Make it yellow!” and I changed patterns and the kids shrieked with delight. It was a wonderful moment and it filled me with joy.

Our dog Bailey, she suckers Luna into something so often, I can’t believe Luna falls for it every time. Bailey will bark at nothing, but it gets Luna all excited. She’s pawing at the doors and climbing the walls to get out. It might be 3AM, but she’s ready to go. And she runs out barking, not even sure which direction she should be going. And Bailey comes to the door and gets petted and she’s happy. Eventually Luna will come back. Sometimes Bailey can get both Luna and Humphrey out, and they’re all barking different directions. Ya know, it would help if we all knew what we were barking about, don’t ya think? Life lesson there.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE A WARNING LIGHT FOR? BE WHIMSICAL!

(I Need a warning light telling me I’ve walked away from my water bottle again. )

2024, Fantasy, Movies, Mysteries, Theatre, Uncategorized

The Game is Afoot

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I have a fair few number of favorite fictional characters but I know it won’t surprise anybody here that Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are tops in my book.   I have the movies Hound of the Baskervilles (Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce) as well as Murder on the Orient Express (Albert Finney) saved on my TV so it’s accurate to say I’ve seen them repeatedly.

Several years ago my BFF and I decided that for our birthdays we would do experiences together rather than do more “stuff”.  She does Cantus tickets for us and I do a play for us each fall.  I pick three options, write them up a bit and she chooses one.

This year, a production called Holmes/Poirot was finally scheduled at Park Square Theatre.  There had been discussion of it during the summer of 2023, but it never materialized.  When I presented BFF with the three choices this year, I had my fingers crossed that she would choose Holmes/Poirot.  Luckily she’s a sleuth fan as well.  We’ve done a couple of other Sherlock “knock-offs”s as well as doing the Science Museum exhibition a couple of years ago. 

The expectation was that the play would be a mash-up with the detectives pitted against each other, even though you’d have to mess with the time continuum to do this.  Considering I’ve read a book with Sherlock as a dog and another with a time traveling Miss Marple facsimile, I can handle a little time continuum disturbance.  When we sat down with our programs, it was clear that it was going to be two different stories…. Holmes in Act One and Poirot in Act Two.  The two main actors change roles for the second act.  Sherlock Holmes becomes Colonel Hastings and John Watson becomes Hercule Poirot.  The other seven actors switch up characters as well. 

During intermission BFF and I wondered aloud how long it would take us to re-orient ourselves to the actors changing parts.  We didn’t need to worry.  Within just a couple of minutes, we were all in.   It was an inspired juxtaposition; both actors were excellent and completely believable in their roles.  The second act was played for more comedy, which was perfect because…. well… Poirot.  It’s hard not to play him with a splash of silliness.

Absolutely no spoiler alerts here but suffice it to say that the writing was great and had BFF and I guessing to the end of each segment.  It was an immediate standing ovation.  I’m highly recommending this if you can stlll get tickets. 

Do you have a preferred detective?  Fictional or otherwise?

2024, Fantasy, Gatherings, Music, Theatre, Uncategorized

Do Your Part

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I see that the Badlands Opera Project, our local opera company, is putting on Amahl and the Night Visitors again this December. They staged it last year, with our church choir director and her 12 year old daughter as Amahl’s mother and Amahl. Both have wonderful voices. This year’s production will have a different Amahl and mother, this time a mom and son duo.

All the singers are local, except for the guy who sings the part of the tallest King with the deepest voice. He sings that part and other low, cameo roles such as Zarastro from The Magic Flute, all over the county. I am not sure where he is from, but he isn’t from ND. Imagine having a specialty voice like that. He’ll be back for this year’s production. I guess he really liked singing with our local company.

If I could magically have a voice other than the low alto voice I have, I would want to be a belter like Patti Lupone in Anything Goes. Of course I would also have to be able to dance, which would be a problem, I’m afraid. Oh well, I suppose I could magically make myself a dancer, too.

