{"id":1902,"date":"2021-03-10T20:59:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T20:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2021-05-03T15:34:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T19:34:17","slug":"anna-sokolow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Sokolow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nA Celebration of Anna Sokolow\u2019s Legacy<\/strong>
\nJoyce Theater, N.Y.C. Sept. 14, 2000, 8 PM<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nGood evening everyone. My name is James Dybas and I\u2019m a former student and long time friend of Anna Sokolow. <\/p>\n

Anna is a giant \u2014 all 4\u2032 11\u2033 of her.  An artist in every sense of the word. Opinionated, daring, stubborn, humorous, private, tough, loving, caring, generous, original and brilliant.<\/p>\n

\nWe met in 1967 when I was a member of Jerry Robbins American Theater Lab which was an experimental theater group of 10 hand picked actor\/singer\/dancers who worked with Jerry from 10 \u2013 5 PM five days a week for about six months. Anna would come in twice a week to give a movement class and we all reveled in every moment of it. I can still hear her counting and clapping out the beats of each exercise. I told her that after her classes I felt cleansed and that it was like going to confession. Her no-nonsense and yet humorous way with us was exhilarating.<\/p>\n

\nFor some reason she thought I was Mexican, and being that she had spent time choreographing and teaching in Mexico City, took an immediate liking to me.
\nI think I was the only one who ever called her \u201cAnna Banana\u201d to her face. She looked at me with those blue eyes, surprised when I first said it and then she burst into laughter, telling me that it was what her elementary school mates used to call her. She knew that I said it with affection and didn\u2019t mind. I also called her Anushka, Maestra, Carina, Sokolova and Anita.<\/p>\n

\nBecause of this crazy business of ours and where our work takes us, we met each other all over the map. Los Angeles, Mexico City, Pittsburgh. I remember that while in San Francisco I took her on the ferry to Sausalito and when we passed Alcatraz she asked \u201cwhat\u2019s that?\u201d I said it was a prison that was empty but you could go in and take a tour. \u201cWhat for?\u201d She said. \u201cWhy don\u2019t they turn it into an art museum?\u201d
\nShe was in Pittsburgh creating a new dance piece about Januz Korchak the Polish man who took care of and tried to save the children in the death camps. I was there with the national tour of \u201c42nd Street\u201d and invited her to see the show not knowing what her reaction would be to all of the glitz and tap dancing. Afterwards I brought her back stage and she said \u201d I loved it. That young girl having to over come all of those obstacles to be a performer\u201d. She was referring to the character of Peggy Sawyer in the show. I chuckled to myself and I thought, only Anna would get the social implications of a girl from Allentown, PA trying to make it in show biz.<\/p>\n

\nWhile I was living in Los Angeles she happened to be working there and I invited her to stay with me in my apt. for a week. I asked her what she wanted to see. You can bet it WASN\u2019T Universal studios or Disneyland or the footprints in Manns Chinese Theater. She wanted to see where the poor people lived. So I took her to East L.A. where I knew we could also get some good Mexican food. I showed her the Watts Towers and she was in awe of how artistically it was constructed with broken , empty bottles and stuff. We also went to the beach in Venice and walked along the shore. I took wonderful photographs of her standing in front of what we thought was very beautiful graffiti. She loved the graffiti because it made a social statement and using graffiti for a scenic backdrop she later choreographed \u201cThrough the Culture Loop\u201d.<\/p>\n

\nI was vacationing in Mexico City Christmas of 1984 into the New Year. Anna just happened to be there and staying with an old friend who used to be more than a friend. His name was Nacho Aguirre and was a wonderful artist who she met when she was choreographing in Mexico in the 30\u2019s. He did several portraits of her while they were \u201ctogether\u201d. Small in stature like Anna and powerful like Anna. He was about 75 at the time, and Anna said that she gave him stretching exercises in the morning so that he would be able to stand up straight and move freely. She was always generous with her time and energy.<\/p>\n

(text continues below photos)<\/em><\/p>\n[aesop_gallery pslightbox=”on” transition=”crossfade” galleryType=”grid” id=”1922″]\n

\nShe loved living in Mexico City in the 30\u2019s and got to know many of the great artists. Orozco, Rivera,Kahlo, Sequieros. They all admired and respected her work and gave her gifts of their art works. Anna got to know the Sequieros family and in the 80\u2019s choreographed a piece called \u201cHomaje a Seqieros\u201d which was done in Mexico City and wonderfully received at the Bellas Artes and Polyforum. She loved Mexico and would visit and work there most every year.<\/p>\n

