Those You Find, Those You Lose
In 1991, after my first year of college at The George Washington University, I stayed in DC for the summer. I’d just decided that instead of studying political science, I would major in theater, and I stuck around to do a couple of summer plays. In one, a version of Nancy Drew, I understudied for a brilliantly funny actor named Michael Willis. (Later, he would play odious defense attorney Darren Russom on Homicide and corrupt real estate developer Andy Krawczyk on The Wire). The other show was a production of As You Like It. I played the clown, Touchstone.
The best part of this show was meeting the actor who played Phoebe, a multi-talented performer, writer, storyteller, dungeon master, and ace-level human. We became instant friends.
Jennifer Furlong continues to be one of my favorite people in the world. And she’s just published her first novel: the first volume in a goth-y YA horror series called Hidden City. Get your hands on a copy here.
DC was expensive for a college kid. So the following summer, 1992, I went home to suburban New York, got a temp job working in an office somewhere. Bored out of my mind, I decided to start my own theater company. My sister Dana was my right-hand hench, and she recruited all of her theater geek friends from high school to audition. And so was born Gumby Theater. Not named after the green bendy guy, but after these guys. We did a night of two one-act plays: “This Is A Test,’ by Stephen Gregg and “The Actor’s Nightmare” by Christopher Durang.
I didn’t really know anything about how to produce or direct a play, but I didn’t let that stop us. We rehearsed in the garage, and there was a lot of silliness involved. Once the summer ended and I went back to school, Dana continued running Gumby for a few more years, and increasing the madness.
One of Dana’s closest friends was Ilana Graf. She was a Gumby Theater standout, playing major roles in several of the shows. I re-encountered her several years later, after I moved home to New York and we were both living in the city. She had grown up to be smart, funny, very creative, and with that battle-weary, sardonic pessimism that seems like a hallmark of growing up in Rockland County, New York in the 80s.
Ilana died last week.
I don’t really know what else to say, other than it’s inescapably sad. I’ll let Dana speak for me.
This is how I’ll remember you, goofing off in my old NYC apartment, playing dress up, taking photos for your album cover - you were a force to be reckoned with and I’ll love and miss you til my last day. I’m so sorry for the unspeakable things life threw at you and I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it better - in my heart forever 💔
Our old high school has set up a fund in her name:
The Ilana Graf Memorial Scholarship is awarded to a graduating senior of Ramapo High School that has demonstrated a strong interest in some form of creative expression, including music, dance, visual arts, drama, or writing.
If you are so moved, you can contribute to the fund here.
JB Præsenterer
This newsletter is a few days late: I’ve had my plate full for the past several weeks with two very interesting and wildly different projects. I’m hoping to be able to share more about them soon. In the meantime, let’s turn our attention to something cheerier, and a topic I know you all are clamoring to hear more about: our belated obsession with Danish television!
Previously, I enthused all about Forbrydelsen Season 1, and the captivating stylings of Søren Malling. Since then, we’ve gobbled down Seasons 2 and 3, and I’m thrilled to report new obsessions with even more Danish actors!
Nicolas Bro plays one of the leads in Season 2, the newly appointed Justice Minster Thomas Buch, and it is impossible to look away whenever he is on screen. He’s got this explosive energy that hovers just on the edge of control, and it feels like at any moment he could do something surprising. And when he lets loose…oh my. There’s a scene late in the season where Buch, despondent at discovering he’s being forced to resign, crashes a party at another ministry, drinking too much and monologuing at the very confused guests, and it’s utterly delightful.
He’s coloring just a little bit outside the lines, and it’s thrilling to watch.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Morten Suurballe looks like he’s carved out of granite.
Solid, unmovable, he narrows his eyes and emits a wave of disapproval and skepticism. His character, Lennart Brix, is the voice of reason, of skepticism, the avatar of - and later the bulwark against - the pressure coming from the establishment. He’s all poker face, wielding so much gravitas that, when he finally risks his own career to give our hero the political cover she needs to solve the case, all it takes is a small move of the eyebrow and a tilt of the head. From him, an offhand comment is as thrilling as a rousing speech.
I know I’m a decade late to this show, but it really does hold up as a finally crafted piece of pop storytelling. And the ending is…just…
And now I really get what this is talking about:
Here’s a fun interview with Søren Malling that we’ve been quoting from excessively. He talks about how they don’t take things too seriously: “I leave work at 4:00, have a beer at the cafe, say hello to my beautiful wife.” Sign me up for that!
He also says that there are only “about a thousand actors in Denmark.” From what we’ve seen so far, that certainly seems to be true. As we move on from Forbrydelsen, and line up as much DanskCon as we can, the obvious next famous show to watch is Broen (The Bridge). But we’re taking a break before digging into that, to watch the very expensive, super-high production value miniseries 1864. Yes, it’s got Nicolas Bro, and Søren Malling, and Sidse Babette Knudsen from Borgen. Part of the fun turns out to be that, no only are these shows all really good, but there’s a constant parade of “Hey it’s that guy!” Forget Pokemon, now it’s Danish actors — gotta catch ‘em all!
Do you have any favorite Danish actors, shows, or films? Let me know what else I should add to the list.
A Plethora of Elephants
A friend has recently launched a news site: 118els.com, to showcase “The Authoritative & Complete Periodic Table of the Elephants.” The elephant classifications are delightful, the artwork is gorgeous, and there’s merch!
The purported author of this work is one Bry O’Shaughnessy. I don’t know, though - seems a bit suspect to me. Be warned, if you poke around the site, you might find yourself tumbling down a rabbit hole into an entire connected universe of stories and storytellers. Pour yourself a small whisky first.
In the meantime, I’m going to back to trying to solve the age old question, “why can’t any of my zoom calls hear me if I’m using AirPods.” I wonder how Kierkegaard would answer this imponderable dilemma?
Hej hej,
Jay