If you could magically get an operatc or musical theater voice, what roles would you want to perform?

2024, animals, Farming Update, Theatre, Uncategorized, work

Life

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Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

It sure does get dark early. By the time I get home from work, change clothes, and talk with Kelly a bit, it’s dusk. And it’s only going to get worse for a while yet, and I’ll be OK with that once it’s cold and “winter”, but I got too much going on right now. The world goes round, and the seasons change, and it’s OK. Even the roadside vegetable stands have all closed and that’s kinda sad. It seems to happen so fast!

I really do love fall and wrapping up the seasons. The harvest and the fieldwork and completing that circle, it all just feels right. My friend Diane and I have always talked about how we get that urge to ‘pack up’ and suddenly we’re all about organizing. Cleaned off my home office desk one day, and then at the college, I took some pillows up the prop room and spent an hour packing up greenery and organizing.

Some of you have an ‘Arts and Crap’ room, I have props. It’s kind of a disaster. In theater lingo, a ‘prop’ is something the actor handles, versus the set or furniture. If you think about it, you can imagine all the stuff a theater might have for ‘props’. Anna or Catherine might have stories about props and props people. But here, I just tell the kids to try and get it somewhere near something else that looks like it. But they don’t care, and once you go down that road, you’re headed for disaster. I’ve had several people offer to clean it up. Maybe they chicken out once they look at it. ANYWAY, I cleaned up a corner and that’s a start. A few more corners to go. One day at a time.

At home, I was supposed to get the shop heater on Thursday, but it got postponed to Tuesday. And I need to move some stuff so they can work in there. Meaning once again, half the crap is moved to another place, and I was just getting so I could find it now. The pallet rack is the biggest deal. I’m taking half of it apart and maybe I can drag the other half out of the way.

I got a lot of other stuff done. Got new hydraulic hoses for the tractor loader, and since I replaced all the rest last summer, they are all new now and good for another 20 years unless I break one.

Got some hydraulic hoses off the chisel plow and took them to John Deere. They make all the hoses as needed. It was busy at the parts counter, so I told them I’d come back on Saturday to pick those up. There are two women at the parts counter now, Belinda (Or ‘B’ as I realized they call her). I don’t know the other woman; I haven’t worked with her much. But Belinda is fun.

I also got the 630 running again so I could move that. (Had pinched a wire going to the starter and created a ‘dead short’ and had smoke coming from under the dash. Accidently let out some magic black smoke but I was able to get it back in). it’s not running well, and it needs further investigation, but at least it’s running.

I took the carburator off the ‘4-wheeler’ and cleaned it and put it back on and it ran for 100 yards, and then I limped it back to the shed and pushed it out of the way. Will come back to that later. But I’m getting good at taking the carburator off.

Sounds like my neighbors will get my soybeans out this weekend. Good to have that done, and sure glad the weather has been holding.

I’ve been listening to Kris Kristofferson this week. He wrote so many songs you know, but you’re not used to him singing them. What a talent he was.

It’s fun to hear other versions of familiar songs. These are not by Kris, butTennessee Stud or Don’t think Twice, it’s alright are two that come to mind that have multiple covers.

On the duck front, we’re down to four. Went from 22 to 11 to 8 and now 4.

The world just keeps going around.

WHAT CYCLES DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE?

2024, Family, Food, home, Kids, Music, Theatre, Uncategorized

Oma Sees All

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I have been thoroughly enjoying myself here this week in Brookings. Son’s surgery went well. He is home recuperating. Yesterday I roasted a chicken and made slow cooker Bolognese sauce and chicken enchiladas. I also got to drive six year old Grandson to school, which is terribly fun. One morning we listened to a number from Cats on the Sirius XM Broadway station, and he was rather astounded when I told him that the performers were singing and dancing in cat suits. He also liked the number from Hamilton that we heard.

