| |
| |
Alan W. King
Monday, September 28, 2009 |
|
Class of ’67’s Thompson goes into ‘OverTime’
By Alan W. King
Special to The Darien Times
April 9, 2009
Book Review
Powerful. Masterful. Engaging. Howie Thompson’s novel “OverTime” is his latest book about a subject he knows all too well about.
This veteran coach and seasoned writer was born and raised in Darien, and is a 1967 graduate of Darien High School. Thompson was also the former kicker on the Darien High School football team and was affectionately known as “Howie, the Toe” for setting the first kicking record.
“I am always proudest of the fact that I graduated from Darien High School and played for John Maher and Vic Crump,” he says, “and grew up in a time that was exciting in Darien.”
While attending the University of Tampa, Thompson’s place-kicking career suddenly came to an end when he was injured by another player. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of Tampa, and a master’s degree in recreation and leisure education from Southern Connecticut State University,Thompson continues to coach youth sports, including basketball, football, baseball, softball,
lacrosse and soccer.
In addition to being a certified North Carolina high school soccer referee, he is an athletic trainer certified by the National Athletic Trainers’ association and has been chosen by Who’s Who Among American Teachers.
The author cleverly portrays his protagonist’s struggles in OverTime as he faces and overcomes his past demons in an attempt to turn his life around. Thompson skillfully draws upon his many years of coaching, counseling and mediation experience. The author has an innate ability to put the reader there in the moment with skillfully rendered dialogues and narration that allows the emotions involved to rely on the pace of the narrative. This surreal and engaging novel is a dramatic sports story filled with conflict, deceit and misplaced trust. It is also a story about lost love and a world few of us are seldom privy to or perhaps have never imagined.
The plot unfolds in a small mid-western town high school gymnasium during the final 17 seconds of a basketball game. Coach Jones directs his players in what he believes will be the winning play and culmination of his 25-year coaching career. It would also be his 19th straight state high school boys’ class 4A title.
Jones carefully lays-out a detailed play for his talented senior star and shooting guard, Trey “Shooter” Parrish, who is now dripping with sweat. As the players gather around one last time, the aged and revered coach tells his team, “Men, you are the best group of players I have ever coached. Whatever happens now, I will never forget you. Thank you.”
Trey Parrish becomes haunted by the memory of that fateful night at South Willow High School. As the story progresses, we soon learn how this one high school basketball game would become the turning point in this young boy’s life, and the role it would continue to play in the years ahead.
Parrish is troubled and preoccupied by the memories of his past, and the lingering guilt he feels about his older brother whose dreams have been shattered. He also struggles with resentment toward an overbearing father whose former success as a basketball player and high school coach continues to create much strife and unsettling feelings between them. Perhaps, it is not surprising that Trey feels he will never measure-up.
For example, in this early scene we see the tension build between father and son: “Listen, Trey, for years while you played for Coach Jones, neither you nor he would listen to me about the team concept. It was alwaysabout you and getting you the ball — you, you, you, and you.”
The author skillfully brings the reader into Trey “Shooter” Parrish’s world and creates multidimensional and believable characters as the plot moves along like a locomotive down a rickety old track — only to be derailed when we least expect it. Thompson understands explicitly the need for pacing, and the rise and fall of various scenes are skillfully interwoven as he masterfully adjusts gears before turning or accelerating around the next corner.
Although I found Thompson’s plot convincing for the most part, there were a few scenes that just did not seem to hold true. For example, in one scene we see Trey going to his local bank to withdraw an extremely large amount of cash from his ATM. Still, the author’s novel is full of memorable, touching and gut wrenching scenes that will tug at most readers’ hearts, and leave one with mixed feelings. Moreover, perhaps, the ending will surely raise many unanswerable questions in the reader’s mind too.
Trey “Shooter” Parrish is fighting all the way and it is this resistance that gives this novel its special power. Whether you are a sports enthusiast or prefer to sit on the sidelines and watch, you will find Thompson’s novel a memorable and worthwhile read.