\nShe also loved Israel and told me about her very first trip there.
\n\u201cIn 1952 Jerry Robbins called me and said what are you doing next week?\u201d I said \u201cwhy Jerry?\u201d \u201cI\u2019d like you to come to Israel with me.\u201d \u201cWhat? Israel?. He said \u201cyes, the American Israel Culture Foundation in the U.S. is interested in bringing a dance company abroad and I\u2019ve seen a company which I think is very interesting and I\u2019d like your opinion.\u201d \u201cSo I go with him. When the plane landed in Tel Aviv I couldn\u2019t believe I was in the land of Jews. It was an amazing experience. WE live in a world of a Jew, a Christian, and Italian and this was all Jews and not that I was into Zionism but it was Zionism that made it. So then he took me to a rehearsal of this group INBAL and I couldn\u2019t believe my eyes. I kept thinking you mean these are Jews?\u201d Thin, dark skin, black hair, oriental, sing, dance, instruments. Jerry said \u201cYou like it?\u201d \u201cAnd I said yes.\u201d \u201cWill you stay?\u201d \u201cYes! I was totally mesmerized so \u2013 Jerry had to go back and I stayed on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Inbal company came to NYC and Anna was walking down the street in mid town Manhattan with one of the men dancers who was dark skinned with a beard. A drunk fell out of a doorway onto the street and shouted \u201cJesus\u201d. Anna laughingly said that the drunk thought this guy was the savior and said \u201cSave me, tell me what to do Jesus\u201d and the Israeli dancer in his thick accent said \u201cgo home, go to bed\u201d. Anna really got a kick out of the whole encounter.<\/p>\n

\nShe told me that her favorite city is Jerusalem. And said, I quote \u201cit maintains until this day a nobility and it rises above all this \u201cstuff\u201d. The atmosphere makes it.\u201d
\nShe had Mexican and Israeli art hanging on the walls in her Christopher St. apartment. I would go to visit and she would be listening to a piece of music by Scriabin or Bach or Alban Berg or Bernstein; music that she said was her form of meditation. Her apartment was always open to friends and if she was going to be out of town and I was visiting N.Y. she would always say \u201cmi casa es tu casa\u201d and offer for me to stay. I took her up on it once and stayed for a month while she was out of town and I was in rehearsal for the tour of \u201cGuys and Dolls\u201d.<\/p>\n

\nI don\u2019t know how she dealt with not having air conditioning, the noise from the Fire Dept which is just down the street, \u201cthe rumble of the subway trains, the rattle of the taxis\u201d, the boom boxes and hordes of people who would revel into the night just five floors below. <\/p>\n

She was a true New Yorker. She loved for us to walk thru the village and when we did, people would always stop and say \u201cHello Anna\u201d. She was always amazed that anyone recognized and knew her. For many,many years every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. she would walk from her 1 Christopher Street apartment to teach a movement for actors class at her friends Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof\u2019s H.B. Studio on Bank Street. She did this every Sunday until she was about 88 years old. It seems like everyone in the village had studied with her at one time or another. She loved the architecture and would always find something or someone that would be a little off beat and strangely beautiful. She was always conscious of the simplicity of things, and of course movement.<\/p>\n

Anna loved an occasional cigarette and a glass of wine. We\u2019d go to the Greek diner (Homer\u2019s) across the street from her apartment where all of the waiters adored her. I always expected them to go into a chorus of \u201cHello Anna\u201d.
\nShe\u2019d usually order the fruit salad on lettuce with jello and cottage cheese, and a cup of tea . We\u2019d talk and she would remember the challenging and wonderful times of her life.<\/p>\n

\nI remember the 88th birthday party that Jason Durivou made for her in her Christopher St. apartment. She was surrounded by friends and dancers from her company who brought gifts and flowers and goodies and love. Anna and I danced a kind of Tango in her kitchen and one of the guests video taped it. A filmed moment in time that I\u2019ll cherish forever.<\/p>\n

