Dear Subscribers,

I am finally back in New York after spending most of the summer in Vermont playing Horatio in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The audiences were appreciative, the weather was beautiful, and the reviews were glowing!

June Pichel Cook from The Hardwick Gazette wrote: "Horatio (David Beck) is Hamlet's friend and a difficult role to play; a shadow to the "In-your-face" action that may be going on. He plays it well and deeply. The final scene reflects a resignation that the course of events was unalterable."

Unalterable indeed...

Jim Lowe from Times Argus wrote: "Particularly fine performances also came from John Marshall and David Beck as Laertes and Horatio."

This week, I am taking part in a reading of the libretto workshop Mila, the Great Sorcerer (written by Jean Claude van Itallie and Lois Walden) about the life of the sacred Tibetan poet Milarepa at the Opera National Center with the American Lyric Theater. This is completely foreign territory to me, and I am ecstatic to begin tomorrow. A few of us actors will read and dissect the bold, new text...which will ultimately be sung, of course, by superb opera singers!

In the meantime, words to live by...