91国产精品 Communication Professor is American Fiction Award Finalist
[[{"fid":"44650","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company","title":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company","height":1011,"width":674,"style":"height: 450px; width: 300px; float: left;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]Distinguished professor emeritus, author and critic Abelman brings the Sage of the Stage to the page in notable new novella
When a local critic takes an acting role with a top-tier theater company in order to write about the experience, he gets more of a story than he bargained for.
So begins the synopsis for 鈥淎ll the World鈥檚 a Stage Fright,鈥 a 128-page 鈥渇ictional memoir鈥 novella born of the pandemic and fueled by the nation鈥檚 shuttered theaters. Penned by 91国产精品 distinguished professor emeritus Bob Abelman, Ph.D. and issued by longtime , the irreverent work explores a theater critic鈥檚 experiences on the other side of the proscenium.
Gripped by a phobia of sage William Shakespeare, veteran writer and theater critic Asher Kaufman finds himself trying out for a production of the Bard鈥檚 rustic comedy 鈥淎s You Like It鈥 as a stunt to increase readership for his publication, the Cleveland Jewish Chronicle. Before long, Kaufman is flanked on all sides by 鈥渢hin-skinned鈥 actors whose past performances he previously panned. As one might expect, awkward hilarity ensues.
Dr. Abelman, professor in the 91国产精品 School of Communication, is the theater critic for Cleveland Jewish News and syndicated to other regional publications. Previously named , readers will get the sense that he is Kaufman and vice-versa in the quick-witted 鈥淪tage Fright鈥濃攚hich Dr. Abelman describes as a 鈥渇ictionalized memoir that began as nonfiction.鈥
As a younger man, Dr. Abelman was also a professional actor who 鈥渁ppeared on Broadway and so far off-Broadway it was Connecticut.鈥 Put it all together and laughs certainly abound. One of two titles Dr. Abelman has penned for Gray, the novella was named a novella category late last fall.
You鈥檝e spent many years here at 91国产精品 teaching to students. How do you feel your instructional side has informed and influenced your experiences as an author and as an actor?
Believe me, the challenge of performing a one-man show to a sold-out house pales by comparison to teaching an introductory course in a huge lecture hall filled with first-semester freshmen. I have no doubt that lecturing has informed my acting and putting together a lesson plan has improved my creative writing as a novelist.
[[{"fid":"44651","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company","title":"Bob Abelman, Ph.D. 91国产精品 all the world's a stage fright gray company","height":960,"width":720,"style":"height: 400px; width: 300px; float: left;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]]Your two novellas fall under a series title 鈥淢isadventures of a Clandestine Critic.鈥 It sounds like there could be more on the way. Do you have these mapped out, and if so, what can readers expect to see in the future?
There鈥檚 no map. During the first month of the pandemic, when local theaters were shutting down, I had read that when recurring bubonic plague outbreaks hit London in the early 1600s 鈥 when the Globe Theatre and other playhouses were shut down 鈥 William Shakespeare continued to put quill to parchment and wrote some of his best plays while in quarantine. As a theater critic with nothing to review, I continued to write about theater, just not for a newspaper. The novella 鈥淎ll the World鈥檚 A Stage Fright鈥 was published eight months later and has found an audience. With the continued cancellation of theatrical productions due to the coronavirus variants, the sequel 鈥淢urder, Center Stage鈥 鈥 an Agatha Christie-like whodunit set in a production of Stephen Sondheim鈥檚 鈥淪weeney Todd鈥 鈥 recently hit the bookstores. Here鈥檚 hoping that, in 2022, there鈥檚 no need for a trilogy. Though I do have some ideas.
How did the book partnership with the Cleveland Jewish News come to be?