Son and Daughter In Law are good parents with quite appropriate limits and expectations. I tend to call Grandson out more often for minor infractions, though. It was pretty funny when, one evening at supper, Grandson announced, with a huge sigh, that Oma’s eyes saw everything, and there wasn’t anything he could get away with that I didn’t see. This was after I reminded him to eat his penne with his fork and not his fingers. He made a point of showing us his fork skills after that.

What is the first Broadway musical you remember hearing or seeing? What is your favorite musical now? How was your relationship with your grandparents?

2024, Family, Theatre, Travel, Uncategorized

Hamilton

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At the end of her work program in London, YA took a couple more days just for herself.  She transferred to a hotel in the City (the group program had been in Hampshire) and enjoyed her time walking around, seeing the sights, doing a bit of shopping. 

On Friday I got a text asking if $120 was too much money to spend on a Hamilton ticket.  My first response, as a cheap, miserly old mom was to discourage her from blowing a wad on anything.  It’s almost always my go-to position, sorry to say.

But as I thought about it for a bit I realized a couple of things.  #1 – she is a grown woman, enjoying time in London.  If she has the money for it, this would be a wonderful memory of her trip. (And truth be told, I’ve been to the theatre in London and remember it fondly [although I didn’t have to pay for it myself].)  #2 – paying $120 for a ticket to Hamilton in London is basically stealing it.    I sent her a text telling her to go for it.

She chose the Saturday matinee so she could walk to/from during daylight.  Then she texted me that her ticket was in a box.  When I asked why, she said it was the best deal at that showing.  She got there pretty early so was able to sent photos of her box (the header photo) and this photo showing the view from the box. 

Apparently her box price included a drink and a snack, which was provided by the butler, whose services were also included as part of the box.  My goodness.   And then, as if enough fortune hadn’t already given her a wink and a nod, the other three seats in the box remained unsold.  So for $120 she got a private box, a butler, a drink and snack, a walking transfer and, of course, Hamilton.  What a way to go!

I’m so happy that she was able to have this marvelous experience and so so glad that I got over myself and didn’t spoil her fun. 

Can you ever remember a time you’ve given dubious advice? Taken dubious advice?

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, Nature, Theatre, Uncategorized

Party On!

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The weekend farm report comes to us from Ben.

Menards has Christmas decorations out. Oh my…

We got a little rain Thursday night. For the heavy storms, large hail, and wind they were predicting, we got about 3/10 of an inch. It was a nice rain and we needed it.

I’ve been seeing some of the neighbors chopping corn, and some of the YouTube farmers I watch are chopping, and it’s amazing how much the technology has changed in this regard in the last 30 years. While many large dairy farms are still using bunkers and pits for silage, a few are going back to cement upright silos. One place I watch on YT had 3, 100′ tall silos built this summer. Two for corn silage, and 1 for haylage. (Haylage or silage is the entire crop all chopped up; The stalk and ear, or the alfalfa, rye, sorghum, whatever, all chopped up, and packed and allowed to ferment. It may be in an oxygen limiting silo ((the blue ‘Harvestore’ ones)) or the plain cement ones.) Bunkers are faster to fill, but take more manpower and equipment to fill, pack, cover, and unload. Upright silos fill a bit slower and take a little more routine maintenance, but they settle on their own and pack strictly from its own weight, and they seem to be automated enough, especially nowadays, that feeding takes a lot less work.

And now they have cameras in the silos to monitor operation, and the electrical cable travels inside and doesn’t need to be moved from door to door. It’s been kind of fun to see and reminisce. There’s a young man climbing the 100′ silos– keyword “young man”… Not sure I’d be doing that anymore.

We used two 18′ diameter, by 50′ tall silos. One for 1st crop hay chopped and filled in June, and the other for corn, filled in September. Usually the primary ingredient for dairy cattle ration is corn silage. Course it depends on geography. In some places it’s grass or hay. Every farm is different. Our cows got ground corn inside the barn, (plus minerals and protein supplements) but they got hay and corn silage outside, plus grass in summer.

