J. Bryan Blundell wrote:

> The truth is that it was my second and last performance in a play, after
> that I stuck with building sets and dance floors.

  My son is doing the same with the set building and stage crew for a school
play now. He is very much into the fact that he gets to wear black and run
around in front of an audience in the dark. I asked him why he did not want
to be visible in the play and he told me it would take too much of his time
after school for rehearsals. Beside that, he gets to supervise the stage
crew. He says, without too much vanity, that the entire school is
disorganized and needs his help. We live in a library (our house) in a
community that is clearly reading challenged. I'm always amazed at his
talent in supervision, not a natural talent that I share. Used to be if we
told him he had to clean his room on a Saturday next thing we knew there
were four kids over helping to clean his room. The same with raking leaves
in the yard... chase him out of the house then look out the window and a
whole group would be raking leaves. He works right along with everyone.

In grade shcool my last play... I was the Knight who slew the dragon to save
the princess. Rebecca Newhart, red headed vixen of the playground (I will
always respect her for beating the crap out of me with her purse for peaking
under her dress as she climbed up the slide), was the princess. My mother
and I spent weeks perfecting a lucite sword that was made from scrap my
stepfather brought home from work. I was very much into the chivalry of
Knights at the time, I was also very much into trying to do everything
exactly perfect (a curse from my mother's side of the family). Anyways, at
the end of the play the princess blessed me (no kissing), and I was supposed
to turn around and fall into her arms. I turned around, went stiff (putting
some extra drama into the role), fell backwards and landed flat on my back
on the wooden stage, breaking the sword into two pieces. It seems Rebecca
had the good sense to step back and give me room. Slightly bruised but
mostly embarassed... I prefer solo performances now, and that only on a rare
occasion. I once gave a poetry reading in which I dressed all in white and
stood behind the audience surrounded by plaster Grecian statues. The
audience entered the area, not noticing me standing out of position, took
their seats, and a few musicians played in front of them, then I started
reading poetry behind them causing them all to turn around and figure out
which one of the objects was making all the commotion. I don't think the
poetry was very good, I was into mixing geese and crow sounds with strange
images, but the performance did make an impression.

Then we got to work at the New Amsterdam Theater before Eisner announced
Disney moving in. For several days, prior to the press announcement with
governor Cuomo, snow had been melting on the roof and leaking through the
building. There was a lot of concern the roofs may collapse with the heavy
snow and ice load. Drains had not been maintained during the building's
periodof neglect. There were areas that were structurally unsound that we
had to stabilize so that work could be done. There were some areas where you
simply did not want to go. I was reminded of waterfalls when I toured the
major leaks. Our assignment was to stop the water and to warm the place up,
all in an aura of secrecy. Very heavy secrecy on all these large projects,
we encountered the same at Grand Central Terminal. We had been messing
around in the building for about a year and pretty much had it completely
mapped out. Despite Disney's face-lift, there are catacomb-like areas of the
building that were essentially sealed up. I remember being in the third
lower-level basement on our initial tour and having the lights go out. I was
standing on a plank straddling a ditch full of some strange fluid. I always
have an emotional problem with these projects because after having spent a
year being the only one taking care of a building, when it actually goes
into development another set of people takes over, usually with more obvious
roles, and eventually we are not allowed access for any reason.

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