Howie Thompson has written two other books: “The Complete Book of Youth Soccer,” published in 2001, and “A Game For All Seasons,” published in 2005. He lives with his wife in Little River, S.C., where he is helping create a soccer club at Long Bay Soccer Club, and is a tournament director there too. Thompson is on the faculty at Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, N.C., and can be reached at ncoachhta@msn.com
Alan W. King, M.F.A., M.A., is a freelance writer, long-time Darien resident, and also a graduate of Darien High School, Class of 1967. He is currently writing a screenplay for “OverTime” and may be reached at: Writer042002@Yahoo.com.
|
 Send This Person a Message
|
| |
| |
| |
Alan W. King
Monday, September 28, 2009 |
|
GARRETT M. BROWN'S 'AMERICANA'
Takes you back to 1958 New England
By Alan W. King
Special to The Darien Times
September 24, 2009
Play Review
"Darien native Garrett M. Brown's one-act-play, "Americana," was performed for the first time this spring. In this scene, Mr. Self, the encyclopedia salesman played by Chris Ceraso, looks on with the Dad (Michael Cullen) as they gaze at the son, Garry's (Miles Bergner) sketchbook of drawings of his models -- the various Playmates of the Month, from Playboy Magazine."
“Very seductive are the first steps from the town into the woods,” Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote,” but the end is want and madness.”
This analogy perhaps best epitomizes “Americana,” a one-act play by Darien native Garrett M. Brown, performed at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City this past spring, from May 22 to June 19. If you are a baby boomer or one who appreciates nostalgia as I do, you too might very well have enjoyed this play. Although I didn’t have an opportunity to see Brown’s live production, I did read this talented playwright’s script recently, and was captivated by his unique and unconventional approach to story telling.
Brown, a 1967 Darien High School graduate known for his “ear to ear smile” is not only a playwright but a stage and screen actor, director, novelist, poet and painter, and has written 11 short plays that include “Ambulance Men,” about three ambulance men who picked up Marilyn Monroe’s body the night she died, and three full-length plays too.
After graduating from Amherst College with a bachelor of arts degree, this former DHS thespian and member of the school’s Theatre 308 pursued an acting career that eventually landed him a role on “Sisters,” a television drama that aired on NBC for six seasons, from 1991 to 1996, and received eight Emmy Award nominations.
“Americana” is a fascinating and compelling family drama that is both a heart warming and gut wrenching account about the protagonist, Gary, a precocious, bright and highly sensitive 10 year-old boy who is struggling with his adolescence in this suburban middle-class, small New England town.
Gary sent out coupons from magazines in hopes of getting mail when on this pitch black, cold November night in 1958, Mr. Self, an Encyclopedia salesman dressed-up in a suit and tie shows-up unannounced at the Brown’s front door. Self brings with him more than just knowledge and the likes of Norman Rockwell and Hugh Hefner, whom we discover inspires this talented young artist.
It isn’t long before Gary, his dad and mom, and Mr. Self become engaged and entangled in conversation that takes us on an emotional and unpredictable evening’s journey as the actors crisscross back and forth between two worlds that gradually merge into one.
Brown knows all too well how to skillfully develop his characters through the use of dialogue and mannerisms in a setting that is reminiscent of the times. In this one scene we see Gary’s mom defending her son’s manhood as she speaks to the audience: “Brownie, my husband, thinks he might be, y’know — a little funny. I mean, Gary is funny, has a wonderful sense of humor. But I mean, you know... (whispers) ho-mo-sexual. But he’s not. And even if he were, what of it?”
As she continues to fill us in, we learn more about her son’s dreams and aspirations, his future, past, and present.
Brown’s play is masterfully and cleverly written with an unconventional style that is skillfully executed using minimal stage setting which consists of two wicker chairs, a preset mahogany coffee table, and a baby blue sofa that is brought-on stage as the men deliver their speeches. He also uses simple props like pillows and magazines carried-on by Gary and his mom.
This minimal stage setting allows for little distraction as the audience is able to immediately focus on the true nature of each character, their interactions with each other, and often humorous conversation that shows us the range of Brown’s writing ability. He is a master of satire.