The hay silage is dusty, and once a month I’d have to go up the chute and open up a lower door and move the unloader arm down, and every couple of months move the electrical cable and it was just a dusty dirty terrible job. Corn Silage wasn’t as dusty, but still had to open the doors and move the cable and do regular maintenance on the unloaders, and chop off what was frozen to the walls in the spring… it was a whole big thing. I don’t miss a lot of it.

The Custom guys are chopping with these huge eight or ten row choppers that can go across the rows if needed, they don’t have to follow the rows. Then it’s loaded into trucks, or tractors and wagons that follow the chopper and are filled almost automatically, and it’s so much easier than it was 30 years ago when I was doing it with our 2 row pull type chopper. Again, just fun to see

I managed to have one afternoon and a couple hours one other day to work in my shop. Got some sill plates bolted to the concrete floor and I have one post up.

Here is old technology mixed with new. A plumbob and a laser!

I took in some fire extinguishers to be renewed. This one from 1995 still worked great!

I showed daughter how to pull the pin and spray it around. Got a new one to replace this old one.

This week is Tech rehearsals for a 1920s jazz musical called ‘The Wild Party’ at the Rep Theater. Spending a lot of time here getting the new lights hooked up and the lightboard talking to the laptop. (Had to call in an expert to help do that). Here’s a picture of the lighting board from the tour ‘Back to the Future’ at the Orpheum.

Here is our new board at the Rep.

Their board has more knobs and screens. They win.

I did get a new battery put back in Kelly‘s tractor and had that running for a while. But there was a few wisps of smoke coming from under the dash, and the lights don’t work, so I assume I’m not done working on that yet.

And the 630 starter is making a funky sound.

And the 4-wheeler that I put the new carburetor on isn’t working again.

And the lawnmower still quits after it gets hot.

I have some things to work on yet.

Thursday night the dogs met a skunk.  I wasn’t there, Kelly and daughter were. We thought Bailey got the worst of it and she got a special bath (thank you Kelly), but this morning it was Humphrey that smells. Everyone is just staying outside for now.

Can you snap your fingers? Did I ask this before?  The musical director for this show, snapped her fingers LOUDLY, with a real good SNAP for almost the entire 2 hour rehearsal! After rehearsal I asked to see her fingers. I wanted to see if those fingers were twice as big as the rest. No, but she has a callous on that one finger. It’s interesting how that must be a young person’s thing. Daughter can snap good, too. I get a muffled little snap.

Not counting groans and moans, how many noises can you make with your body?

2024, Art, Movies, Poems, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized

RIP James Earl Jones

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I read the news yesterday that James Earl Jones passed away on Monday at the age of 93.

It turns out that I’ve seen a fair number of the films that he’s been in.  Not a majority by any means – he did after all either appear or lend his voice to over 100 films/tv shows and had a rich background in theatre as well. 

I saw his first two forays into film by luck of the draw.  His first was in 1964 in Dr. Strangelove as Lt. Lothar Zogg, one of the pilots of the last bomber. 

The second film was The Comedians in 1967, although it wasn’t very funny and I didn’t remember that he was the rebel doctor who got his throat slit 2/3 of the way through the movie.  In fact, until The Great White Hope in 1970, I hadn’t even know his name and wouldn’t have been able to tell you he had been in the earlier movies.  Now, like most everyone else, I hear his voice and know immediately who it is.

It’s interesting to me that JEJ stuttered as a child.  I heard him say in an interview once “one of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.”  I don’t remember if this was having to do with his stutter (apparently he didn’t speak for about 8 years as a kid) or more having to do with feeling the need to keep quiet in a contentious world. 

He got over his stutter with the help of a teacher who encouraged him to read poetry.  And read poetry he did.  One of his biggest stage hits was as Othello.  Here is a bit that he did for a White House Poetry event:

He seemed to be able to play just about any kind of role – Moor King, evil Jedi, doctor, teacher, not too bright police office, lion, wise legendary author – you name it.  

I’ve made a list of films that he appeared in.  Guess I have another rabbit hole for the next couple of weeks!

Do you have a favorite JEJ film?