It鈥檚 not easy for a new novelist to find a publisher and break into the fiction business, especially when the work is a funny novella. I鈥檝e written over a dozen books with several academic publishing houses but none, I discovered, has a popular fiction wing. On a whim, I reached out to the publisher of my newspaper, who also publishes magazines, to see if he had given any thought of becoming a book publisher. He had not, but he introduced me to a local publisher of nonfiction who was willing to give my novella a shot and he said that the CJN could be a promotional partner.
These novellas are a lot of fun to read; were they as fun to write?
Absolutely. The first one is a fictionalized memoir, and there鈥檚 all kinds of pleasure to be had making actual events and people funnier than they were in real life. The sequel is a murder mystery, and there鈥檚 a different kind of pleasure shaping life so that it conforms to the rules of the whodunnit genre. Writing these books was like blowing wild balloon animals.
[[{"fid":"44666","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"all the world's a stage fright","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"all the world's a stage fright"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"6":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"all the world's a stage fright","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"all the world's a stage fright"}},"attributes":{"alt":"all the world's a stage fright","title":"all the world's a stage fright","height":250,"width":350,"style":"height: 214px; width: 300px; float: left;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"6"}}]]Knowing these books began autobiographically, walk us through the Venn diagram intersecting Kaufman and Abelman. How much are they the same鈥 and what separates the two of you?
Asher is taller, better looking, and less functional. Otherwise, it is certainly my voice coming out of his mouth.
鈥淭his is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.鈥 That rote cut-and-paste legal rider isn鈥檛 in the novella anywhere, but we know the Cleveland Jewish Chronicle is inspired by CJN and that Asher has a lot of you in him. Surely a couple of these other characters have some real-world inspiration.
Every character is grounded in or a composite of people I have worked with in the Cleveland theater scene. But like I said earlier, everyone is a balloon animal. I turned my real life, soft-spoken editor into a character straight out of central casting from the 1928 comedy 鈥淭he Front Page.鈥 Like the characters in that play, he became a fast-talking, hard-boiled, big-city newshound. Like them, he wears suspenders, as if the news cycle was so unrelenting that there was no time to strap on a belt.
We are slowly reengaging in live stage performance after a long layover. From a media criticism perspective, what have we lost collectively during this absence of stage performance鈥攁side from, say, the art itself and the collective consciousness associated to it?
We 鈥 artists, audiences, and critics 鈥 lost a sense of community. But that will return as soon as being on both sides of the proscenium once again becomes non-risk and normative.
Have you been back to the theater since the pandemic began to subside? And what productions are you looking forward to seeing once you鈥檙e back at full steam as a critic?
I have been back, and it felt like I was whole again. I鈥檓 looking forward to theater companies regaining their rhythms, putting together an entire season, and getting back to business.
[[{"fid":"44668","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"all the world's a stage fright","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"all the world's a stage fright"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"7":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"all the world's a stage fright","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"all the world's a stage fright"}},"attributes":{"alt":"all the world's a stage fright","title":"all the world's a stage fright","height":250,"width":350,"style":"height: 214px; width: 300px; float: left;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"7"}}]]How are changes in media over the last 20-25 years impacting theatre, from your perspective?
Well, there鈥檚 been the Disneyfication of musicals, which has created a plethora of family-friendly shows based largely on animated movies, like 鈥淭he Lion King鈥 and 鈥淔rozen.鈥 For a while there, Broadway theaters resembled theme parks and most of those shows are currently on national tour. But there has still been room for understated shows like 鈥淐ome From Away鈥 and 鈥淭he Band鈥檚 Visit,鈥 as well as innovative works like 鈥淗amilton.鈥 CGI and a cinematic sensibility have also worked their way into theatrical productions, for good and bad.
Looking ahead, what kind of changes and adjustments to live theatre do you imagine will become permanent, so that arts communities can count on greater sustainability?
If I had the answer to this, I would be a producer, not a critic/actor.
Guess we鈥檒l need a Magic 8-Ball for the answer to that one鈥 In the meantime, learn more about Dr. Abelman鈥檚 new novella by clicking .