\nShe told me a story about how she met and was fired in California by Bertolt Brecht .
\nAnna came from Mexico to Los Angeles to do choreography for a Brecht play (whose name she couldn\u2019t remember) directed by Joe Losey and starring Charles Laughton. She was thrilled. Laughton met her at the airport , drove her to meet Brecht who was living in a poor section of L.A. and she goes in \u201cand\u2026. all the walls are pasted with newspapers.\u201d She said \u201cThis man (Brecht) looks at me and says \u201cdo you know my book\u201d \u201cI forget the name of the book \u2013 something to do with acting \u2013 he tells his wife to give me the book. I take the book, I read it, I don\u2019t understand any of it \u2013 all I got from the book was \u2013 no matter what you\u2019re saying, you say it straight front. \u201cI love you will you go home with me\u201d; not to the other actor but out front.
\nI thought my God , what am I gonna do here? I remember I had to stage a scene with a lot of movement so he came in to see the rehearsal and he said to me \u201cHow dare you come in here with your Broadway tricks\u201d I said, \u201d I don\u2019t have any tricks\u201d. He said \u201cDo you know who I am? I am known as the emperor of the German Theater\u201d. I said  \u201cWe don\u2019t have Emperors here\u201d , \u201cOUT  he shouted, and that was it and I was fired. See, with a person like that you have to obey constantly, no matter what, you have to do exactly as he tells you and that was it. You can\u2019t be creative in your way, you have to suit his creation. I remember before Brecht came I said to the director Joe Losey Do you mind if I take a week and just work by myself? He said No, not at all. The week was over, boom, in comes Brecht. And I was out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nA daytime nurse named Ruby was with Anna for the last several months of her life. In January of 2000 just a month before her 90th birthday she unexpectedly developed a blood clot and while in the hospital, had to have her right leg amputated from the thigh down. It was devastating. When she was recovering she didn\u2019t say much, however, while she was lying in bed, she kept reaching down trying to touch the leg that wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

\nThere were a lot of visitors and friends who were with her during the last months of her life. Mostly her companion and caretaker Jason Durivou, Jim & Lori May, and Mary Anthony was always there with an encouraging word and something to eat as were so many others. Near the end, her nephew Stephen Bank (who came from his home in London to live with Anna and take care of business for the last several months of her life) monitored who was allowed to visit her at her fifth floor apartment at Number 1 Christopher Street . In the last few days of her life, Anna layed in bed not opening her eyes or responding to anyone. I was with her the night before she left the planet and brought a boom box along with several of tapes of her favorite music, (Scriabin, Alban Berg, Teo Macero) so that she might hear the music that was her sustenance. Her nephew (Stephen Bank) was at her bedside in her apartment when she peacefully left the planet.<\/p>\n

\nI\u2019d like to read a few lines from \u201cThe Prophet\u201d by Kahil Gibran<\/p>\n

\n\u2026..For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
\nAnd what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from it\u2019s restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered.
\nOnly when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing, and when you have reached the mountain top then you shall begin to climb.
\nAnd when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you dance.<\/p>\n