What makes this play work so well is not only a strong plot and subplot, but the playwright’s simple and well crafted dialogue that carries the story line along effortlessly from beginning to end, and skillfully rendered monologues directed at an unsuspecting audience. It is during this time that we experience the emotional highs and lows fraught with disappointments and regrets by a sometimes demanding and overbearing father who is struggling with his own demons, and a mother who is desperately trying to keep this fragmented family from falling apart.
But, it is during those moments of tenderness between father and son, and the humor that is cleverly interwoven throughout that catches us off guard, and makes this play such a worthwhile experience. It is a time when perhaps life seemed tame in comparison to a world that has seemingly gone awry.
What I also found most appealing about “Americana” was the way Brown cleverly used back-story and foreshadowing as the actors engaged the audience in personal anecdotes about their every day lives, struggles and dreams, and those underlying demons that continue to fester and threaten to tear this family apart.
Not surprisingly, alcoholism and depression are at the root of this family’s misfortune, and the conflict gradually builds and culminates into the unthinkable. Brown cleverly fills-in the gaps through the use of various writing techniques like back-story, and the use of monologues directed at the audience that brings us into the past and future while still engaged in the present.
As I placed the script down on my desk while enjoying my morning cup of coffee, I couldn’t help but think of the immortal words of Don Hewitt who would often say, “Tell me a story!” I knew Brown had done just that. My only disappointment with this one-act play was that it was just that — one-act. Because now I realized that I wasn’t ready to step out of the woods.
Alan W. King, M.F.A., M.A., is a freelance writer, long-time Darien resident, and also a 1967 graduate of Darien High School. He is currently writing a screenplay, book reviews and feature stories, and may be reached at Writer042002@yahoo.com.
|
Send This Person a Message
|
| |
| |
| |
Howie Thompson
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 |
|
What a class we all have become,
Painter,Actors, Teachers and Sellers et al.
We've grown through the years and all of the tears
So here we all stand and we're all standing tall.
Do you all remember when , and what we all did,
When our childhood antics took place .
Well here are some memories of the times in the past,
That no amount of years can ever errase.
Senior skip day at the beach, with beer in the sand,
Late night trips back from Porchester never paying that toll.
The Oaks and the Suds and all the wannabees,
Saturday afternoon games watching the Blue Wave roll.
The senior prank that's legend still today,
Robin Risque walking across the stage as we practiced how to graduate.
Watching Butch and Bob keep the oponents at bay,
Walking in as a class from the beach "ooops we are late."
Beard Day, was there any doubt Larry would win,
The first Class to graduate from a new DHS.
Mather vs Middlesex then DHS as one,
Anything and everything they we could do to excess.
All of these memories bring back times of pain and joy,
Some of us remember them all in our own special way.
But here we are some 40 years later remembering that young girl and boy,
We have accomplished some amazing things and have all had our day.
"GO DHS...Party On Dudes"
Howie Thompson 12/2/08
|
Send This Person a Message
|
| |
| |
| |
Mike Johnson
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 |
|
AFTER THE PARTY
My wife Francie and I got back to my Mom's place around 1AM Sunday morning. The kids were asleep our big air bed, set up in the living room. Needless to say it was almost impossible to fall asleep for a long while. All those faces. All the conversations and smiles. In the morning the kids (ages 7 and 9 1/2) wanted to hear all about it. Grandma served up pancakes and Eva, my oldest got the ball rolling,
"Did you guys dance?"
"Yep, we danced."
"What dances did you do? What were the names of the dances?...Did you guys really dance?"
"Yep, we really danced. We danced to some of the old stuff I used to listen to in High School. We did the Twist, the Mashed Potatoes, The Shing-a-Ling, the LocoMotion. I don't know, sometimes we just moved around out on the floor. It was really fun."
There may be nothing sweeter than these kinds of questions (the kids looking up at us then looking at each other and kind of snickering very quietl.
I just wanted to say (having never gone to a reunion before) that I so much enjoyed those very brief moments of conversation with so many old classmates and '66ers, too.
I wound up wishing there were more time to visit and talk. We really loved rocking out on the dance floor, too.
Mike
|
Send This Person a Message
|
| |
| |
|
