By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
photo by Tim Fuller
Metaphors bring life to Bill Epstein's solo theater piece.
"My Life In Sports," written and performed by Bill Epstein, is one of the most touching pieces of theater you will ever see. This one-man solo show is now playing at the Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre, 738 N. Fifth Ave.
With Bryan Rafael Falcon as director, using only stage props and theatrical effects, Epstein time and again creates stories that begin like jock tales that guys tell over beers after work -- then turn into life lessons which will break your heart.
"For when the one great scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes – not that you won or lost – but how you played the game."
People don't quote those famous words of immortal sportswriter Grantland Rice any more. Not since television advertising turned so many athletes into millionaires and erased from memory any notion that wanting to be an athlete proved you valued fair play more than anything else.
Epstein's life in organized sports began in 1953 in a small town in eastern Pennsylvania. He was eight years old, picked to play second base on a home team of 11- and 12-year-olds. Epstein's father owned the town's main clothing store.
Epstein doesn't say if his father played a role in the lad getting that job as second baseman, but there were 100 boys trying out for the team and Epstein loved baseball. He really wanted to play.
In loving detail he describes boyhood joys like how good that ball feels when it smacks into the leather pocket of his ball glove. The glove he cared for, kept well oiled and stored away each winter, wrapped with a baseball nestled deep inside.
He tells us lots more, such as the pride he still feels over the time he once hit a ball so hard and so far, he "roofed it." Something few boys could ever do, he added.
And the game that went on, even after the town's tornado siren blew, and frantic wives were looking for their husbands at the ball field. Players were loyal. Nobody wanted to let down the other guys on the team.
Epstein also remembered his unhappy marriage with his wife and two teenage children, and how he stuck it out. Because that's what men did. It was the right thing to do.
But at the same time, in the 1970s and 1980s, social values were changing. By then Epstein was a professor of English back East. He was struck by how, instead of saying they wanted to become engineers and doctors, the male students started saying they wanted "to be happy."
Epstein didn't get it. Being happy was never a part of his deal. Then all of a sudden when he was 44, on an otherwise ordinary day on campus, he met Candace, a student dancer who was 26.
With instant love and happiness exploding into ecstasy, Epstein dumped all his responsible attitudes, left his responsible life and family. With no regrets and no home, he married Candace.
Less than a year later, the doctor said her cancer was terminal. Times may change but life lessons are solid. Now that tornado siren seemed to be worlds away, but Epstein wasn't about to leave her.
He was determined to finish the game. That's what men did who were raised playing sports in the 1950s.
"My Life In Sports" runs through Jan. 27, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24 - Saturday, Jan. 26; 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27, in the Historic Y, 738 N. Fifth Ave. Show is 2 1/2 hours.
Ticket are $28, with discounts available. For details and reservations. 448-3300, scoundrelandscamp.org
No comments:
Post a Comment