\nGracias, Anita.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Celebration of Anna Sokolow\u2019s Legacy Joyce Theater, N.Y.C. Sept. 14, 2000, 8 PM Good evening everyone. My name is James Dybas and I\u2019m a former student and long time friend of Anna Sokolow. Anna is a giant \u2014 all 4\u2032 11\u2033 of her.  An artist in every sense of the word. Opinionated, daring, stubborn, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight"],"metadata":{"_thumbnail_id":["1904"],"_edit_lock":["1620070419:200"]},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAnna Sokolow - James Dybas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anna Sokolow - James Dybas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Celebration of Anna Sokolow\u2019s Legacy Joyce Theater, N.Y.C. Sept. 14, 2000, 8 PM Good evening everyone. My name is James Dybas and I\u2019m a former student and long time friend of Anna Sokolow. Anna is a giant \u2014 all 4\u2032 11\u2033 of her.  An artist in every sense of the word. 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Started my career working in Bob Simpson Revues at the Edgewater Beach and Del Prado Hotels in Chicago. Moved to NYC and landed my first Broadway show playing the role of Vito DiRossi in Richard Rodgers\\\/Steven Sondheim\\\/Arthur Laurents\u2019 Do I Hear A Waltz?. Next came George M!, Via Galactica (oh, the stories one can tell about this one week space odyssey disaster with music by Galt MacDermot and directed by Sir Peter Hall), 42nd Street, Sunset Blvd., The Scarlet Pimpernel and Pacific Overtures, originating the Sondheim songs Someone in a Tree and - extolling the merits of \u201cDetente\u201d - Please Hello. Toured with shows like Camelot (Mordred), J.C. Superstar (Herod), 42nd Street (Andy Lee - 3 years and over 1000 performances throughout the U.S.A.,Toronto & Tokyo) and Guys and Dolls (2 years as Harry the Horse). Kind of makes my head swim when I think of all of the cities we played for sometimes six months and other times just one night. Over the years, I\u2019ve had the good fortune to study acting with Mary Tarcai, Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof and Bobby Lewis; voice with Keith Davis, Amelia Haas and Denes Striny; dance and movement with Edna McRae, Luigi and Anna Sokolow. I\u2019m deeply indebted to all of them for giving me the knowledge to create and maintain the craft. Being in NYC - and being in the the right place at the right time - gave me the opportunity to audition for Jerome Robbins\u2019 American Theater Lab, and asked to be one of the original members of the group. We had a rigorous schedule of daily classes which included improvisational and experimental theatre games (think Grotowski). Gregg Lawrence writes about our American Theater Lab in his book Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins. And what actor doesn't consider a few years in Los Angeles? While living there, Equity Waiver Theatre was in full flower and my motto was \u201csuit up, show up, and say yes.\u201d This resulted with my becoming a six-time recipient of the Drama-Logue Critics Award. What a blast it was working with Ray Bradbury and Jose Feliciano creating the role of Villanazul in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit at The Pasadena Playhouse, to also work with George Rose in the L.A. premiere of Drood !, to play the wacky Tristan Tzara in Travesties, Jigger in Carousel, Tom in That Championship Season and several roles in The Great American Playwrights Show (10 short plays, 10 different roles), which we took on a six city tour after it\u2019s run at the Odyssey Theater. Regional Theatre thrives around the country and it\u2019s been great playing diverse roles in Plaza Suite, Jekyll & Hyde, Breaking Legs, Nine, Annie Get Your Gun, Singin\u2019 in the Rain, The Sea Gull, Tovarich (doing a duet Charleston number with Ginger Rogers), Hello Dolly - with both Ann Miller & Betty Grable -, Romeo & Juliet, Kiss Me Kate (yeah,another gangster role), the King in The King and I, and last but certainly not least playing the role of Barnum for three months, walking the high wire while singing (as we crossed the Bermuda Triangle) aboard the S. S. Norway in the 700 seat Saga Theater. So many other shows and stories have happened through the years. Most recently I played yet another bad guy. This was a Casa Manana - Dallas Theater Center co-production of the play To Kill A Mockingbird. The role of Bob Ewell is now one of my favorite characters. He\u2019s a lean, mean, lyin, drunken, creep. Who, me ??? The cast was brilliant and our director Wendy Dann is one of the best. Most recently Writer\\\/director Zachary Volker cast me in the role of Lou Mullin - a wacko con man - in his short film called Club Magic Moment, which has been showing at film festivals throughout the country. Scrapbooks and my theatre memorabilia are a part of the Newberry Library\u2019s archives. James Dybas Papers: Newberry Library - Chicago, IL https:\\\/\\\/mms.newberry.org\\\/detail.asp?id=814&alpha=D\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/JamesDybas.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/dybasjames\\\/author\\\/dybasjames\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anna Sokolow - James Dybas","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anna Sokolow - James Dybas","og_description":"A Celebration of Anna Sokolow\u2019s Legacy Joyce Theater, N.Y.C. Sept. 14, 2000, 8 PM Good evening everyone. My name is James Dybas and I\u2019m a former student and long time friend of Anna Sokolow. Anna is a giant \u2014 all 4\u2032 11\u2033 of her.  An artist in every sense of the word. Opinionated, daring, stubborn, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/","og_site_name":"James Dybas","article_published_time":"2021-03-10T20:59:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-03T19:34:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1713,"url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/188\/2021\/03\/Anna-Sokolow-1967-2--scaled.