Rehearsal And Politicians

I appealed to Dennis R. regarding my non-working outside electrical outlets and that sweet guy stopped in early to reset them.  Then I was able to fulfil my idiotic and practically uncontrollable desire--no, need!-- to illuminate the woods in back with a floodlight.  I can't decide if it looks pretty and romantic, as I intended, or like something out of a horror movie, but I'll light it when I have company.
Aline got here just at 6:00 and John arrived shortly thereafter.  I was pleased when J. agreed to play Tom Tricky in my play, actually just a little sketch.  A. is the secretary and I'm reprising my role as Tootie Van Loonie, the bag lady who wins the lottery.  I wrote the thing years ago and it was staged by the  Sunrise Bay Drama Club, now defunct, I'm afraid.  As Tootie mentions several locales, I changed Toms River and Manahawkin to Margate and Somers Point and so on.  We went over it several times and A. and J. got right into the swing of it.  Silly as it is, I think the audience will enjoy it.
Dayle F. came later, and I watched as the three rehearsed another play.  It's not bad, although as many of this genre do, it rests somewhat uneasily on one slight turn.  Seems a tad overwritten and the ending is abrupt, but it has the virtue of being short and should be enjoyable.
In between rehearsing, we shared some of our experiences in acting, play-writing, and the theatre in general.  What fun and how lucky I am to be part of it!  I came to this interest late and it's so pleasurable to know I've made myself part of it.  When I mentioned my first "real" role as the grieving mother in Riders To The Sea, I was charmed to learn that John is actually familiar with J. M. Synge.  Hey, you don't find that in the general population or among many (read "any") of my other friends.
Meeting Viv L. for dinner tonight.
WIDER:  Here's Glenn Greenwald's take on the branding of politicians:
"...unhealthy and dangerous trust in one's own leader - beyond just the normal human desire to follow - is the by-product of over-identifying with the brand-marketed personality of politicians. Many East and West Coast progressives (which is overwhelmingly what Democratic Party opinion leaders are) have been trained to see themselves and the personality traits to which they aspire in Obama (the urbane, sophisticated, erudite Harvard-educated lawyer and devoted father and husband), just as religious conservatives and other types of Republicans were trained to see Bush in that way (the devout evangelical Christian, the brush-clearing, patriotic swaggering cowboy, and devoted father and husband).
Politicians are thus perceived like contestants in a reality TV show...but the difference is that these images are bolstered with hundreds of millions of dollars of relentless, sophisticated, highly manipulative propaganda campaigns...."
So damn true, it hurts. His essay includes much, much more, and the thing entire should be read:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/27-2