Over the course of the acting class at the Oldcastle Theater, Christine Decker, the actor and our teacher, managed to instill a sense both of safety and community. And I learned a lot, about acting and other things. Christine said the benefit of the class was to help us look inward, and this is what happened for me, and, I think for the other students.

We were a mixed lot. One student was so shy she never spoke in class or acted out a scene or monologue. We had a shy college math professor, and Carlene, an artist looking to re-ignite her creative spark. I did a scene with a very talented young man named Holden Daughton, and while I am not  a judge, he seemed to have a natural gift for acting.

He told me last night that he had just gotten a paid acting gig in Rutland, Vt. Holden is Game Role Player and a contractor, he was impressive, and I was happy for him. He’s getting married in April.

I loved talking about Red and our life together, and I am glad there was no video or audio recording of my talk. I hardly took any photos, I wanted to be with the other students as we encouraged and supported one another as our turn came up. There was a lot of support in that class for each other. I think I did okay, I just told the story of Red and me. It sort of tells itself.

Holden and I did a scene together apart from my Red soliloquy, I played the clueless father trying to connect with his sophisticated son, and I felt a strong chemistry with Holden, the role seemed so real to me, Christine was smart putting us together.

The scene was both poignant and funny.

I am not the collaborative sort, but I loved working with Holden. He has the gift.

I met a charismatic and creative young minister named Mark, and we connected to one another, we started talking about Thomas Merton and  Henri Nouwen and spirituality, we are planning to have lunch together in a week or so, I hope it happens. He invited me to come see him at his church, I’d like to do that.

Leslie Bremner did a touching stand-up called “Dance The Moon Away.” An older woman tries to get her stuff pot husband out of the house to go dancing.

The thing about the class was that it was full of good and interesting people – ordinary people – who needed to be a bit brave to get up in front of an audience and act.

It was a very affirming thing to see, all these good people sticking their necks out, risking some of their dignity.

It is not a simple thing to do. It was perhaps easier for me to talk in public than some because I’ve done so many readings, but I have never acted and don’t have any natural gifts for it. Still, I got so much from the class, I hope to take it again this summer when Christine offers it again.

What did I learn in the class? I  think I want to write another play (I’ve written two in my life, one was performed at the Soho, N.Y. New Playwrights  Project and the other was a piece that Christine Decker performed in.

I want to write a play called “Living In A River Of S—.”, about an older man, Gene, a mid-level manager at  giant blue chip company,  laid off from his job suddenly and sees much of his life fall apart, as the world around him gets uglier and more divisive and stressful.

He is devastated to lose his job, he has three daughters in college, and a big mortgage he can no longer pay. To get his severance pay, he is required to visit an Outplacement Counselor who is supposed to advise him on what to do next now, that he has been tossed in the garbage by a company he loved and served for 30 years.

Staying home on a weekday for he first time in his life,  he is disheartened by the news, which he calls “a river of shit…”  Darlene, the counselor is overwhelmed trying to help the scores of executives mostly male, who have just lost their jobs in one of the first mass layoffs in the country, now a routine thing.

She is also living in a river of shit, she tells him.

All day long, she sees broken, frightened and disillusioned men she knows she can’t really help. The company knows how to appear to be caring, while they clearly don’t give a shit.. She is the only person in the company who talks to them at all, and she feels acutely responsible for them. No one else does.

The men come from a culture of loyalty and security, their whole contract with the world has been broken, their whole understanding of how the world should work for them is shattered.

The men hate having to beg this woman for mercy and assistance. The system is cruel and false, there is really no help for Gene and the other thousands of people laid off that week, almost all of them men.

(The play was inspired by one of the first great layoffs in America, when AT&T, Alexander Graham Bell’s iconic and historic company) laid off tens of thousands of people in one day.)

The play is a dialogue between these two very different people who are suddenly thrown together in this very personal way. He opens up to her in a way he can’t even with his wife, and certainly not with his daughters.

The play is really a conversation between the two that evolves from a cold business arrangement into a genuine and heartfelt conversation about life, and how people can swim out of their river of shit and get to a good place. Their meetings become a life line for Gene, and to her surprise, Darlene, who has the most important job in the company suddenly, and who hates every second of it.

Gene and Darlene fight and dance around each other, and then realize they are both on the same side. They get creative with one another and they end up each awakening the other, and both of them taking back control of their lives.

I see the play as a commentary on the cruelty of modern corporatism, but more than that, an affirming and inspiring portrait of two people who climb out of their river of shit and get to high ground. It’s about rebirth and salvation in the Corporate Nation.

I see it as a two-person play, the dumped executive and his Outplacement Counselor.

So that is something else that came out of my class. The lesson for me is to stay open, keep experimenting, learning, challenging myself to grow. As soon as I finish my book, I will start on the play. I hope Christine will consider acting some of it out with me, or even working together with me.