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James Dybas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James Dybas","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/"},"author":{"name":"James Dybas","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/#\/schema\/person\/71063ace56aeff24edbd2c897e437140"},"headline":"Anna Sokolow","datePublished":"2021-03-10T20:59:26+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-03T19:34:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/"},"wordCount":2311,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/188\/2021\/03\/Anna-Sokolow-1967-2--scaled.jpeg","articleSection":["Highlight"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/","url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/","name":"Anna Sokolow - James Dybas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/188\/2021\/03\/Anna-Sokolow-1967-2--scaled.jpeg","datePublished":"2021-03-10T20:59:26+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-03T19:34:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/#\/schema\/person\/71063ace56aeff24edbd2c897e437140"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/188\/2021\/03\/Anna-Sokolow-1967-2--scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/188\/2021\/03\/Anna-Sokolow-1967-2--scaled.jpeg","width":2560,"height":1713},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/anna-sokolow\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anna Sokolow"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/#website","url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/","name":"James Dybas","description":"A Performing Arts Legacy Project site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/#\/schema\/person\/71063ace56aeff24edbd2c897e437140","name":"James Dybas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b5ab5556ae82a44162bb335e9653adf556910a46123f0f5852dba219065d6b6?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b5ab5556ae82a44162bb335e9653adf556910a46123f0f5852dba219065d6b6?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b5ab5556ae82a44162bb335e9653adf556910a46123f0f5852dba219065d6b6?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"James Dybas"},"description":"I grew up in Chicago, am an Aquarian and am enjoying a life filled with challenging and wonderful roles on the Broadway stage, Regional Theatre, TV, Radio and Film. Started my career working in Bob Simpson Revues at the Edgewater Beach and Del Prado Hotels in Chicago. Moved to NYC and landed my first Broadway show playing the role of Vito DiRossi in Richard Rodgers\/Steven Sondheim\/Arthur Laurents\u2019 Do I Hear A Waltz?. Next came George M!, Via Galactica (oh, the stories one can tell about this one week space odyssey disaster with music by Galt MacDermot and directed by Sir Peter Hall), 42nd Street, Sunset Blvd., The Scarlet Pimpernel and Pacific Overtures, originating the Sondheim songs Someone in a Tree and - extolling the merits of \u201cDetente\u201d - Please Hello. Toured with shows like Camelot (Mordred), J.C. Superstar (Herod), 42nd Street (Andy Lee - 3 years and over 1000 performances throughout the U.S.A.,Toronto & Tokyo) and Guys and Dolls (2 years as Harry the Horse). Kind of makes my head swim when I think of all of the cities we played for sometimes six months and other times just one night. Over the years, I\u2019ve had the good fortune to study acting with Mary Tarcai, Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof and Bobby Lewis; voice with Keith Davis, Amelia Haas and Denes Striny; dance and movement with Edna McRae, Luigi and Anna Sokolow. I\u2019m deeply indebted to all of them for giving me the knowledge to create and maintain the craft. Being in NYC - and being in the the right place at the right time - gave me the opportunity to audition for Jerome Robbins\u2019 American Theater Lab, and asked to be one of the original members of the group. We had a rigorous schedule of daily classes which included improvisational and experimental theatre games (think Grotowski). Gregg Lawrence writes about our American Theater Lab in his book Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins. And what actor doesn't consider a few years in Los Angeles? While living there, Equity Waiver Theatre was in full flower and my motto was \u201csuit up, show up, and say yes.\u201d This resulted with my becoming a six-time recipient of the Drama-Logue Critics Award. What a blast it was working with Ray Bradbury and Jose Feliciano creating the role of Villanazul in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit at The Pasadena Playhouse, to also work with George Rose in the L.A. premiere of Drood !, to play the wacky Tristan Tzara in Travesties, Jigger in Carousel, Tom in That Championship Season and several roles in The Great American Playwrights Show (10 short plays, 10 different roles), which we took on a six city tour after it\u2019s run at the Odyssey Theater. Regional Theatre thrives around the country and it\u2019s been great playing diverse roles in Plaza Suite, Jekyll & Hyde, Breaking Legs, Nine, Annie Get Your Gun, Singin\u2019 in the Rain, The Sea Gull, Tovarich (doing a duet Charleston number with Ginger Rogers), Hello Dolly - with both Ann Miller & Betty Grable -, Romeo & Juliet, Kiss Me Kate (yeah,another gangster role), the King in The King and I, and last but certainly not least playing the role of Barnum for three months, walking the high wire while singing (as we crossed the Bermuda Triangle) aboard the S. S. Norway in the 700 seat Saga Theater. So many other shows and stories have happened through the years. Most recently I played yet another bad guy. This was a Casa Manana - Dallas Theater Center co-production of the play To Kill A Mockingbird. The role of Bob Ewell is now one of my favorite characters. He\u2019s a lean, mean, lyin, drunken, creep. Who, me ??? The cast was brilliant and our director Wendy Dann is one of the best. Most recently Writer\/director Zachary Volker cast me in the role of Lou Mullin - a wacko con man - in his short film called Club Magic Moment, which has been showing at film festivals throughout the country. Scrapbooks and my theatre memorabilia are a part of the Newberry Library\u2019s archives. James Dybas Papers: Newberry Library - Chicago, IL https:\/\/mms.newberry.org\/detail.asp?id=814&alpha=D","sameAs":["https:\/\/JamesDybas.com"],"url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/author\/dybasjames\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/dybasjames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}