robert massimi

People are talking about voting November 3erd. What is being said is "this is the most important election ever". The truth is, they're right, it is. I have watched American jobs being shipped overseas since the 1970's. I have watched American factories leave cities like: Troy, N.Y., Paterson, N.J., Detroit, Michigan and East St. Louis. The opt word for this is globalization; the idea that being part of the greater world is for the greater good. Since the 1970's , both parties have gave away good paying factory jobs to places like :China, Korea, Vietnam, Shri Lanka and India. Many of these politicians have lined their own pockets doing so and all the while hurt our country.

Robert Massimi. "Tartuffe" is a Moliere classic. It is a story about Orgon, his perfect family and a pious fraud named Tartuffe. It was never really clear to me how a successful man like Orgon could be so taken by Tartuffe but he is and his family feels the effects of it. Orgon and his mother are so in rapture by this man that they get to the point where they make no decisions without the advise and opinion of Tartuffe.

Robert Massimi. Last Friday was The Drama Leagues annual Gala which was to be held at the Marriott Marquis in the heart of New York City, in the center of Broadway. It was to include a red carpet and interviews with the talented artists who would have been up for Tony Awards this June. It is a Gala that if you are lucky enough to be invited too, as I was, that honors all the big players in Theater today. From writers, producers, directors and actors, May 15th was the date on everyone's calendar.

In a play that starts slow but picks up steam as it moves along, director William Roudebush creates a suspense among the three characters in "Rules of Desire" The play takes place on a Navy ship where we at first meet a stowaway named Felicia (McKenna Harrington). In William Mastrosimone's new play, he deftly introduces his characters, and then develops their stories over the course of the 90 intermission less minutes. At first we have no idea why Matt(Tristan Biber) has brought this teen aged girl on board of this nuclear ship, other than he is infatuated with her. Risking a court martial and embarrassing his Admiral father, he has thrown caution too the wind.

Robert Massimi. Throughout time, things have both changed and have also stayed the same. Playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle constantly brings us from the present, to the past and somewhere in the middle. This play has many constants, variations and much symmetry too it. In the one hour and forty intermission less minutes we go back and forth between a Wall Street firm where a talented, young Indian woman with a propensity for mathematics, who is originally from Oklahoma, lands a job in investment banking. Proud of her Indian roots, she has lost many of the customs and the traditions of her culture. Even though she has to go back and forth to tend to her dying father, she has her eye on the prize... the glory of being a Wall Street big shot.

Robert Massimi. Member Dramatists Guild. The Drama League has been doing this for 36 years! DirectorFest gives a culmination of directors a chance to work with both new and established writers. In venues across Manhattan, DirectorFest runs over five weeks and this year will feature productions of John LaChiusa's "Hello Again" and Harold pinter's "The Lover"; revivals of "Appearances" by Tina Howe and Marcus Gardley's "The Sporting Life Of Icarus Jones"; "The Drowning Girls" by Beth Graham and "Pure", created by Belgium director Bakalov.